Effect of ball size and powder loading on the milling efficiency of a laboratory-scale wet ball mill

Alumina powder was wet-milled by zirconia balls with varying diameter at varying rotation speed, and the resultant particle size of the milled powder was analyzed. At a given rotation speed, there exists an optimum ball size to yield minimum particle size of alumina. The optimum ball diameter decreases as the rotation speed increases. This result has been interpreted in light of the competition between the reduced kinetic energy of the smaller balls (a negative source for milling efficiency) and the increased number of contact points of the smaller balls (a positive source), which yields the optimum ball diameter at an intermediate size. As the rotation speed increases, kinetic energy of the balls increases, which, in turn, shifts the optimum ball size toward a smaller value. As the powder loading increases from 1 to 35 g at a given rotation speed and ball size, the milling efficiency decreases monotonically.