Actually, bead mill and sand mill are same machine, They are one of the wet grinding machine, which could reduce the particle size of fluid to micron size or nanometer size.

Bead Mills are one of the most effective methods for processing fine particles into sub-micron or even nanometer size range. A wide variety of designs exist to adapt to the different viscosities, material characteristics and targeted particle sizes of dispersions. Depending on the machine design, bead mills are operated in discrete pass or continuous operation.

However, several samples can be processed at a time. Heat generation can be a problem with Bead Mills, ELE’s Bead Mill units are available with optional cooling features and accessories.

Bead Mills are machines for dispersion processing, where solid particles (pigments, fillers) are reduced in size and finely dispersed and wetted out in a liquid phase. Small ceramic, glass or metal beads are agitated inside the mill chamber to aid particle size reduction through impact and energy input while the dispersion is pumped through the mill.

ELE operates a variety of different high-energy bead mill designs that can handle almost any type of dispersion. Grinding media from 2.5 down to 0.3 mm can be used to create ultra-fine dispersions. With its selection of dispersing equipment, ELE is perfectly equipped to serve different industries, from aerospace to micro-electronics, agrichemicals, cosmetics, digital printing and medical device applications.

ELE has the research and development infrastructure as well as production capabilities to create (nano-) fine dispersions with bead mills. ELE has an R&D bead-milling simulator for quick tests, lab-sized mills, production-sized mills and state-of-the-art characterization equipment to handle any dispersion project.

Super fine grinding & size reduction process

Application & Process:

The Bead mill is suitable for all kind of products from low to high viscous pump able products for fine grinding with media. The bead mill/ sand mills are widely used in paint, ink, chemicals, Agro chemical and coating industries for size reduction and dispersing of pigments in liquid, Particle size reduction up to 2.

Figure 1: Bead mill Working Process diagram

The Bead Mill/Sand Mill is an agitator bead mill with horizontal grinding container for dispersion and finest wet grinding in a completely enclosed system. The working principle of bead mill is feed to be processed is pressurized pumped from the bottom of the mill into the milling chamber which is filled with grinding media. The grinding media is agitated by number of impellers which are fitted on a lengthy drive shaft. The complete impeller assembly is rotate on high speed and creates pressurized movement of grinding material and on feed. As the material moves upwards it is subjected to high hydraulic & shearing forces between the grinding media which results in fine grinding of the material. This material then passes through the micron gap disc which separates the media from the process material. All mills are provided with a mechanical seal with hydraulic pressure and jacket arrangement for cooling the material in the grinding chamber.