Investigation of the ball wear in a planetary mill by DEM simulation

The Influence of the Grinding Media Diameter on Grinding Efficiency in a Vibratory Ball Mill

The grinding process plays a crucial role in industry, allowing for the reduction of particle sizes of raw materials and substances to the required fineness-either as a finished product or for further technological processes. The high demand for micro- and nanopowders or suspensions is associated with the high energy consumption of the milling process. Therefore, optimizing the milling process, including correctly selecting grinding media, is essential to reduce energy consumption. This article presents experimental studies of the grinding process of a model material (quartz sand) in a laboratory vibratory mill. Five sets of grinding media with different diameters were used in the research, and grinding was conducted for various durations. The studies showed that the vibratory grinding process is efficient for each set of grinding media and grinding durations. The research has shown that conducting studies on the proper selection of mills is beneficial, especially regarding very fine grinding of various materials. The study confirmed that properly selecting grinding media sets can significantly accelerate the grinding process. For the selected technological variant, it was demonstrated that using 15 mm grinding media, compared to 12 mm, resulted in a 22.5% reduction in grinding time to achieve a specified particle size class of 0-10 μm.