Grinding Mills

Introduction
Grinding is the last stage in the process of comminution; in this stage the particles
are reduced in size by a combination of impact and abrasion, either dry or in
suspension in water. It is performed in rotating cylindrical steel vessels known as
tumbling mills. These contain a charge of loose crushing bodies—the grinding
medium—which is free to move inside the mill, thus comminuting the ore
particles. The grinding medium may be steel rods, or balls, hard rock, or, in some
cases, the ore itself. In the grinding process, particles between 5 and 250 mm are
reduced in size to between 10 and 300 µm.
Grinding
1. Last stage of comminution process
2. By impact and abrasion force the reduction in size of particles occurs
3. It is carried out in a mills called tumbling mills (which is a rotating cylindrical
steel vessel.
4. The tumbling mills consist of crushed ore and grinding medium 10 to 300
micrometer (steel ball, roads, rocks, or ore it self.)
5. Here the particles with size 5- 250 mm will reduced to between 10 and 300 µm
6. Correct grinding is sometimes said to be key to good mineral processing
7. Consequence of under grinding :
• (I)result in a product which is too coarse with a degree of liberation too low for
economic separation.
• (II) poor recovery and enrichment ration will be achieved in the concentration
stage .
8-Most of kinetic energy of tumbling load is dissipated as heat , noise and other
losses only a small fraction of energy is utilized for breaking the ore.
9-Control of the product size is governed by type of medium used the speed of the
rotation of the mill nature of the ore feed and type of circuit used.
Dry and Wet Grinding
The grinding operation is classified as dry grinding and wet grinding.
dry grinding wet grinding
Dry grinding means that when the ore is Wet grinding means that after the ore
ground into required particle size, the entered the mill, it will complete the wet
powder will be brought out from the dry grinding under the interaction of
ball mill by airflow grinding medium and ore
low moisture content less than one high moisture content
percent
it consumes high power it consumes less power
Wet grinding is generally costly Wet grinding is generally cheaper
than a dry grinding installation than a dry grinding installation
Filtering equipment not need Filtering equipment needed
Dust control during grinding is needed Dust control during grinding is not
needed

Mechanisms of Grinding
Grinding can take place by several mechanisms, including impact or compression,
due to forces applied almost normally to the particle surface; chipping due to
oblique forces; and abrasion due to forces acting parallel to the surfaces (Fig. 7.1).
These mechanisms distort the particles and change their shape beyond certain
limits determined by their degree of elasticity, which causes them to break.
 FIG. 7.1. Mechanisms of breakage: (a) impact or compression, (b) chipping, (c)
abrasion.
Grinding Machines
Grinding Machines are also regarded as machine tools. A distinguishing feature of
grinding machines is the rotating abrasive tool. Grinding machine is employed to
obtain high accuracy along with very high class of surface finish on the workpiece.
However, advent of new generation of grinding wheels and grinding machines,
characterized by their rigidity, power and speed enables one to go for high
efficiency deep grinding (often called as abrasive milling) of not only hardened
material but also ductile materials.
Grinders (Intermediate and Fine)
1. Hammer Mills
2. Rolling Compression Mills
a. Bowl Mills
b. Roller Mills
3. Attrition Mills
4. Tumbling Mills
a. Rod Mills
b. Ball Mill; Pebble Mill
c. Tube Mills; Compartment Mills

Grinders: Impactor
1- An impact or illustrated in figure resembles the duty of heavy hammer mill
except that it contains no grate or screen.
2- Rotor will be same as in hammer mill.
3- Particles are broken by impact alone without rubbing action as in hammer
mills.
4- Consider as a primary crusher for rock and ore, processing up to 600 ton/hr.
5- Give equidimensional particles (mostly cubical) than slab shaped particles
which are given by from jaw or gyratory crusher
Ball Mills and Related Types
These types of mills constitute a special category
also known as Tumbling mills. They are constituted
of a cylindrical (or conical) shell rotating on a
horizontal axis and are charged with a grinding
medium of steel, porcelain, flint balls or steel rods.
The main types in this category are:
a- The ball mill of length almost equal to its diameter
b- The tube mill of length greater than the diameter usually used when a finer
product is desired.
c- The compartment mill which is a combination of the above types consisting
of a cylinder divided into compartments separated by screens such that
preliminary and final grinding take place in the first and in the last
compartment respectively.
d- The rod
mill in
which
the
grinding
medium
consists
of rods
rather
than
balls and
is known
to deliver
a more
uniform
size
distribution. These mills may be batch or continuous, they may achieve dry
or wet grinding. air.

Continuous ball mills on the other hand are charged and discharged through hollow
trunnions at both ends (Figure 4.7). If wet grinding is effected, then the slurry
pours out of the discharge opening continuously. In case of dry grinding, the mill
has to be air swept in order to remove the fine product. In that case, compressed air
is blown at one end and is discharged at the other end entraining the fine product
particles. These have to be separated from the main air stream. Wet milling is used
whenever the material is not water sensitive or will be used as a slurry on further
processing (e.g. in the ceramic industry). This provides better homogenization,
consumes less power and decreases the possibility of overgrinding. Dry grinding,
on the other hand, will be used whenever the material is to be processed in the dry
state (e.g. in coal and cement industries).
Grinding Parameter in A Ball Mill
1- Feeding arrangement
2- Particles size of the feed
3- Grinding media -material , size ,quality
4- Mill size , its speed and power consumption
5- Solid liquid ratio and circulating load in a close circuit .
Working of Ball Mill
1- When the ball mill is rotated the ball are picked up by the mill wall and
carried nearly to the top(this is due to centrifugal force which keep the ball
 in contact with the wall and with each other during upward moment), where
they break contact with the wall and fall to the bottom to be picked up again.
2- while in contact with the wall the ball do some grinding by sleeping and
rolling over each other. But most of the grinding occurs at the zone impact ,
where the free falling balls strike the bottom of the mill.
3- if the speed is too high , however the ball are carried over and the mill is
said to be centrifuging . The speed at which centrifuging occurs is called the
critical speed. During centrifuging no grinding or very little grinding occurs ,
so operating speed must be less than the critical .