BALL MILLS

What are ball mills?

 A ball mill is a type of grinder used to grind or blend materials for use in mineral
dressing processes, paints, pyrotechnics, ceramics, and selective laser sintering.
 Is a type of cylindrical device used in grinding(mixing) materials like ores, chemicals,
ceramic raw materials and paints.
 Ball mills rotate around a horizontal axis, partially filled with the material to be ground
plus the grinding medium.
 It works on the principle of impact and attrition: size reduction is done by impact as the
balls drop from near the top of the shell.
 Consists of a hollow cylindrical shell rotating about its axis.
 Axis of the shell is either horizontal or at a small angle to the horizontal.
MOTION OF CHARGE IN A BALL MILL

 The media motion in a ball mill is simulated using a numerical algorithm

known as the Discrete Element Method.
 The motion of the charge is modelling by considering the forces acting at
each contact point during a collision and following the movement of
individual balls as per Newton’s law.
 First, experimental verification of the model shown.
 Then a few simulated results are shown for some interesting cases.
 It is possible to get information about the distribution of energy in the
collision between balls.
 Also the cataracting and cascading motion of charge in large mills can be
simulated accurately with the simulation program.
Working of ball mills

 The grinding works on the principle of critical speed.

 This is the speed after which the steel balls that are responsible for the grinding of
particles start rotating along the direction of the cylindrical device, thus causing no
further grinding.
 The material to be ground is fed from the left through a 60 degree cone.
 The product is discharged through a 30 degree cone to the right.
 As the shell rotates, the balls are lifted up of the rising side of the shell.
 Then they cascade down(drop down on to the feed), from near the top of the shell.
 In doing so, the solid particles in between the balls and ground are reduced in size by
impact.
CRITICAL SPEED CALCULATION
EQUATION
 The formula for Critical Speed is:
CS
Where
 g is the gravitational constant
 R is the inside diameter of the mill
 r is the diameter of one piece of media.
 This is reduced to CS= 265.45/.
CRITICAL SPEED CALCULATION
EQUATION
 To compute for critical mill of speed, two essential parameters are needed
and these parameters are Mill Diameter(D) and Diameter of balls(d).
Nc= 42.3
Where
 Nc = critical speed of mill
 D = Mill Diameter
 D = Diameter of balls
Application

 Ball mills are used for grinding materials such as:

 mining ores
 coal
 pigments etc
Relationship between grinding media and
size, density and hardness.
 Size: the smaller the media particles, the smaller the
particle size of the final product.
 Density: the media should be denser than the material
being ground.
 Hardness: the grinding media needs to be durable
enough to grind the material, but, where possible, not so
tough that it also wears down the tumbler.
Advantages

 Cost of installation and grinding medium is low.

 Capacity and fineness can be adjusted by adjusting the
diameter of the ball.
 It is suitable for both batch and continuous operation.
 Suitable for open and closed-circuit grinding.
 Applicable for materials of all degrees of hardness.