The designation masticator referred to any type of space vessel designed to break down asteroids or other smaller rocky objects. These masticators employed rotating drums fitted with durasteel teeth to pulverize large rocks into sufficiently small fragments for mixing into a slurry.
During the Clone Wars, the Geonosians utilized spherical masticators in the construction of various Lucrehulk-class battleships for the Trade Federation.
The Galactic Empire made use of several fusion-powered masticators, which were ultimately based on the Geonosian design. Each masticator was furnished with multiple tractor beam generators and projectors to pull asteroids into its processing chamber. Within their processing chambers, whirling durasteel teeth ground the asteroids into minute particles, which were then combined with alloy ores, including quadanium that had been extracted and brought in from the planet Despayre. Water was also added to the resulting pressurized mixture to create a semi-liquid substance, which was subsequently piped to smelters. These smelters, essentially vast melting pots for refining the mixture, burned off impurities before the refined ore was conveyed to extruders that shaped the hull plates. Any residual slag was then collected and expelled towards the central star of the solar system where the masticators were positioned. In addition to material processing, the Imperial masticators could also directly work on the superstructures of massive vessels, such as the Death Star superweapons, thanks to the inclusion of large utility and docking arms. They also prepared materials for use in Imperial hull-plate extruders.
Several Imperial masticators were deployed in the construction of the Death Star II at Endor. Bevel Lemelisk, the chief engineer for the superweapon's construction, also designed the masticators used in the battle station's creation to be easily disassembled and broken down into components. These components would then be repurposed and integrated into the Death Star itself during the final construction phases, as Lemelisk intended them to be fully utilized.