2014-15 Product Resource Guide: Mills & Grinders

Top 6 Things You May Not Know About Mills & Grinders

1. The process of grinding and milling has its origins in prehistoric times, when early humans pounded grains and nuts with stones to free the kernel from the hard protective shell. The earliest dedicated tools for this task are the mortar and pestle, which were developed during the Stone Age and have remained essentially unchanged throughout history.

2. Millstones, including the saddlestone—developed in 2000 BC—were the predominant grinding tools used until about 2500 BC, when the rotary quern was invented. The quern required a circular motion, which was much easier to maintain than the back-and-forth motion of the saddlestone. Although the particles produced from the quern were not as fine as could be achieved with the saddlestone, the quern became very popular because of its increased ease of use.

3. Around 1500 AD, the grinding of minerals was revolutionized when high demand for metals led to the development of water-driven stamp mills for grinding large volumes of pebbles into small particles. At this time, stamp mills were developed in which the pebbles were shattered by impact from a pounding hammer.

4. It was during the second half of the nineteenth century that jaw crushers, ball mills and air classifiers were developed. At the same time, high-capacity machines for ores and cement were introduced, with Schranz inventing the roller mill for grains in Germany in 1870. A patent for a beater cross mill with hinged hammers was granted to H. Currier in Great Britain in 1875.

5. The first two decades of the twentieth century saw the invention of vertical roller mills, as well as autogenous pebble mills in which rocks are thrown into a rotating drum, causing impact breakage of larger rocks and compressive grinding of finer particles. Rake classifiers were also introduced during this time to separate the fine particles from the coarse.

6. In 1909, the first patent for cryogenic breakage was granted to Gaston Galy. Cryogenic breakage employed liquid air to cool the sample before crushing to make it more brittle and increase the crushing efficiency.

For the Top 5 Questions You Should Ask When Buying a Mill or Grinder, click here.

Need more help in finding the right mill or grinder for you? Check out our Mills & Grinders Product Finder.

Recently Released Mills & Grinders

E_max High Energy Ball Mill

• Unique combination of high friction and impact results in extremely fine particles within the shortest amount of time
• Features a speed of 2000 min^-1 and the optimized jar design
• Thanks to the mill’s cooling system with water, the high energy input is effectively used for the grinding process without overheating the sample

Retsch
www.retsch.com 

6870D Freezer/Mill Cryogenic Grinder

• High-throughput, dual chamber, cryogenic grinder includes a self-contained liquid nitrogen tub and insulated case
• Chills samples in liquid nitrogen then pulverizes them with a magnetically driven impactor
• Dual grinding chambers hold a total of 200 grams of sample (100 grams per chamber)
• Touchscreen control panel stores up to 10 grinding protocols
• Features maintenance-free design with only one moving part

SPEX SamplePrep
www.spexsampleprep.com 

PULVERISETTE 13 Premium Disk Mill

• Provides efficient fine grinding of hard-brittle to medium-hard solids
• Safe to operate due to the automatic locking of the collecting vessel and grinding chamber, and is easier to operate due to the convenient motor-driven grinding gap adjustment with digital gap display
• Well-designed display shows all of the parameters

FRITSCH
www.fritsch.de 

TUBE Mill

• Batch mill with single-use milling vessels enables serial testing to be carried out under reproducible conditions
• Single-use milling vessels save on cleaning, time and energy; they also prevent cross-contamination
• 40 ml capacity milling vessels and hood are made from transparent material, allowing the milling process to be observed at any time

IKA
www.ika.com 

Mill & Grinder Manufacturers