Fused zirconia ceramic grinding beads are multi-use media that work effectively in numerous grinding and dispersal applications. They’re particularly ideal for milling inks, lighter paint hues and coatings that would discolor with steel media.
Zirconia ceramic beads play an instrumental role in controlling porosity levels within ground materials. By optimizing bead density, one can help achieve their desired porosity levels.
High-efficiency grinding
Zirconia ceramic grinding beads boast superior energy-saving and product contamination-reduction abilities, lasting three times longer than traditional media and being three times less costly to operate. Their long lifespan also makes them suitable for ultrafine dispersion applications involving printing inks, coatings, foodstuffs or nonmetallic minerals.
Zirconia ceramic grinding beads are produced through a high-temperature sintering process and often feature additives like magnesium oxide or yttrium oxide to increase their physical properties. These additives allow them to keep their spherical shape during grinding and dispersing processes while protecting against breakage in agitated mills.
Yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is an ideal material to use in agitated mills due to its superior hardness, wear resistance and chemical inertness. YSZ can withstand high temperatures without reacting with most acids or bases and is non-toxic making it safe for food processing applications. Common applications for its use in manufacturing electronic materials pigments paints as well as being an ideal material for polishing applications.
Reduced porosity
Zirconia ceramic grinding beads provide an alternative that is contamination-free and more wear-resistant, making them suitable for sensitive applications.
Low porosity rates make sandpaper ideal for milling pigments and lighter paint shades, dispersing chemicals more effectively, or discoloring chemicals which might otherwise get discolored with traditional media processing methods.
Bead size selection can have an enormous effect on the grinding process. Larger beads produce more kinetic energy while smaller ones require longer grinding times; accordingly, bead selection should depend on desired porosity levels and objectives of grinding operations. Conducting preliminary tests and optimizing bead concentration are effective strategies for reaching these results.
Once formed, beads move to a kiln where they undergo a finishing process to ensure their shape does not change during production. Furthermore, this step removes any defective media from the batch before going through an inspection and selection procedure to guarantee high-quality zirconia silicate beads are delivered directly to customers.
High-wear resistance
Yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is an innovative material for grinding media that boasts high density with remarkable fracture toughness and wear resistance, helping minimize product contamination even during high-energy milling, leading to greater milling efficiency and longer media lifespan. MSE Supplies proudly stocks an assortment of top-quality YTZP zirconia beads to meet all your milling and dispersing needs.
Zirconia ceramics stand out from other materials as the go-to choice for milling and grinding due to their combination of hardness and toughness, as well as being chemically inert for minimal contamination during milling processes. Furthermore, their long lifespan means more applications can benefit from using zirconia ceramics.
To extend the longevity of zirconia beads, it’s crucial to follow best practices for handling and maintenance. These may include:
High media life
Zirconia ceramic grinding beads boast a longer media life, saving both time and money by not needing to swap out beads as frequently. This feature of zirconia ceramic beads makes them one of the key advantages over other types of grinding media.
Yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) media is the ideal material for milling and dispersing products requiring pollution-free milling processes, such as zero-pollution slurry milling or powder or liquid milling applications. Furthermore, its purity makes it suitable for dispersing chemicals such as fungicides, insecticides and herbicides, in addition to pigments and colorants in cosmetics or printing and inkjet ink.
The YTZ ceramic bead combines high density with preferred hardness and toughness for superior wear resistance over comparable ceria media, and is widely used for liquid milling applications for fine ceramics, electronic parts materials, lithium battery materials, coatings, paints, and inks. They’re ideal for nano-level grinding and dispersing materials for use in IsaMill(r), Metso Vertimill(r), FLSmidth VXPmill(r), HOSOKAWA IM-PMI(r), NETZSCH Bead Mills and DYNO(r).
Low heat generation
Zirconia is one of the hardest materials available for grinding, which enables it to withstand substantial mechanical pressure during abrasion. Unfortunately, friction-generated heat from grinding causes elevated temperatures that may alter hardness levels within material being ground – for this reason proper control over grinding speed and coolant usage are imperative in order to mitigate such effects.
Zirconia ceramic beads have become a hot commodity across numerous industries, from paints and coatings to pharmaceuticals and food processing. Their crushing capability makes them perfect for dispersing pigments into paint formulations while their chemical resistance enables pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug sizes with zirconia ceramic beads.
Zirconia media selection depends on both the particle size of material to be processed and desired outcome of grinding process. Larger media sizes tend to work better in high-pressure applications as they can break up larger particles more effectively; smaller media sizes work best in attrition mills due to producing finer particles. At MSE Supplies we stock zirconia alumina composite beads which combine these advantages for greater wear resistance with reduced wear on internal mill components and improved abrasion protection capabilities.
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