Can ceramic balls and steel balls be combined in an industrial tumbling mill?

Abstract

Recent research contends that ceramic balls significantly reduce energy consumption in industrial tumbling mills. In this work, the binary media method is proposed to enhance ceramic ball grinding performance. Specifically, when feed ore hardness is high and the ceramic ball grinding effect on coarse minerals degrades, a certain proportion of steel balls mixed with ceramic balls needs to be added. The results demonstrated that mixing ceramic and steel balls can improve the grinding of coarse particles, offering grinding results that are nearly equal to those of grinding with only steel balls. Furthermore, the binary media method has considerable energy-saving benefits. According to statistical findings, binary media has less media wear than steel balls when grinding, and its energy consumption is just 49% of that of steel balls at the same throughput. • Proposing the Binary Media Method for perfecting ceramic ball grinding. • Conducting industrial tests to verify the feasibility of the Binary Media Method. • Comparing the grinding effect of steel balls, ceramic balls, and binary media.