EXPERIMENT NO.

4:
SIZE REDUCTION USING BALL MILL

NAME: Johan Fadli Bin Venantius

STUDENT ID: 2019461752

PARTNERS’ NAMES: 1. MUHAMMAD HAFIZUDDIN BIN IDRIS

DATE OF EXPERIMENT: 10/10/2019

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 18/10/2019

LECTURER’S NAME: DR. RAJA RAZUAN RAJA

CLASS GROUP: AS245S2

Objective:

1. To study a batch cylindrical ball mill operation.

2. To operate simple screen analysis for each experiment at different speed.

3. To analyze the relation between efficiency of the ball mill at different rotational speed.

Introduction:

Ball Mill is the equipment to be used for size reduction. It is a kind of grinder used for
intermediate or fine grinding. Ball mill is a metal cylinder which rotates about its horizontal
axis. The coarse sugar charged along with the metal balls breaks to fine powder by impact of
metal balls. The size reduction is actually to make the too large to be used solid materials
usable. It leads to an increase in surface area per unit volume that enhances the rate of the
reaction by allowing more sites for the reaction to take place. Moreover handling of smaller
size particles is much easier as compared to that of bigger particles.

Ball mill

Sieve shakers are used for separation and size determination of particles. A typical
sieve shaker separates particles by passing them through a series of chambers with mesh
filters and agitating the sample in order to obtain complete separation. The purpose of sieve
shaker is clear: to expose the sample to all the openings in a sieve in a manner that will
expedite the passing of particles smaller than the openings.

Sieve Shaker

Apparatus and Materials: Metal balls, Coarse, Rotary Milling and Sieve Shaker.
PROCEDURES

A. SIZE REDUCTION USING BALL MILL

First of all, the ball mill was making sure cleaned and properly assembled. The
grinding balls were put into the ball mill. Accurately 300 g of coarse sample was weighed
and was poured into ball mill through inlet. The inlet cap was secured tightly. The speed
control knob was set at 45%. The time t 0 was recorded. The ball mill was switched on
and was run for 15 minutes. After 15 minute, the switched was turned off and a collecting
tray was placed underneath the ball mill. The front access door was removed and the
balls and coarse with powder was collected into the trays. The balls were separated and
the powder was kept for screen analysis. All the above step was repeated at different
motor speeds which were 60% and 70%.

B. SCREEN ANALYSIS USING SIEVE SHAKER

First of all, the coarse with powder from experiment A was prepared. The sieves in the
stack were arranged with the smallest mesh at the bottom, above the pan. The coarse
with powder was poured into the most sieve and spread evenly. The sieve was secured
with cover provided. The timer was set to 20 minutes. The shaker was switched on and
was waited until it stops automatically. The coarse with powder was carefully weighed
and retained in each sieve. The sieve analysis was performed
 Results

A. Analysis of Size Reduction Using Ball Mill

Grinding material: grinding balls
Rotational speed: 45%, 60%, 80% and 100%

 When the rotation speed is high, and the ball loading amount is large, the ball forms
a drop type under the action of centrifugal force and starts rolling grinding. At this
time, there is both a turning action a mutual friction between the ball and the material
(grinding action), so the mixing and grinding efficiency is high.

B. Analysis of The Screen Analysis Using Sieve Shaker

 Table 1: The mass of sieve shaker plate (Before sample added)

Size of sieve shaker Weight of sieve shaker (g)

<125μm 242.1
125 μm 236.0
250 μm 281.5
500 μm 287.6
600 μm 292.8
710 μm 298.6

 Table 2: The result of weighed sample at different size of sieve shaker with motor
speed.

Motor Weight of Weight of Weight of Weight of Weight of Weight of

speed (%) sample (g) sample (g) sample (g) sample (g) sample (g) sample (g)
in 710 μm in 600 μm in 500 μm in 250 μm in 125μm in <125μm
45 298.6 0.1 0.1 0 0 0
60 299.5 0.1 0 0 0.1 0
80 299.9 0 0 0 0 0.1
100 299.7 0.1 0.2 0 0.1 0.1

Table 3: The table of motor speed, Mass fraction, Xi and Particle Size, Dp
 mass of one component
Calculation: Mass fraction, Xi =
thetotal mass

Weight of sample ( g ) ∈710 μm(45 % speed ) 298.6 1493

= = =0.9953
thetotal mass 300 1500

Table 3: Table of particle size and mass fraction

Particle Size 125 250 500 600 710

Mass fraction (45% speed) 0 0 0.0003 0.0003 0.9953
Mass fraction (60 % Speed) 0.0003 0 0 0.0003 0.9983
Mass fraction (80% speed) 0 0 0 0 0.9997
Mass fraction (100% speed) 0.0003 0 0.0007 0.0003 0.999

Table 4: Mass fraction smaller than, Dp and Speed.

Speed (%) Total of mass fraction smaller than D

45 0.0006
60 0.0006
80 0.0000
100 0.0006
 Mass Fraction versus Particle Size
1.2

0.8 Mass fraction (45% speed)

Linear (Mass fraction (45% speed))
Mass Fraction ,Xi

Mass fraction (60 % Speed)

0.6 Linear (Mass fraction (60 % Speed))
Mass fraction (80% speed)
Linear (Mass fraction (80% speed))
0.4 Mass fraction (100% speed)
Linear (Mass fraction (100% speed))

0.2

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Particle Size, μm

Mass Fraction small than Dp versus Speed

0

0
Mass Fraction smaller than Dp

f(x) = − 0 x + 0
0 R² = 0.36

0
0 20 40 60 80 100

Speed (%)

Mass Fraction small than Dp Linear (Mass Fraction small than Dp)
Discussion:

In this experiment, we have used ball mill to grind the particle size. We have set the
motor speed to 45 %, 60 %, 80 % and 100 % and the run time was 15 minutes for all of the
desired speed. The initial amount of sample which is the coarse was 300 g. From the result
that we have obtained, the weight of coarse in 710 μm range are 298.6 g, 299.5 g, 299.8 g
and 299.7 respectively. This is due to the increase of motor speed that leads to high value of
sample left in that following range. The higher the speed value, more product will left in
710 μm range .But, there are some errors that we may avoid in the future such as the way
we collect the sample from the mill. Some mistakes when collecting the sample will result the
decrease of sample weight that we have collected. Also, make sure that the measuring
balance is more sensitive due to low sample weight produced during this experiment.

Based on the graph and the result, we can see that mass fraction lower than particle
size is inversely proportional to motor speed. Which means, the lower the motor speed the
higher the mass fraction that is lower than particle size. ball size has considerable effect on
particle breakage. They also should be as heavy as possible to have sufficient energy
required for breaking the ore particles. Smaller grinding media are not able to break coarse
particles because they cannot provide the energy needed to break them during impact and
Higher percentages of the critical speed results in lower breakage probabilities.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, the higher the motor speed the higher the efficiency of the ball mill. But
some factors should be concerned such as measuring balance, method of collecting sample.
Some errors may occurred in our experiment but it could be avoided in the future.
References:

1. Some Direct Measurements of the Surface Energy of Quartz and Orthoclase , WF Brace

and JB Walsh , The American Mineralogist, Vol.47, September-October, 1962.

2. Austin, L., Shoji, K., & Luckie, P. (1976). The effect of ball size on mill performance.
Powder Technology, 14(1), 71–79. doi: 10.1016/0032-5910(76)80009-5

3. Fuerstenau, D., Lutch, J., & De, A. (1999). The effect of ball size on the energy efficiency
of hybrid high-pressure roll mill/ball mill grinding. Powder Technology, 105(1-3), 199–204.
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