An Experimental Study on the Grinding Rate Constant of a Ball Mill. The Effects of Feed Size and Ball Diameter.

The grinding rate constant is one of the important factors needed to estimate or evaluate a grinding process. It has been found that the decreasing rate of the feed size was described by a first-order equation in the initial grinding stage of various mills.In this study, grinding tests were carried out on silica glass using a ball mill, and the grinding rate constant of feed size decrease were measured. The effects of the ball diameter and the feed size on the rate constant were investigated when the mass of balls, the mass of feed and the rotational speed of the mill were constant.As the result of the tests, the grinding rate constant could be expressed by modifying the equation which was proposed by Snow as the function of ball diameter and feed size.