What Is A Ball Mill And How Does It Works

The ball mill is one of the most commonly used grinding machines in the field of chemical engineering. It is generally used for crushing and grinding different kinds of materials, such as ores, chemical compounds and other similar materials. There are different ball mill models on the market, but generally two types of ball mills are used: batch ball mill and continuous ball mill. The focus in the following text will be on explaining what exactly is a ball mill, its principles and how the ball mill works.

The ball mill is described as efficient machine for grinding different materials and turning them into fine powder. Usually, the ball mill is designed with a rotating cylindrical shell. The shell rotates around its own axis. The grinding process is performed by small balls which are placed inside the cylindrical shell. These small balls are known as grinding media and are made from stainless steel. Some ball mill models on the market use rubber balls as a grinding media. The cylindrical shell where the materials are being crushed into fine powder is made from abrasion resistant material.


The working principle of the ball mill is quite simple: as the cylindrical shell rotate around its own axis, the balls fall back and hit the materials. This way, the grinding media grind the materials and turn them into fine powder. The rotation speed of the cylindrical shell in most ball mill models is between 10 to 20 revolution per minute. The diameter of the shell determines the speed of the rotation. If the diameter is bigger, the rotation is slower and vice versa. If the ball mill rotates too fast, it acts like a centrifuge. When this happen, the ball mill doesn't works as it should, because the balls inside the cylindrical shell don't fall back, but instead remain on the perimeter of the cylindrical shell. The ball mill acts like a centrifuge when it reaches the so called critical speed. The standard ball mill models work at 65% to 75% of their critical speed.


The ball mill provides many benefits and advantages, such as low costs for installation and quick and efficient operation. This machine is suitable for batch and continuous operations. In addition, the ball mill is ideal machine for open and closed grinding applications. Beside the standard ball mill which is heavily utilized in different industry sectors, there is another model which is called a planetary ball mill. This model comes with smaller size when compared with the standard ball mill, and it is generally used for grinding applications in laboratories.



For more information, browse online for available ball mill for sale.