Grinding Mills

Grinding Mills

Grinding mills are equipment designed to break large quantities of solid material into small pieces. Grinding mills can process an array of materials and can operate through many different methods. In the past, windmills, waterwheels, and animals powered grinding mills, but today grinding mills are run by electric power.

Many different kinds of grinding mills exist, including ball mills, hammermills, jaw crushers, and roll crushers. A ball mill is a cylinder partially filled with a grinding medium, like small stainless steel balls. When rotated on its axis, the material that fills the rest of the cylinder is crushed. Hammermills instead use hammers to crush material. Jaw crushers, in comparison, crush material between two plates. Roll crushers crush material between two rolls or between a single roll and a fixed, flat plane.

Grinding mills serve a wide variety of industries. In gristmills, for example, grinding mills are used to grind grains. Ball mills are commonly used to crush coal in power plants and to make black powder for pyrotechnics. Paint and ceramic materials also are milled in a similar fashion.