Milling Media: Factors for choosing milling media for planetary and roller ball mills

Posted by MSE Supplies Admin on Nov 02, 2020

Factors for choosing milling media for planetary and roller ball mills.

There are several factors for choosing milling media for planetary ball mills. For instance, the media of choice needs to be a harder material than the sample being processed.
Initial and final particle size of the sample is a major consideration. Small media does not efficiently break up large sample particles but small media is needed to reduce the sample to a finer powder (please see our related article on ball media sets).
If you are doing wet grinding, the pH of the solution needs to be known since some media is dissolved by either acidic or basic solvent or both. Some media such as Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) is acid resistant while Tungsten Carbide (WC) is resistant to both acidic and basic solutions. Agate milling media is resistant to most acidic and basic solutions except hydrofluoric (HF) acid.
If contamination of the sample is of concern, then YSZ is the best choice because of its low wear rate. It is recommended that the milling media and the planetary mill jars be made of the same material but there are exceptions to this rule.
Additionally, cost is always a factor, if the above conditions are met and the final factor is cost, alumina milling media is a great choice.

Agate milling media for planetary and roller ball mills.

Agate is a common rock formation usually comprised mainly of quartz. MSE Supplies offers agate milling media and agate planetary ball mill jars that of high purity (99.9% SiO₂) made with natural Brazilian agate. Agate milling media and agate planetary ball mill jars have been used in fields such as ceramics, electronics, light industry, paint, ink, medicine, food, geology, mining, chemical engineering. MSE Supplies agate milling media and agate planetary ball mill jars that are very wear-resistant, chemically resistant, and non-contaminating if used correctly.

Density: 2.65 g/cm³
Hardness: Mohs 7.2~7.5
Abrasion Resistance: good
Suitable for soft to medium-hard samples
Highly polished
Acid resistant (except HF)
Agate Milling media size: 3-20 mm
Agate Milling Media premade sets for planetary milling jars: 50 mL to 1L
Agate Planetary Mill Jars: 50 mL to 1L

Alumina milling media for planetary and roller ball mills.

High performance milling media is one of the most commonly used ceramic materials for milling. These balls are hard corrosion resistant. The alumina grinding / milling media balls are extensively used in the fields of Paints, Inks, Geology, Metallurgy, Electronics, Ceramics, Glass, Refractory, and Chemical Engineering.

Density: 3.6 g/cm³
Hardness: > 80 HRA
Abrasion Resistance: very good
Suitable for medium-hard and fibrous samples
Economical
Polished smooth
Alumina milling media size 0.5 to 40 mm.
Alumina milling media premade sets for Planetary and Roller mill jars.
Alumina planetary milling jars.
Alumina roller milling jars.

Yttria stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) media for planetary and roller ball mills.

YSZ is one of the most universal ceramic milling medias. It is very corrosion resistant, very wear resistant, hard, stable in acid solutions, and because of these properties they are essentially noncontaminating to your sample.

Density: 6.1 g/cm³
Hardness: > 9 Mohns
Abrasion Resistance: extremely good
Suitable for medium-hard to hard and fibrous samples
Highly Polished
Acid resistant
YSZ milling media size 0.1 to 30 mm.
YSZ milling media premade sets for Planetary and Roller mill jars.
YSZ planetary milling jars.
YSZ roller milling jars (available upon request).

Silicon Nitride (Si₃N₄) media for planetary and roller ball mills.

Silicon nitride grinding media ball has unique features such as high strength, good wear/corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance, electrical insulation and non-magnetic. Compared with other grinding media, it has lighter weight (60% less than steel), lower thermal expansion and total operation cost. Its high hardness can meet the vast majority of metal powder crushing and refining. It is an ideal grinding media when high hardness, less contamination and less abrasion is required.

Density: 3.2 g/cm³
Hardness: 78 HRC
Abrasion Resistance: excellent
Electrically insulating
Polished milling media size 3 to 25 mm.
Unpolished milling media size 3 to 25 mm.

Silicon Carbide (SiC) media for planetary and roller ball mills.

Silicon carbide grinding media ball has unique features such as high strength, good wear/corrosion/chemical resistance, light weight, low thermal expansion, high temperature resistance, electrical insulation and non-magnetic. It is perfect for grinding application which requires high temperature, high hardness and minimized contamination, such as semiconductor and electronic coating. Its high hardness can meet the vast majority of metal powder crushing and refining. They are extensively applied to in the fields of Metallurgy, Ceramics, Electronics, Light Industry, Paint, Medicine, Geology, and Chemical Engineering.

Density: 3.1 g/cm³
Hardness: 85-90 HRC
Abrasion Resistance: excellent
Electrically insulating
Polished milling media size 3 to 25 mm.
Unpolished milling media size 3 to 25 mm.

304 Stainless Steel media for planetary and roller ball mills.

304 stainless steel is the most common type of stainless steel. 304 stainless steel grinding media balls have excellent corrosion resistance and abrasion resistance, and therefore have been widely used in many different grinding and milling applications.

Density: 8 g/cm³
Hardness: 187HB, 90HRB, 200HV
Abrasion Resistance: good
Suitable for medium-hard, brittle samples
Highly Polished
304 SS milling media size 1 to 50 mm.
304 SS milling media premade sets for Planetary and Roller mill jars.
304 SS planetary milling jars.
304 SS roller milling jars.

316 Stainless Steel media for planetary and roller ball mills.

316 stainless steel is one of the most commonly used stainless steel grades. 316 stainless steel grinding media balls have superior corrosion resistance and abrasion resistance, and therefore have been used in many demanding grinding and milling applications under corrosive environments.

Density: 8 g/cm³
Hardness: 217HB, 80HRB, 155HV
Abrasion Resistance: good
Suitable for medium-hard, brittle samples
Highly corrosion resistant
Highly Polished
316 SS milling media size 3 to 25 mm.
316 SS milling media premade sets for Planetary and Roller mill jars.
316 SS planetary milling jars (available upon request).
316 SS roller milling jars.

440C Stainless Steel media for planetary and roller ball mills.

Polished 440C stainless steel is a high carbon steel with moderate corrosion resistance. 440C stainless steel grinding media balls have the highest strength and wear resistance among all the stainless steel alloys due to its high carbon content. The high wear resistance and strength make it a good choice for milling media, 440C is also used for ball bearings and valve parts. Good resistance to the atmosphere, fresh water, foods, alkalis and mild acids. The corrosion resistance of grade 440C approximates that of grade 304 in many environments.

Density: 7.8 g/cm³
Hardness: 97 HRB
Abrasion Resistance: good
Suitable for hard, brittle samples
Good corrosion resistance
Highly Polished
440C SS milling media size 3 to 25 mm.
440C SS milling media premade sets for Planetary and Roller mill jars.

Tungsten Carbide (WC-Co) media for planetary and roller ball mills.

Tungsten carbide ball mill grinding media balls are highly wear-resistant and resistant to acid and alkali. High hardness, can meet the vast majority of metal powder crushing and refining. They are extensively applied to in the fields of Metallurgy, Ceramics, Electronics, Light Industry, Paint, Medicine, Geology, Chemical Engineering and so on.

Density: 14.95 g/cm³
Hardness: 92.1 HRA
Abrasion Resistance: good
Suitable for hard, brittle samples
Corrosion resistant against acids or bases
Tungsten Carbide milling media (Polished and Unpolished) size 1 to 25 mm.
Tungsten Carbide milling media premade sets for Planetary and Roller mill jars.
Tungsten Carbide planetary milling jars.

MSE Supplies (msesupplies.com/) is a major supplier of planetary ball mills, roller mills, planetary ball mill jars, and milling media. We offer a wide variety of materials for your ball milling needs, such as Alumina, grade 304 SS, 316 SS, 440C SS, Agate, Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ), Silicon Carbide (SiC), Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) and Tungsten Carbide. MSE Supplies also offers several polymer based roller and planetary milling jars for powder processing. Please visit our online store to purchase your ball milling products through this link today.