Various types of pulverizers are commonly used in power plants for the purpose of breaking coal particles into fine powders to achieve optimum combustion for the boilers. To investigate the effects of factors that may influence the pulverizing efficiency, this study presents the development of a pilot roller test machine, which can significantly simplify the grinding conditions in actual pulverizers whilst the key variables involved in a rolling compression can be considered. The monitoring and data acquisition systems allow real-time monitoring of the pulverizing induced roller movements. Through parametric numerical analyses on an elastic feed bed of 5-30 mm in thickness and 500-1000 MPa in elastic modulus, it is found that the machine is capable of providing a maximum contact pressure stress in a range of 4.5-17.5 MPa. A series of fundamental tests have been conducted by the developed machine using a type of bituminous coal and typical bound values of roller weight and speed. The size reduction results as well as the measurements of roller movement demonstrate the capability of the machine as a suitable tool for testing grinding performance. Some discussions of the potential extension of the machine are also given in the final part. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.