Characterization of media mills based on mechanical energy applied to particles

This paper deals with the evaluation of characteristics of media mills having a different milling mechanism based on the mechanical energy applied to the particles to be processed during a milling treatment. Spherical copper powder was used as a stress-sensitive material and the milling treatment of the copper powder was carried out under various operating conditions using three types of media mills, a horizontal tumbling ball mill, vertical agitating ball mill and bead mill. The size distributions of copper powder before and after the milling treatment were measured and the deformation of copper particles was determined experimentally. The net energy applied to the copper powder was estimated from the plastic deformation of copper particles. It has been clarified that the applied energy depends strongly on the motion of media in the mill. By introducing two dimensionless parameters, which express the energy transfer efficiency from the kinetic energy of media to the particles and the motion of media in the mill, respectively, the media mills could be characterized on a uniform scale based on the applied energy regardless of milling mechanism.