Ball Mills

Ball mills have been used for the preparation of coal–oil and conventional coal–water
slurry fuels, also in large sizes up to a capacity of 50 tonnes of coal per hour (Austin
et al., 1984).

From: Advances in Clean Hydrocarbon Fuel Processing, 2011

Related terms:

Energy Engineering, Ball Milling, Grinding Mills, Mechanical Alloying, Kilns, Rod
Mill

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Quantum Nanostructures (QDs): An

Overview
D. Sumanth Kumar, ... H.M. Mahesh, in Synthesis of Inorganic Nanomaterials, 2018

3.6.1.1 Ball Milling

A ball mill is a type of grinder used to grind and blend bulk material into QDs/nanosize
using different sized balls. The working principle is simple; impact and attrition
size reduction take place as the ball drops from near the top of a rotating hollow
cylindrical shell. The nanostructure size can be varied by varying the number and
size of balls, the material used for the balls, the material used for the surface of
the cylinder, the rotation speed, and the choice of material to be milled. Ball mills
are commonly used for crushing and grinding the materials into an extremely fine
form. The ball mill contains a hollow cylindrical shell that rotates about its axis. This
cylinder is filled with balls that are made of stainless steel or rubber to the material
contained in it. Ball mills are classified as attritor, horizontal, planetary, high energy,
or shaker.

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Mechanical Crushing and Grinding
Oleg D. Neikov, in Handbook of Non-Ferrous Metal Powders, 2009

Tumbling Ball Mills

Tumbling ball mills or ball mills are most widely used in both wet and dry systems,
in batch and continuous operations, and on a small and large scale.

Grinding elements in ball mills travel at different velocities. Therefore, collision force,
direction and kinetic energy between two or more elements vary greatly within
the ball charge. Frictional wear or rubbing forces act on the particles, as well as
collision energy. These forces are derived from the rotational motion of the balls
and movement of particles within the mill and contact zones of colliding balls.

By rotation of the mill body, due to friction between mill wall and balls, the latter
rise in the direction of rotation till a helix angle does not exceed the angle of
repose, whereupon, the balls roll down. Increasing of rotation rate leads to growth
of the centrifugal force and the helix angle increases, correspondingly, till the
component of weight strength of balls become larger than the centrifugal force.
From this moment the balls are beginning to fall down, describing during falling
certain parabolic curves (Figure 2.7). With the further increase of rotation rate, the
centrifugal force may become so large that balls will turn together with the mill body
without falling down. The critical speed n (rpm) when the balls are attached to the
wall due to centrifugation:

Figure 2.7. Displacement of balls in mill.

where Dm is the mill diameter in meters. The optimum rotational speed is usually
set at 65–80% of the critical speed. These data are approximate and may not be valid
for metal particles that tend to agglomerate by welding.

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Mechanical Crushing and Grinding
Oleg D. Neikov, in Handbook of Non-Ferrous Metal Powders (Second Edition), 2019

Tumbling Ball Mills

Tumbling ball mills or ball mills are most widely used in both wet and dry systems,
in batch and continuous operations, and on small and large scales.

Grinding elements in ball mills travel at different velocities. Therefore, collision force,
direction, and kinetic energy between two or more elements vary greatly within the
ball charge. Frictional wear or rubbing forces act on the particles as well as collision
energy. These forces are derived from the rotational motion of the balls and the
movement of particles within the mill and contact zones of colliding balls.

By the rotation of the mill body, due to friction between the mill wall and balls, the
latter rise in the direction of rotation until a helix angle does not exceed the angle
of repose, whereupon the balls roll down. Increasing the rotation rate leads to the
growth of the centrifugal force and the helix angle increases, correspondingly, until
the component of the weight strength of balls becomes larger than the centrifugal
force. From this moment, the balls are beginning to fall down, describing certain
parabolic curves during the fall (Fig. 2.10).

Fig. 2.10. Displacement of balls in mill.

With the further increase of rotation rate, the centrifugal force may become so large
that balls will turn together with the mill body without falling down. The critical
speed n (rpm) when the balls remain attached to the wall with the aid of centrifugal
force is:
where Dm is the mill diameter in meters. The optimum rotational speed is usually
set at 65%–80% of the critical speed. These data are approximate and may not be
valid for metal particles that tend to agglomerate by welding.

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Developments in iron ore comminu-

tion and classification technologies
A. Jankovic, in Iron Ore, 2015

8.3.2.2 Ball mills

The ball mill is a tumbling mill that uses steel balls as the grinding media. The length
of the cylindrical shell is usually 1–1.5 times the shell diameter (Figure 8.11). The feed
can be dry, with less than 3% moisture to minimize ball coating, or slurry containing
20–40% water by weight. Ball mills are employed in either primary or secondary
grinding applications. In primary applications, they receive their feed from crushers,
and in secondary applications, they receive their feed from rod mills, AG mills, or
SAG mills.

Figure 8.11. Ball mill external appearance and internal view.

Ball mills are filled up to 40% with steel balls (with 30–80 mm diameter), which
effectively grind the ore. The material that is to be ground fills the voids between
the balls. The tumbling balls capture the particles in ball/ball or ball/liner events and
load them to the point of fracture.

When hard pebbles rather than steel balls are used for the grinding media, the mills
are known as “pebble mills.” As mentioned earlier, pebble mills are widely used in
the North American taconite iron ore operations. Since the weight of pebbles per
unit volume is 35–55% of that of steel balls, and as the power input is directly
proportional to the volume weight of the grinding medium, the power input and
capacity of pebble mills are correspondingly lower. Thus, in a given grinding circuit,
for a certain feed rate, a pebble mill would be much larger than a ball mill, with
correspondingly a higher capital cost. However, the increase in capital cost is justified
economically by a reduction in operating cost attributed to the elimination of steel
grinding media.

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Manufacture of Portland Cement

Peter del Strother, in Lea's Chemistry of Cement and Concrete (Fifth Edition), 2019

2.10 Clinker Grinding

2.10.1 Ball Mills

Modern ball mills consist of two chambers separated by a diaphragm. In the first
chamber the steel-alloy balls (also described as charge balls or media) are about
90 mm diameter. The mill liners are designed to lift the media as the mill rotates,
so the comminution process in the first chamber is dominated by crushing. In the
second chamber the ball diameters are of smaller diameter, between 60 and 15 mm.
In this chamber the lining is typically a ‘classifying lining’ which sorts the media so
that ball size reduces towards the discharge end of the mill. Here, comminution
takes place in the rolling point-contact zone between each charge ball. An example
of a two chamber ball mill is illustrated in Fig. 2.22.15
Fig. 2.22. Diagram of cement ball mill.(Based on an image from ThyssenKrupp
AG.15)

Much of the energy consumed by a ball mill generates heat. Water is injected into
the second chamber of the mill to provide evaporative cooling. Air flow through the
mill is one medium for cement transport but also removes water vapour and makes
some contribution to cooling.

Grinding is an energy intensive process and grinding more finely than necessary
wastes energy. Cement consists of clinker, gypsum and other components mostly
more easily ground than clinker. To minimise over-grinding modern ball mills are
fitted with dynamic separators (otherwise described as ‘classifiers’ or more simply as
‘separators’). The working principle is that cement is removed from the mill before
over-grinding has taken place. The cement is then separated into a fine fraction,
which meets finished product requirements, and a coarse fraction which is returned
to mill inlet. Recirculation factor, that is, the ratio of mill throughput to fresh feed is
up to three. Beyond this, efficiency gains are minimal.

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Ball and Rod Mills

Jean-Paul Duroudier, in Size Reduction of Divided Solids, 2016
3.1.2 Operation principle
The ball mill is a cylindrical drum (or cylindrical conical) turning around its horizontal
axis. It is partially filled with grinding bodies: cast iron or steel balls, or even flint
(silica) or porcelain bearings. Spaces between balls or bearings are occupied by the
load to be milled.

Following drum rotation, balls or bearings rise by rolling along the cylindrical wall
and descending again in a cascade or cataract from a certain height. The output is
then milled between two grinding bodies.

Ball mills could operate dry or even process a water suspension (almost always for
ores). Dry, it is fed through a chute or a screw through the unit’s opening. In a
wet path, a system of scoops that turn with the mill is used and it plunges into a
stationary tank.

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Synthesis of Nanocomposites
Krishnasamy Ravichandran, ... Suyamprakam Gobalakrishnan, in Synthesis of Inor-
ganic Nanomaterials, 2018

6.3.1.1 Ball Milling

In this mechanical method of production of nanomaterials, which works on the
principle of impact, the size reduction is achieved through the impact caused when
the balls drop from the top of the chamber containing the source material.

Construction and Working

A ball mill consists of a hollow cylindrical chamber (Fig. 6.2) which rotates about
a horizontal axis, and the chamber is partially filled with small balls made of steel,
tungsten carbide, zirconia, agate, alumina, or silicon nitride having diameter gener-
ally 10 mm. The inner surface area of the chamber is lined with an abrasion-resistant
material like manganese, steel, or rubber. The magnet, placed outside the chamber,
provides the pulling force to the grinding material, and by changing the magnetic
force, the milling energy can be varied as desired. The ball milling process is carried
out for approximately 100–150 h to obtain uniform-sized fine powder. In high-en-
ergy ball milling, vacuum or a specific gaseous atmosphere is maintained inside
the chamber. High-energy mills are classified into attrition ball mills, planetary
ball mills, vibrating ball mills, and low-energy tumbling mills. In high-energy ball
milling, formation of ceramic nano-reinforcement by in situ reaction is possible.

Fig. 6.2. Schematic diagram of ball milling process.

It is an inexpensive and easy process which enables industrial scale productivity. As

grinding is done in a closed chamber, dust, or contamination from the surroundings
is avoided. This technique can be used to prepare dry as well as wet nanopowders.
Composition of the grinding material can be varied as desired. Even though this
method has several advantages, there are some disadvantages. The major disadvan-
tage is that the shape of the produced nanoparticles is not regular. Moreover, energy
consumption is relatively high, which reduces the production efficiency. This
technique is suitable for the fabrication of several nanocomposites, which include
Co- and Cu-based nanomaterials, Ni-NiO nanocomposites, and nanocomposites of
Ti,C [71].

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Next-Generation Nanoadsorbents: Op-

portunities and Challenges
Hajira Tahir, Muhammad Saad, in Composite Nanoadsorbents, 2019

3.2.1 Synthesis of Iron Nanoparticles

Planetary ball mill was used to synthesize iron nanoparticles. The synthe-
sized nanoparticles were subjected to the characterization studies by X-ray dif-
fraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques using a
SIEMENS-D5000 diffractometer and Hitachi S-4800. For the synthesis of iron
nanoparticles, commercial iron powder having particles size of 10 μm was used. The
iron powder was subjected to planetary ball milling for various period of time. The
optimum time period for the synthesis of nanoparticles was observed to be 10 h
because after that time period, chances of contamination inclined and the particles
size became almost constant so the powder was ball milled for 10 h to synthesize
nanoparticles [11]. Fig. 12 shows the SEM image of the iron nanoparticles.
Fig. 12. SEM micrograph of iron nanoparticles.

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Introduction
M. Sherif El-Eskandarany, in Mechanical Alloying, 2001

Vibratory Ball Mill.

The vibratory ball mill is another kind of high-energy ball mill that is used mainly for
preparing amorphous alloys. The vials capacities in the vibratory mills are smaller
(about 10 ml in volume) compared to the previous types of mills. In this mill, the
charge of the powder and milling tools are agitated in three perpendicular directions
(Fig. 1.6) at very high speed, as high as 1200 rpm.

Figure 1.6. Schematic drawing of a high-energy vibratory ball mill.(After Hashimoto

et al.)[43]

Another type of the vibratory ball mill, which is used at the van der Waals-Zeeman
Laboratory, consists of a stainless steel vial with a hardened steel bottom, and a
single hardened steel ball of 6 cm in diameter (Fig. 1.7).
Figure 1.7. Schematic illustration of the vibratory ball mill, which is used at the van
der Waals-Zeeman Laboratory.

The mill is evacuated during milling to a pressure of 10−6 Torr, in order to avoid
reactions with a gas atmosphere.[44] Subsequently, this mill is suitable for mechanical
alloying of some special systems that are highly reactive with the surrounding
atmosphere, such as rare earth elements.

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Kinetic processes and mechanisms of

mechanical alloying
F. Delogu, G. Mulas, in High-Energy Ball Milling, 2010

5.2 Fundamentals of mechanical alloying processes in ball mills

A ball mill is a relatively simple apparatus in which the motion of the reactor, or
of a part of it, induces a series of collisions of balls with each other and with
the reactor walls (Suryanarayana, 2001). At each collision, a fraction of the powder
inside the reactor is trapped between the colliding surfaces of the milling tools and
submitted to a mechanical load at relatively high strain rates (Suryanarayana, 2001).
This load generates a local nonhydrostatic mechanical stress at every point of contact
between any pair of powder particles. The specific features of the deformation
processes induced by these stresses depend on the intensity of the mechanical
stresses themselves, on the details of the powder particle arrangement, that is on
the topology of the contact network, and on the physical and chemical properties of
powders (Martin et al., 2003; Delogu, 2008a). At the end of any given collision event,
the powder that has been trapped is remixed with the powder that has not undergone
this process. Correspondingly, at any instant in the mechanical processing, the whole
powder charge includes fractions of powder that have undergone a different number
of collisions.
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