Experimental Determination of Grinding Parameters using a Ball Mill with Innovative Lifters

Abstract

In the developed work, experiments were made with a laboratory ball mill with a liner with symmetrical displaced eight innovative lifters with a spheroidal tetrahedron type. Based on experiments done in a previous study, the number of lifters with innovative shapes, as well as their sizes, were determined. The additive material used for grinding media is PLA material and for grinding bodies PLA, SteelFill (based on PLA), and CarbonFilTM (based on PETG) are used which are printed on a 3D printer. The mill’s critical speed (CS), the angle of separation (shoulder angle), and the toe angle in the cataract mode of operation were determined experimentally. Experiments were carried out with different mill filling percentages - 20% and 30%. The required speed of the ball mill with grinding media with innovative lifters at cataract mode of operation for the three types of materials is almost the same - with an average value of 45% of CS. The best energy efficiency and grinding efficiency material at 20% filling of the mill is obtained with a SteelFill filament, and at 30% - with a PLA filament.