A simple heatsink for planetary mills

This paper proposes the use of a copper disk as a simple heatsink for planetary mills in order to limit or slow down the temperature increase during prolonged grinding. A series of grinding experiments have been performed in which the surface temperature of different parts of the grinding bowl has been determined as a function of grinding time. Three different experimental series were conducted: a reference series without the heatsink, and two series where the heatsink had been given the respective initial temperatures of 25 °C and −25 °C. As demonstrated in this paper, the proposed concept represents a cheap but effective way of limiting or slowing down the temperature increase occurring in the grinding bowl. The effect is of a magnitude that can be of considerable practical importance, and the concept can be employed on most planetary mills where the grinding bowl holder is designed to accommodate different bowl sizes.