Cryogenic Attrition Mills

Cryogenic grinding – which cools materials to embrittle them and improve their processability – provides important advantages over grinding at ambient temperatures, particularly for materials that are too soft or too heat sensitive to be easily milled under routine conditions.

Model CGS

• Cools materials to embrittle them, making them easier to mill or grind

• Processability, especially for soft or heat-sensitive materials

• Prevents melting, smearing, or deformation during milling at ambient temperatures

• Enables milling of materials that are otherwise difficult to process under normal conditions

• Enhances efficiency and consistency of size reduction processes

• Reduces heat-related degradation of sensitive compounds during grinding

• Organic materials
• Plastics and polymers
• Rubbers
• Metal powders

The introduction of lower temperatures during cryomilling curbs recrystallization and embrittles materials so they can be fractured more easily with mechanical milling.

Cryogenic grinding is often performed in impact mills and hammer mills, but the use of an internally agitated ball mill, like an Attritor, can provide additional benefits.

Attritors can generally grind to finer size particle size range than impact or hammer mills by combining the advantages of cryogenic temperatures with both impact and shear forces inherent to high energy internally agitated ball mills.

Cryogenic grinding is most effective when the product is sprayed with liquid nitrogen as it is being conveyed and introduced into the Attritor.

An additional benefit of cryogenic milling in an internally agitated ball mill is the ability to fully immerse the product in liquid nitrogen during milling. The level of liquid nitrogen in the milling chamber can be maintained via a thermocouple and liquid nitrogen flow controller system.

Cryogenic milling is used for a wide range of materials ranging from organic materials to plastics, polymers, rubbers and metal powders.