A fine way to achieve superfines, dating from 1886

New technology has been developed in an effort to improve the production process of superfine powders, introducing a practical planetary centrifugal mill!

New technology has been developed in an effort to improve the production process of superfine powders.

Currently, there are only a few large scale methods used.

Disintegration in a ball mill through increased circulation (up to 1500% depending on the hardness of the material) and increased duration of the grinding.

Energy consumption grows up to 2,000 kWh/ton.

The minimum size of product 10-50 microns.

Disintegration in vibrating mill.

The mills are unreliable in operation, with a low efficiency of grinding.

Energy consumption grows up to 1,000 kWh/ton.

Air pressure (Jet) mills.

These are low efficiency mills.

Energy consumption is 1,500- 8,000 kWh/ton, depending on the initial fraction, and hardness of the milled material.

There are various electromagnetic, ultrasonic, pulsed and other methods of superfine disintegration but they are hardly adaptable to commercial scale production and have low reliability.

A search for a high efficiency method for superfine disintegration resulted in developing the planetary centrifugal mill (PCM).

This mill is based on the same principles as the ball mill.

However besides rotation about its own longitudinal axis, the drum is imparted a motion about an axis of the motion of transport (as planets rotate about the sun).

The motion of transport "replaces" the gravity acceleration acting on the balls in the ball mill.

With centripetal acceleration of the motion of transport acting upon the balls in a PCM, gravity acceleration is increased tens and hundreds of times (10-300 g).

This, says Ezry Akkerman marketing director for the product developer, Cyclotec, is the most cost effective large scale production method for ultra fine and nano powders.

This technology he says, will play a key role in the development and production of innovative materials.

Cyclotec has developed a mechanical solution for the old principle of planetary milling, first described in a US patent dated 1886.

This has not been mechanically achieved in practice, despite a multitude of trials, until now.

Planetary Centrifugal mill technology offers two more parameters to control that enable broader control of the grinding process.

The two parameters, centrifugal speed (no critical speed limitation), and the ratio of angular speeds, will enable broader control of the grinding process.

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