BALL MILL

APPARATUS
 Ball Mill Apparatus

NOTE:

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this manual is accurate;
however, no liability is accepted for errors. Should an error be discovered please inform the
company in writing, giving full details. Any experimental results given are for guidance only and
are not guaranteed as exact answers that can be obtained for a given apparatus; due to the
complex variables applicable to most experiments.

The basic principles set out in the following make no claim to completeness. For further
theoretical explanations, refer to the specialist literature.

The selection of experiments makes no claims of completeness but is intended to be used as a

stimulus for your own experiments.

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 Ball Mill Apparatus

Table of Contents
Page
1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 1

2. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ............................................................................... 2

3. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .............................................................................. 3

3.1 Ball mill Operation ..................................................................................................... 3
3.2 Critical Speed of Ball Mill .......................................................................................... 4

4. EXPERIMENT ............................................................................................................... 5
4.1 Experiment 1 ............................................................................................................... 5
4.2 Experiment 2 ............................................................................................................... 6
4.3 Experiment 3 ............................................................................................................... 7

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 Ball Mill Apparatus

1 INTRODUCTION:

The EES® Ball Mill Apparatus is a tumbling mill, where in size reduction occurs as a
result of impact of the balls, and by attrition. The ball mill consists of a cylindrical shell
rotating about it axis.
Different parts of ball mill are as follows.

1. Cylindrical Shell
It is the rotating hollow cylinder partially filled with the balls.

2. Inner surface liners

As the grinding process involves impact and attrition the interior of the ball mills
is lined with replaceable wear resisting liners.

3. Balls (Grinding Media)

Balls are made up of stainless steel and rotated around the axis of the mill. The
balls are inserted into cylindrical shell.

4. Drive
The mill is rotated by electric motor connected to the shaft by a belt.

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2 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Grinding Balls:
Mass: 13.8 g
Diameter: 15 mm
Quantity: 59

Mass: 4.4 g
Diameter: 10.3 mm
Quantity: 143

Mass: 0.5 g
Diameter: 5 mm
Quantity: 272

Cylindrical Shells:
Big Cylinder:
Quantity: 2
Outer diameter: 220 mm
Inner diameter: 180 mm
Total Thickness: 40 mm
Height: 280 mm

Small Cylinder:
Quantity: 1
Outer diameter: 135 mm
Inner diameter: 100 mm
Total Thickness: 35 mm
Height: 147mm

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 Ball Mill Apparatus

3 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND:

3.1 Ball Mill Operation

Ball mills may be continuous or batch type in which grinding media and the ore to
be ground are rotated around the axis of the mill. Due to the friction between the
liners–balls & liners–ore lumps, both the ore and balls are carried up along the
inner wall of the shell nearly to the top from where the grinding media fall down
on the ore particles below creating a heavy impact on them. This usually happens
at the toe of the ball mill. Different forms of deformation during ball powder
interaction is shown in figure below.

The energy expanded in the lifting up the grinding media is thus utilized in reducing
the size of the particles as the rotation of the mill is continued. Different types of
forces during ball mill operation is shown in figure below.

The grinding process is attributed to 3 different stages of ball mill working.

i. Cascading
ii. Cataracting
iii. Centrifuging
If the speed of the ball mill is too low then only cascading occur, and particle lead
to rolling down of the ball and limiting grinding will occur. On the other hand, if
the speed of the ball is very high (greater than critical speed) centrifuging occur
leading to little or no grinding. So the mill is to be operated between two extreme
speed i.e. below critical speed of the mill.

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3.2 Critical Speed of the Ball Mill:

The minimum rotational speed at which centrifuging occurs in a ball mill is
defined as its critical speed. It has already been noticed that no grinding takes
place in the ball mill when it centrifuges. So the operating speed of the mill
should always be less than its critical speed enabling the media to deliver impacts
at the toe or knee of the mill to result in grinding. Mathematically, critical speed is
given by

1 g
ηc =
2π (R − r)

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 Ball Mill Apparatus

4 EXPERIMENTS:

4.1 Experiment 1

Objective:
To study the effect of grinding with grinding time in Ball mill.

Procedure:
1. Take a known weight of feed and charge it into the ball mill.
2. Place balls in it. Allow the machine to run for 10minutes.
3. Run the mill for known interval of time, withdraw the product and subject it to
sieve analysis and take its weight.
4. Mix the oversize and undersize of mesh and charge the mixture into the mill
again.
5. Repeat the experiment for different grinding time.

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 Ball Mill Apparatus

4.2 Experiment 2

Objective:
To study the effect of grinding with balls mass in Ball mill.

Procedure:
1. Take a known weight of feed and charge it into the ball mill.
2. Place small sized balls in it.
3. Run the mill for known interval of time, withdraw the product and subject it to
sieve analysis and take its weight.
4. Mix the oversize and undersize of mesh and charge the mixture into the mill
again.
5. Repeat the experiment with medium and big sized balls and compare the
results.

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 Ball Mill Apparatus

4.3 Experiment 3

Objective:
To determine the critical speed of ball mill and study the effect of grinding with
speed.

Procedure:
1. Take a known weight of feed and charge it into the ball mill along with the
balls
2. Run the mill for known interval of time, withdraw the product and subject it to
sieve analysis and take its weight.
3. Mix the oversize and undersize of mesh and charge the mixture into the mill
again.
4. Repeat the experiment with different speed of mill.

Calculations:
1. Radius of mill =
2. Radius of ball (inner) =
1 g
3. Weight of feed = Critical speed ηc =
2π (R − r)
Where ηc = speed critical of ball mill. g = Gravitational force.
R= Radius of the mill.
r= Radius of the balls.

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