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Lab 7 Fst559

This document describes an experiment to study the effect of ball milling on reducing the particle size of coarse sugar. The objective is to reduce the size of coarse sugar particles using a ball mill. Ceramic balls of different sizes are placed into the ball mill along with 200g of coarse sugar. The ball mill rotates for 15 minutes at 75% of its critical speed. The milled sugar powder is then sieved through different sized sieves to analyze the particle size distribution. Graphs are made to compare the particle size distribution and average size between the coarse sugar and milled sugar powder.

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Hafizah Azni
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99 views

Lab 7 Fst559

This document describes an experiment to study the effect of ball milling on reducing the particle size of coarse sugar. The objective is to reduce the size of coarse sugar particles using a ball mill. Ceramic balls of different sizes are placed into the ball mill along with 200g of coarse sugar. The ball mill rotates for 15 minutes at 75% of its critical speed. The milled sugar powder is then sieved through different sized sieves to analyze the particle size distribution. Graphs are made to compare the particle size distribution and average size between the coarse sugar and milled sugar powder.

Uploaded by

Hafizah Azni
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FST559

UNIT OPERATIONS

EXPERIMENT 7
THE EFFECT OF BALL MILLING ON PARTICLE SIZE
OF COARSE SUGAR
INTRODUCTION

Raw material often occurs in sizes that are too large to be used and, therefore, it must be
reduced in size. Reduction to a definite size range may be a specific product requirement,
take for example, as in the manufacture of icing sugar.

Ball mill is a grinder commonly used in the food industry. It has a slowly rotating, horizontal
steel cylinder which is half filled with ceramic balls. At low speeds or when small balls are
used, shearing forces predominate. With larger balls or at higher speeds, impact forces
become more important. They are used to produce fine powders, such as food colourants.

The speed that is suitable is 75% of the critical speed. Critical speed is the speed that the ball
starts to experience centrifugal force. Critical speed (RPM) is N c = 42.3 / √D diameter ball
mill (m).

OBJECTIVE

 To study the concept of size reduction using ball mill.

MATERIAL

 Coarse sugar

APPARATUS

 Ball mill
 Weighing balance
 Sieve and sieve shaker
 Stainless steel container
PROCEDURES

1. The cover was slided so that the hole in the opening of the cylinder (ball mill) was
exposed. About 60 pieces of ceramic balls were placed into opening of ball mill, e.g.
30 big sized balls, 20 medium sized balls and 10 small sized balls.
2. 200 g of coarse sugar was added in.
3. The cover was slided so that the opening was fully covered.
4. The speed switch was turned to number 60 (the level where there is no centrifugal
force).
5. Switch of ball mill was turned on. The ball mill was let to rotate for a period of 15
minutes.
6. The ball mill was switched off. The cover was slided until the part of cover with holes
cover the opening of the ball mill so that the sugar powder can be discharged through
the opening. The sugar powder in a container was collected.
7. The ball mill was stopped when all the powder has been discharged. The powder was
sieved using sieve shaker. The sieve was arranged so that the sieve with a bigger
aperture was on top and the sieve with a smaller aperture was at the bottom.
8. The coarse sugar was sieved.
9. The graph of undersize cumulative fractions versus aperture size for coarse sugar and
sugar powder was plotted based on Table 7.1.
10. The histogram of percentage of weight of particles versus aperture size was plotted
based on Table 7.1.
11. The average size of the particle between coarse sugar and sugar powder was measured
and compared, hence the reduction ratio was obtained based on Table 7.2.

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