MILL FOR ULTRA FINE/NANO GRINDING APPLICATIONS

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MILL FOR ULTRA FINE/NANO GRINDING APPLICATIONS
09 March 2005 - Cyclotec

Cyclotec, a St. Petesburg, Russia - based engineering firm that specializes in the fine grinding technology, reports significant interest in its Planetary Centrifugal Mill(PCM) Technology.

Cyclotec, a Russian engineering firm based in St Perersburg that specialises in fine grinding technology, reports significant interest in its Planetary Centrifugal Mill (PCM) Technology. Cyclotec has advanced the project from the development stage to an industrial scale and has produced a prototype. Powered by a 37 kW motor, the prototype PCM has a production capacity of 1.5 mt/hr(continuous) and 100 kg/hr(periodic for nano grinding applications). In continuous grinding operations, milled material measured < 5 microns with 30 % as small as 1 micron.

The technology has potential for processing hard materials such as diamonds, slag, and cement and would be well suited for mobile applications. The developers claim that it offers extended run time, and is designed to significantly reduce energy consumption.

From a scientific perspective, Cyclotec claims an improvement for ground materials properties by reducing particle size to molecular level and by making the substance mechanically active.

According to the developer, the PCM operates on a principle similar to a ball mill. In addition to rotation around longitudinal axis, the drum also rotates around an axis of the motion of transport (eg planets rotating around the sun).

The motion of transport 'replaces' gravity acceleration(G) acting upon the balls in the ball mill, with a centripetal acceleration of the motion of the transport, acting upon the balls in the PCM-and exceeding gravity acceleration by 10 to 300 Gs.

Cyclotec's PCM has four drums, each 164 mm in diameter x 250 mm long, capable of grinding wet or dry materials, with a centrifugal load factor of 30 Gs. Initial size fraction is < 5mm.

The unit can process 1.5 mt/hr of quartz sand and materials a Mohs hardness of 10. Overall dimensions are 1.2 x 1.6 m with height of 1,200kg. the ball load for one drum is 9kg.

Problems that have so far hindered emergence of a commercial PCM include the failure of the gear system to operate at significant (>12Gs) centrifugal loads; complexity of the design for continuous loading & discharge of the material;

Removal of excessive heat from the drums & gear system; and provisions for dust removal.

Following idle state tests (without ball load):

Lasting 100hr, disassembly of Cyclotec's unit showed no indication of gear
wear. A series of grinding operations with quartz sand and metallurgical slag was then carried out, and a consistent content of fine fractions(< 5 microns) was observed in the first stage of grinding-up to 50% irrespective of the output and the size of the initial material.

Cyclotec is currently working on the next test phase involving continuous grinding of granulated slag.

About: Cyclotec
The Cyloctec Sample Mill is designed for rapid, uniform grinding of a wide variety of feeds, grains, leaves, etc. and also for grinding of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and similar products. Recovery of the sample is complete. Through its unique design, the Cyclotec grinds samples by a high-speed action, rolling the sample against the inner circumference of a durable grinding surface and then passes it through a fine mesh screen.

The high volume airflow provides self-cleaning action and minimum temperature rise; whole series of sample can be ground with minimal cross-contamination and without cleanout between samples. Thermal degradation is minimized to provide more accurate results.

The Cyclotec offers a very rapid and convenient solution to accurate sample preparation for a variety of analytical techniques, e.g. Kjeldahl, Infrared Reflectance, Direct Distillation, Crude Fibre and Extraction.

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