Horizontal Grinding Mill Zirconia Grinding Media: Performance and Maintenance

Horizontal Grinding Mill Zirconia Grinding Media: Performance and Maintenance
I. Key Performance Characteristics
High sphericity and roundness with a smooth, pearl-like luster.

Excellent toughness and impact resistance, preventing breakage during high-speed operation.

The wear resistance of TZP zirconia beads is 30-50 times greater than that of glass beads.

Higher density compared to other grinding media, resulting in significantly improved grinding efficiency. This allows for higher solid content in materials or increased material flow rates.

Sipur possesses a full range of quality inspection equipment for its zirconia bead products.

Technical Specifications:
True Specific Gravity: 6.02 g/cm³

Bulk Density: 3.5 - 3.7 g/cm³

Mohs Hardness: 9.0

Material Composition:
Zirconia (ZrO₂): 94.8%

Yttria (Y₂O₃): 5%

Other: 0.2%

Features:
Extremely low wear loss (at ppm levels).

Exceptional hardness, resistant to breakage, suitable for grinding high-hardness materials.

Very high density, effectively improving grinding efficiency.

Application Scope:
Coatings, Inks, Non-metallic Minerals, Electronics, Glazes, Papermaking.

II. Causes of Bead Breakage
After selecting suitable zirconia beads, proper usage is crucial to minimize breakage and extend the service life of both the grinding media and the mill's contact parts.

1. Causes of Defective Bead Formation
Common grinding media like glass beads, zirconium silicate beads, and pure zirconia beads are primarily manufactured using two methods: electric melting and sintering. The beads are formed in hot air, cold air, or an electrolytic bath. If key technical parameters are not properly controlled, the following fragile bead types can be produced:

Bubbled Beads

Dumbbell-shaped Beads

Tailed Beads

Flattened (Oval) Beads

These beads contain stress concentration zones and are prone to breakage during grinding. Therefore, such beads should be avoided during selection.

2. Distinguishing Normal Wear from Breakage
During normal operation, zirconia beads gradually become smaller while maintaining a smooth, rounded surface without sharp edges—this indicates normal wear. Conversely, the presence of beads with sharp edges, fragments, or irregular shapes signifies bead breakage.

3. Root Causes of Bead Breakage
Regarding the beads themselves, potential causes include inherent quality issues or the material strength being insufficient for the specific type of sand mill in use. Under normal sand mill operation, zirconia beads are subjected to approximately 1 kg of force. Compared to the compressive strength of glass beads (~5,000 kg) and zirconium silicate beads (~9,000 kg), the force experienced by zirconia beads is negligible. Therefore, the primary causes of bead breakage typically relate to equipment or process conditions, and solutions should focus on these areas.