EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

EXPERIMENT #4

4.1 Objectives: To study the various parts of Laboratory Disc mill with special emphasis on
their functions, to perform a crushing test on a given sample, to analyze the product by sieve
analysis and to calculate its reduction ratio by feed size and product size measurement.
4.2 Apparatus/ Materials
 Laboratory Disc mill
 Rock sample for crushing
 Sieve set (0.85, 0.60, 0.425, 0.30, 0.212 and 0.15 mm)
 Ro-Tap Sieve Shaker
 Torsion Balance
4.3 Summary: We need different sizes of particles for different purposes. But on earth crust
we may find majority of particles in bulk form. To make the particles of required size,
smooth, Sharpen and for grinding we use Mills. One of the best crushers used at industrial
scale is Disk Mill. In this experiment, we gave a specific amount of feed in Disk Mill and
after a while obtained the product. Then we analyzed the product through sieve analysis by
passing it through different size screens. We measured the respective amounts in sieve
analysis and calculated the reduction ratio. Through this experiment we came to know that
how we can get granulate by using Disk Mill i.e. how we can reduce bulk rock sample into
few cm particles to use it for industrial and other purposes or to extract required metal from
its ore. Furthermore we also made different graphs to ensure our calculations and concluded
the end results in the form discussion.
4.4 Theory:
4.4.1Introduction
 Grinding
“Grinding is a process to smooth, Sharpen, cut, shear and granulate the material by abrasion
or friction to required size so that it can be easy to handle, transport and useable for further
process”
 Objectives of Grinding:
 Remove uneven spots on surfaces
 Improve the quality of surface
 Cut work pieces into sections
 Types of Disk Mills:
 Single wheeled Disk Mill
 Double wheeled Disk Mill
 Vibrating Disk Mill
 Single wheeled Disc Mill:
In this type, one-disc spins along a base to grind the material.

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 3

 EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

 Double wheeled Disc Mill

In this type, the material is grinded between two interconnected plates.
 Vibrating Disc Mill
In this type, high speed vibrations are used to separate the materials after they have been
crushed or ground.
4.4.2 Disc Mill
A disc mill, is a type of crusher that can be used to grind, cut, shred, pulverize, granulate,
crack, curl, fluff, twist, hull, blend, or refine. It works in a similar manner to the ancient
Burrstone mill in that the feedstock is fed between opposing discs or plates. The discs may be
grooved, serrated, or spiked. Disc mill can be used for secondary or fine crushing and also
grinding. The disc mill idea originated from hand flour mill.

Figure 4.1: Disc Mill

In Disc mill depth of grooves increase towards the periphery and the distance towards
periphery decreases.
4.4.3 Construction:
The Disc Mill consists of two iron or steel plates or discs. One plate is stationary and the
other one rotates. Discs may have smooth edges or blades attached to the end of the discs for
cutting. The type and spacing of plates determine the fineness of feed. It uses a gear motor.

Figure 4.2 Construction of Disc Mill

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 4

 EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

4.4.4 Working Principles:

The material is fed through a hopper at the top and falls into the axial conic between
the discs during revolving. Due to the centrifugal force, the feed is pushed through the tapper
grooves towards periphery and gets grind progressively. The product is finally discharged
peripherally and collected in a peripheral receptacle. Like other crushing machines a disc mill
has not of the discs spring-loaded through a screw mechanism that helps in adjusting the set
and also provides safety against un-crushable lumps. Disc mill is type of attrition mill in
which two surfaces rotate pass each other at high speeds with close tolerance.
 Feed Hooper
At this part of the disc mill, the material to be grinded is inserted into the machine. It has a
specific size and feed should be processed at least through the primary crushers. The feed size
is not large.
 Grinding discs
A disc mill consists of two saucer shaped discs with their surface having specially shaped
grooves the depth of which reduced towards the circumference. The discs are face to face
mounted vertically or horizontally and revolve at the different speeds and in the opposite
directions. In most designs one of the discs is driven while the other is not. Also one of the
discs is rather strongly fixed while the other flutters or gyrates during revolving. Like other
crushing machines, a disc mill has not of the discs spring loaded through a screw mechanism
that helps in adjusting the set.
 Discharge Vessel
At this point of the machine, the feed which was inserted comes out after being grinded.

Figure 4.3: Construction of Disc Mill

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 5

 EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

4.4.5 Important terms

 Centrifugal Force:
In Newtonian mechanics, the centrifugal force is an inertial force directed away from the axis
of rotation that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference This
reaction force is sometimes described as a centrifugal inertial reaction, that is, a force that is
centrifugally directed, which is a reactive force equal and opposite to the centripetal force
that is curving the path of the mass.
 Periphery:
o The external boundary of any surface or area.
o The external surface of a body.
o The outer limits or edge of an area or object.
 Feed Material:
Such a material which is introduced in the grinder for crushing purpose is called the feed
material.
4.5 Parameters affecting Performance
4.5.1 Feed Material:
 The type of the feed introduced in the disc mill will affect the performance of the mill. In
case of hard and abrasive material the disc will undergo severe abrasive forces and may
distort. So this factor plays important role in controlling performance of disc mill.
4.5.2 Distance between Two Discs:
 The distance between two disc plates will also be an important parameter in determining
the performance of the disc mill. If the distance is large, then large, coarse material will
be output of the mill while the feed size will be same. Therefore efficiency will increase
as mill will grind feed more quickly and in less time.
4.5.3 Grooves:
 By increasing No. of grooves capacity increases and by increasing depth of grooves
capacity and reduction ratio increases.
4.5.4 Speed
 Increment in speed of disc results in increment of capacity by keeping the speed of
Motor fixed but speed of disc depends upon nature of material as soft material requires
high speed and vice versa.
4..5.5 Performance Indicators:
 Capacity of the Disc Mill is very low, less than 20 ton per hour. It has limited uses in
Mineral industry as capacity required in industry is very high.
4.5.6 Controlling parameters:
 Set of disc mill determines the fineness of the product. Coarse particles are obtained with
increased set and fine particles are obtained if set is decreased.

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 6

EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

4.5.7 Advantages of Disc Mill

 Disk Mills are suitable for fine grinding of medium particle sizes of soft to hard, brittle
and temperature-sensitive solids. The material to be ground is comminuted by pressure
and shearing action between two counteracting grinding disks with coarse interlocking
teeth.
The grinding parts are available in hardened steel cast, manganese steel, hard metal
tungsten carbide and zirconium oxide to prevent undesired abrasion.
4.5.8 Applications
Disc Mills are popular tools for

 Agricultural applications, where they are used for milling corn and grains after harvest.
 In food and chemical processing, and to crush stone and metal products.
 Mining operations to separate minerals and other valuable elements from the surrounding
rock.
 They are also widely used in recycling plants for grinding paper, plastics and other
reusable materials.
 Intense fine size particles product (75 mm or small size particles are produced)
4.5.9 Applications of sieve analysis:
a) Many separation processes and reactions depends on the amount of available surface
area so sieve analysis is a very important technique i.e. greater the surface area more
extent of reaction.
b) Some applications of sieve analysis are as follows:
 Of Limestone and shale for the manufacturing of cement.
 Of Coal for combustion and hydrogenation to liquid fuel.
 Of cane and beets for recovery sugar.
 Of some flora for recovery of natural drugs and so on.
 Gold and Silver Mining Industry, required particles which 80% -200 mesh before
feeding into extraction plant.
c) In petroleum industries which explore and produce crude oil, sieve analysis is used to
describe the population of formation sand grain size. Sieve analysis became the accepted
method for characterizing both the formation sand and the gravel to be used to control
sand production.
4.5.10 Limitations:
4 Disc mills are relatively expensive to run and maintain however, and tend to require
frequent maintenance.
5 Discs may experience wear over time as they grind various materials, which can reduce
performance.
6 The machines also produce a large amount of dust, and must be carefully ventilated
when used in an indoor workspace.
7 Maximum feed size should be 5mm (in lab it should be 2mm for save end).

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 7

EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

4.6 Procedure:
Identify each part of the machine. Switch on the machine and study the working of each part.
Note the rpm of machine with the help of a tachometer. Examine the feed for its size range
and record the average maximum size in the feed. Adjust the sat for fine crushing. Feed the
material slowly and check the size of the product. Make the adjustment of set, if necessary.
Switch off the machine and recover the product. Transfer the ground material to a sieve set
and sieve for 10 minutes. Switch off the sieve shaker and recover the retained weights for
each sieve. Calculate the reduction ratio of machine for the experiment performed. Tabulate
the sieve test and plot a graph.
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑
Reduction Ratio = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡

4.7 Observations and Calculations

Table 4.1: Specifications of Disc Mill:

Name of machine Disc mill

Feed size range 2-6 mm

Motor speed 275 rpm
Power consumption 1800 rpm
Capacity 5 HP
Reduction ratio 2 pounds/min
2.8

Table 4.2: Sieve analysis

SIZE (mm) INDIVIDUAL MASS CUMMULATIVE

MASSS %
Passing retaining GM Measured %age passing Retaining

7 0.84 2.435 6 1.04 98.96 1.04

0.84 0.59 0.704 18 3.13 95.83 4.17

0.59 0.50 0.543 10 1.74 94.09 5.91

0.51 0.297 0.385 49 8.52 85.57 14.43

0.297 0.201 0.244 119 2.07 64.87 35.31

0.21 0.17 0.185 3 0.5 64.35 35.65

0.17 0.001 0.013 370 64.35 0 100

Total= 575 =100%

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 8

 EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

Table No 4.3: Selective Data from sieve analysis for Graph 4.2

Log(G.M) Log of cumulative passing

%age
0.386 1.995

-0.152 1.982

-0.265 1.974

-0.414 1.932

-0.613 1.812

-0.733 1.808

-1.89
 Gaudin-Schuhmann Distribution:
A linear plot can be obtained by plotting the log of the cumulative undersize (passing) against
the log of the screen aperture.
𝒙 𝒂
𝒚 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎 ( )
𝒌
y = cumulative mass % passing size x
x = screen aperture size
k = size parameter
a = distribution parameter

Table 4.4: Selective Data from sieve analysis for Gaudin-Schuhmann Distribution.

Log(G.M) Cumulative passing %age

98.96
0.386
95.83
-0.152
94.09
-0.265
85.57
-0.414
64.87
-0.613
64.35
-0.733
0
-1.89
 Rosin-Rammler Distribution:
Plot graph between log [log 100/R], against the log of sieve size (G.M). Such plots are known
as Rosin-Rammler plots.
𝑏
(−(𝑥⁄ 1 ))
𝑅 = 100 𝑒 𝑥

R=cumulative mass % retained on size x

X1=size parameter,

b=distribution parameter

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 9

EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

Table 4.5: Selective Data from sieve analysis for Rosin-Rammler Distribution:

Log(G.M) Log(log100/R)
0.386 0.284
-0.152 -0.319
-0.265 -0.471
-0.414 -0.858
-0.613 -1.247
-0.733 -1.251
-1.89 -1.70
4.8 Graphs:
 Draw graph of cumulative passing and retaining mass percentage against aperture size
(geometric mean) and determine cut size, d10, d25, d50, and d75.
 Draw log-normal plot between aperture size (geometric mean) and cumulative passing
mass percentage and determine the standard deviation.
 Express Gaudin-Schuhmann distribution on graph and determine the constants involved.
 Express Rosin-Rammer distribution on graph and determine the constants involved

G.M VS Cumulative passing and retaining %age

120
Cumulative passing&retaining

100
80
60 GM VS Cumulative Passing
%age

%age
40
G.M VS Cumulative retaining
20 %age

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
G.M

Graph 4.1: Aperture size VS Cumulative passing and retaining percentages

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 10

EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

Log(G.M) VS Log(Cumulative passing %age)

2.05
Log(Cumulative passing %age)

1.95

1.9
Log(G.M) VS Log(Cumulative
1.85 passing %age)

1.8

1.75
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5
Log G.M

Graph 4.2: Log (G.M) Vs Cumulative passing %age

Log(G.M) VS Cumulative Passing %age

120

100
Cumulative passing %age

80

60
Log(G.M) VS Cumulative
40 Passing %age

20

0
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5
Log(G.M)

Graph 4.3: Gaudin-Schuhmann Distribution

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 11

EXPERIMENT#4 DISC MILL

Log(G.M) VS Log(log100/R)
0.5

0
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5
Log(log100/R)

-0.5

Log(G.M) VS Log(log100/R)
-1

-1.5

-2
Log (G.M)

Graph 4.4: Rosin-Rammler Distribution

4.9 Result: Reduction ration of Disc Mill was found to be 7.6
4.10 Comments: Distance between the discs is an important factor during crushing
experiment. It is the mill for getting particles of fine size and it is easy to operate.

MUHAMMAD IRFAN MALIK Page 12