What are the structural features of a pet food processing machine?

Nov 24, 2025

Leave a message

The dog feed making machine is designed with the digestive characteristics of dogs and cats and the features of feed ingredients in mind. Its core structure includes a pre-treatment system, a twin-screw extrusion system, a seasoning spraying system, and a grading and screening system. Compared to ordinary pellet mills, it places greater emphasis on ingredient adaptability and palatability.

The pre-treatment system is a "unique feature" of the pet pellet mill, consisting of a crushing unit, a mixing unit, and a magnetic separator. Common dog and cat food ingredients such as chicken meal and beef meal are prone to clumping. The crushing unit employs a two-stage crushing design: the first stage uses a hammer mill to crush large pieces of material to 20 mesh, and the second stage uses a claw mill to refine them to 80 mesh, ensuring uniform particle size and improving subsequent extrusion. The mixing unit uses a twin-screw mixer to evenly mix various ingredients such as meat meal, grain meal, and fruit and vegetable meal in a specific ratio, achieving a mixing uniformity of over 95%, preventing nutritional imbalances in dogs and cats. The magnetic separator is installed at the mixer outlet, using strong magnets to adsorb metallic impurities in the raw materials, protecting the subsequent extrusion components. This reduces waste, especially for expensive pet food ingredients.

The twin-screw extrusion system is the core of the food machine for dogs. Compared to a single-screw structure, it is better suited for processing pet food ingredients with high meat content. The two screws are arranged in parallel and rotate in opposite directions. The screw sleeves are nitrided to a hardness of HRC55, effectively resisting abrasion from high-protein ingredients such as meat meal. The screws feature a modular design, allowing for the replacement of different pitch screw sleeves depending on the characteristics of the raw materials. A smaller pitch screw sleeve is used when producing high-protein dog food to enhance the extrusion effect; a larger pitch screw sleeve is used when producing hypoallergenic cat food to lower the extrusion temperature and protect heat-sensitive nutrients. The extrusion chamber uses a jacketed temperature control system, with a temperature range adjustable from 70-130℃. The temperature is controlled at 100-110℃ when producing dog food, and lowered to 80-90℃ when producing cat food to retain higher protein content.

The flavoring spraying system is a "key component" for improving the palatability of pet food, a feature rarely found in ordinary pellet mills. The system consists of an oil storage tank, atomizing nozzles, and a hot air drying device. After being expanded and cooled, the pellets enter the spraying chamber. The atomizing nozzles evenly spray chicken oil, fish oil, or pet-specific seasonings onto the pellet surface. The spraying amount can be precisely controlled (0.5%-5%) via a flow meter. The hot air drying device then blows out 60℃ hot air to quickly fix the seasonings onto the pellet surface, preventing them from falling off during transportation, which is a key reason why dogs and cats love it.

The pelleting system and grading system ensure the "standardization" of pet food. The pelleting system uses various die apertures: 3.0mm for small dog food, 5.0mm for large dog food, and primarily 2.0-2.5mm for cat food. The die features a quick-release design, with a replacement time of no more than 5 minutes, facilitating the switching between different feed sizes. The grading system uses a double-layer screen. The upper screen filters out oversized particles, the lower screen separates fine powder, and the middle layer contains qualified products. The resulting pellets are of uniform size, conforming to pets' eating habits.

The food machine for pets uses a servo motor-driven transmission system, offering higher speed control precision (error ±1r/min) to ensure a stable extrusion process and prevent uneven particle density caused by speed fluctuations. The control system has built-in preset programs for dog food, cat food, puppy food, kitten food, and more, and also supports the storage of custom parameters. Producers can save customized production modes according to different formulas to improve production efficiency.