This application claims benefit of Ser. No. 16/194,368.3, filed on 18 Oct. 2016 in the European Patent Office and which application is incorporated herein by reference. To the extent appropriate, a claim of priority is made to the above disclosed application.
The invention relates to an agitator ball mill according to the preamble of claim 1 and an agitating disc for an agitator ball mill according to the preamble of claim 13.
In an agitator ball mill known from DE 1 632 424 having a horizontally arranged grinding chamber, agitating discs having circular-shaped entraining profiles are known, which may be formed by openings or slots or by flat grooves. The entraining profiles are circularly shaped and have a radius of curvature which is 50% to 100% of the radius of the disc. Starting from the edge of the disc, the angle of incidence increases by 30% to 50% in the direction towards the center of the disc. Thereby it is to be achieved that the efficiency of dispersion is substantially increased without destruction of grinding bodies. Due to the large radius of curvature, the correspondingly shaped entraining profiles interiorly end at a substantial radial distance from the agitating shaft, and in fact laterally thereof. At the radial inner end, the entraining profiles essentially run tangential to the central longitudinal axis of the agitating shaft, and thus to the torque vector. Overall, the entrainment of the grinding bodies in the inner portion of the agitating disc, corresponding to a radial extension of 50% between the inner and the peripheral boundary of the agitating disc surface located within the grinding chamber, is not satisfactory. An agitator ball mill provided with such agitating discs is only suitable for a comparatively small degree of filling of the grinding chamber with grinding bodies of 40 to 60%, relative to the volume of the grinding chamber. In the periphery of the agitating disc, the grinding bodies are moved radially outwards and perpendicular to the agitating shaft in the plane of the agitating disc by the trailing walls of the entraining profiles. Only a low efficiency can be realized in such an agitator ball mill which, in addition, is non-uniformly distributed over the grinding chamber. Thus, a poor yield regarding space and time consumption can be achieved for such grinding process, at relatively high specific demand for energy.
It is therefore an objection of the invention to achieve a higher efficiency of the grinding process at lower circumferential speed of the agitating discs, and in addition an improved energy efficiency of the grinding process for the production of a narrower particle size distribution of the processed grinding material, as well as a higher productivity.
This object is achieved by the features of independent claim 1 as regards an agitator ball mill, and by the features of independent claim 13 as regards an agitating disc. The fundamental solution approach of the invention is, for the formation of particularly pronounced circular flows in the grinding cells for the more effective entrainment of the grinding bodies, in particular also at high degrees of filling with grinding bodies, to form the accelerating trailing walls of the entraining profiles that already start at the agitating shaft at right angle to the central longitudinal axis in the inner portion thereof and—farther outwards—in a manner bent backwardly, and to not continue the entraining profiles to the disc periphery, i.e. to the outer edge of the agitating disc. Surprisingly, it has turned out that the grinding quality increases in terms of a narrower particle distribution within the processed grinding material in case the entraining profiles end before reaching the outer edge of the agitating disc, at comparable conditions of otherwise conventional agitator ball mills. One explanation therefor is that the grinding bodies which are accelerated outwards by the entraining profiles in their radially outer portion are redirected to the upstream grinding cell by the front surface of the respective agitating disc and to the downstream grinding cell by rear surface of the respective agitating disc, relative to the overall direction of flow through the agitator ball mill. Thus, the result is a defined fan-out of the outwardly accelerated grinding bodies by both sides of the agitating disc instead of only compressing them in the region between the outer edge of the agitating disc and the wall of the grinding chamber, like in the prior art. No secondary vortices are generated adjacent to the outer edge of the agitating disc, i.e. in the annulus or gap between the outer edge of the agitating disc and the wall of the grinding vessel. This provides for a significantly improved smooth running of the agitator ball mill, combined with a significantly reduced wear of agitating discs and of the walls of the outer grinding cell. Due to the entraining profiles of the agitating discs formed in accordance with the invention those parameters, with which the predefined grinding quality can be achieved, can be set with a drastically reduced specific energy demand for the grinding process. These parameters are in particular a high degree of filling of grinding bodies and at the same time a lower rotational speed of the agitator.
The dependent claims 2 to 12 specify advantageous aspects of the agitator ball mill according to the invention. The aspect of the dependent claims 2 to 6 and 8 to 12 are correspondingly applicable to the agitating disc according to the invention.
Additional advantages and details of the invention become evident from further dependent claims and from the following description of embodiments of the invention with the aid of the drawings. These show:
An essentially cylindrical grinding vessel 10 is releasably mounted to the upper portion 8 of the stand 1. The cylindrical grinding vessel 10 comprises an inner wall 11 and is closed by a first lid 12 at the end facing the upper portion 8, and is closed by a second lid 13 at the opposite end. The grinding vessel encloses a grinding chamber 14. The inner wall 11 thus forms the grinding chamber outer boundary.
An agitating shaft 16 is arranged concentric to the common central longitudinal axis 15 of the grinding vessel 10 and the drive shaft 7 within the grinding chamber 14 and is connected to the drive shaft 7 in a manner fixed against rotation relative thereto. The grinding chamber 14 is sealed by gaskets 17 between the first lid 12 and the drive shaft 7. The combination of drive shaft 7 and agitating shaft 16 is supported in the manner of a cantilever, and is thus not supported in the region of the second lid 13. The agitating shaft 16 is equipped with agitating tools in the grinding chamber 14 over its entire length, with the agitating tools being embodied as circular agitating discs 18.
The agitating discs 18 are mounted on the agitating shaft 16 and are typically held thereon in a manner fixed against rotation relative thereto, for example by a key and groove connection, and are held axially spaced apart by spacer sleeves 19. The agitating shaft 16 together with the spacer sleeves 19 and the agitating discs 18 form an agitator 20. The spacer sleeves 19 are bounding the generally cylindrical grinding chamber 14 interiorly and thus form a grinding chamber inner boundary.
A grinding material feed 21 is leading in into the grinding chamber 14 in the region of the first lid 12. A grinding material outlet 22 is leading out of second lid 13 at that end of the grinding vessel 10 opposite to the end of the grinding material feed 21.
At the outer circumference of the last agitating disc 18 which is adjacent to the second lid 13, a cylindrical cage 23 is formed. The cage comprises openings 24 distributed over its entire circumference. A screen body 26 that is mounted to the second lied 13 and that is connected to the grinding material outlet 22 is arranged in the separator space 25 bounded by the last agitating disc 18 and the cage 23. These parts form a grinding material/grinding bodies separator unit 27 known from EP 2 178 642 A1, in which grinding material (e.g. grinding suspension) and grinding bodies 33 enter through an opening 28.
Adjacent agitating discs 18 have the same axial distance a from each other. Furthermore, adjacent agitating discs 18 define a separation angle α that is formed by a line 29 between the outer edge 30 of an agitating disc 18 and the base of an adjacent agitating disc 18 on the agitating shaft 16, i.e. on the respective spacer sleeve 19, and by a line 31 parallel to the axis 15. The following condition applies: 30°≤α≤60°.
The width b of the annular gap 32 between the outer edge 30 and the wall 11 does not exceed 20% of the free Radius R14 of the grinding chamber 14 between its inner boundary and its outer boundary, that is to say: b≤0.2·R14.
The grinding chamber 14 is essentially filled with grinding bodies 33, preferably with grinding bodies 33 made of materials having a high density, e.g. high-performance ceramic made of ZrO2 (zirconium dioxide) having a solid density of 6.0 g/cm3. The degree of filling of grinding bodies is within the range of 50% to 90%, particularly within the range of 80% to 90%. The high solid density of the grinding bodies 33 relative to the density of the grinding suspension is important for the desired effects, i.e. to convey the grinding bodies 33 in the area of the surfaces of the respective agitating discs 18 outwards into the zone of accumulated grinding material already at relatively low rotational agitator speeds. Grinding cells 34 (see e.g.
The agitating discs 18 comprise entraining profiles 35 (see e.g.
In the embodiment according to
As can further be seen in
According to the invention the straight inner channel section 40 has a length f that is 25% to 60%, preferably 30% to 50%, of the free radius R18 of the agitating disc 18 from the spacer sleeve 19 to the outer edge 30. That means: R18≤f≤0.6·R18, and preferably 0.3·R18≤f≤0.5·R18. It has shown that a radial section 40 of the entraining profile 35 that significantly exceeds 60% of the free radius R18 of the agitating disc 18 leads to unfavorable turbulences of the grinding bodies 33 that cannot be utilized for the grinding process.
Due to the rearwardly, counter to the spinning direction 38 bent channel section 41, and in particular due to its trailing wall 39 acting as entrainment surface, a tangential-radial entrainment of grinding bodies 33 which are in engagement with the wall 39 results from the local circumferential speed, and occurs in addition to the centrifugal acceleration. The grinding bodies are quasi positively transported outwardly. The radial entraining component advantageously continuously increases outwards. To reach an energetically beneficial grinding process, it has proven to be advantageous for the radius of curvature r41 to be smaller than 40% of the radius r18 of the agitating disc 18. It has to be taken into account that the channel 36 and in particular the channel section 41 at the outer end runs out having its full width c. The trailing wall 39 merges into the outer boundary of the channel section 41 which runs concentrically to the outer edge 30 of the agitating disc 18 and which is formed by the ring-shaped peripheral portion 42 with a very small merging-radius r41/42, i.e. at an acute angle. The merging-radius r41/42 should preferably be smaller than 20% of the width c of the entraining profile 35. That means: r41/42≤0.2·c. The trailing wall 39, embodied in accordance with the invention, thus exerts solely outwardly directed accelerations on the grinding bodies 331 all the way to its outermost end. This embodiment has proven to be particularly beneficial for the forming of unobstructed circular flows, that is to say braided flows 44 (see, for example,
As can be seen in
For the description of the embodiment according to
Mixed embodiments of closed groove-like channels and channels embodied as continuous through-slots are possible, which may lead to further advantages in the sense of the teaching of the invention.
For the description of the example according to
Also for the embodiment according to
The grinding material through-openings 47 are arranged in the immediate proximity to the spacer sleeves 19 (grinding chamber inner boundary). The term “in the immediate proximity” means that either the radially inner boundary of the grinding material passage openings 47 is bounding to distance sleeve 19, or that the radially inner boundary of the grinding material passage openings is arranged at short radial distance from the spacer sleeve 19, so that in general this distance is either zero (bounding) or can be up to about one tenth of the radial extension R18 of the agitating discs 18c or 18b (≤0.1·R18).
Due to the very low resistance to pass through when compared to the conditions in the region of accumulated grinding bodies in the region adjacent to the outer edge 30 of the agitating discs 18c, this embodiment is also appropriate for top grinding body filling degrees and particularly high overall flow speeds while maintaining a uniform grinding body distribution along the grinding chamber 14. A high efficiency can already be achieved at reduced agitator speed. An uncontrolled passage of grinding suspension from one grinding cell 34 to an adjacent grinding cell 34 is completely eliminated because of the well-defined boundary of the grinding cells 34 from one another. Particularly high grinding qualities in terms of homogeneity result from this embodiment, what can be verified by the narrow particle size distribution of the processed grinding suspension. Other than that, the mechanism of action here, too, is as described above.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
16194368 | Oct 2016 | EP | regional |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2235985 | Dibble | Mar 1941 | A |
5566896 | Stehr | Oct 1996 | A |
5624080 | Stehr | Apr 1997 | A |
5769338 | Yashima | Jun 1998 | A |
5797550 | Woodall | Aug 1998 | A |
5984213 | Woodall | Nov 1999 | A |
7014134 | Heinzelmann | Mar 2006 | B2 |
8002213 | Stehr | Aug 2011 | B2 |
8794558 | Pausch | Aug 2014 | B2 |
8814071 | Jeker | Aug 2014 | B2 |
20090212141 | Taylor | Aug 2009 | A1 |
20110036935 | Stehr | Feb 2011 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
1632424 | Aug 1970 | DE |
0751830 | Jan 1997 | EP |
2178642 | Apr 2010 | EP |
3050628 | Aug 2016 | EP |
302152 | Apr 1929 | GB |
1197523 | Jul 1970 | GB |
2009024158 | Feb 2009 | WO |
Entry |
---|
Search Report for European Patent Application No. 16194368.3, dated Jan. 19, 2017. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20180104698 A1 | Apr 2018 | US |