DESIGN, FABRICATION AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A PLANETARY ROLL MILL FOR FINE GRINDING

Reducing milling cost in mineral processing is a problem that has defiled all serious attempts while milling still takes up to 60% of comminution cost. The planetary roll mill is a new innovation for faster and finer grinding. It is designed and fabricated with grinding rolls rotating in a number of arms inside a grinding sphere. A test run of the complete machine with crushed granite and sandstone shows that the machine grinds to fine consistency within a short period of time. A comparison of the products of the machine with that of a standard Denver Laboratory Ball Mill shows that the machine is about 30% more efficient than the ball mill in terms of duration of grinding to a particular size consistency. One advantage of the planetary roll mill is that is can be used as a ball mill if the need arises. It is therefore recommended that this mill be developed for both research and industrial uses.