As the technology advances in fine grinding in the mining industry so too does the grinding media. Looking back at the days where silica sand was used as media in the Isa mills then the change was made then to a more efficient type of grinding media - pebbles.
Later when the ceramic grinding media came into existence and the replaced the pebbles as a type of media for milling the technology of fine and ultra fine grinding exploded. Now we have horizontal disc mills, vertical pin mills, vertical disc mills, high speed mills and the list goes on. Ceramic grinding media is now an umbrella term because you have the zirconium oxide beads that are stabilized by a number of elements such as cerium or yttrium each give the bead different performance properties. There are the zirconium silicate types of beads as well as what is known as the hybrid bead which is predominately alumina based. With the development of the types of grinding media each type of mill that is now in the industry as well as the ones that are being developed there is a type of bead that is suitable for that particular mill.
By Olly van den Berg @Beads International
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