What is Wet Grinding?
Wet Grinding, also known as wet milling, is a process of taking materials in a liquid form or slurry and reducing particles, such as agglomerates, by breaking them apart or shearing them down in size. Since the early 1800’s companies have manufactured machines that were engineered to process wet materials. As time went on people formulated new products that required microscopic particles. As the demand increased for these materials the ability of the older ball mills were not able to keep up. The equipment had to change and so did its processing capabilities.
Custom Milling & Consulting LLC, is a privately owned company located in Fleetwood, PA, that specializes in manufacturing custom grinding machines for industries like; nanomaterial, electronics, composite materials, metals, and many more. Our staff of engineers has created a line of machines that can take particles and reduce them down to submicron levels.
Each machine we manufacture is custom built based on what the customer is grinding and what features they want to equip the machine with. Within our 36,000 sq. ft. facility we have several areas of wet grinding services; toll milling/custom processing, equipment manufacturing, spare parts storage area, and a customer pilot lab.
Two processes for reducing particles:
- The first process is sometimes referred to as de-agglomeration. For instance in products like paint particles will clump together creating agglomerates causing the product to have tiny lumps in it. CMC machines will take that product and process it through close tolerance clearances forcing the particles to break apart. To keep the particles from reforming, the formulation needs to be just right to coat the particles and keep them from reforming.
- The second process takes the particles and shears them down to desired sizes. Our line of horizontal media mills, the Supermill Plus, are designed and equipped with parts that can break down particles. There are fluidizer discs, spacers and media in the interior of the chamber that are agitated by the shaft circulating the discs. The clearances between the media, discs and shaft are small and as the particles are forced through the spaces the pressure causes them to break apart. After several passes through the grinding machine particles are reduced down to sub-micron levels. It may take several passes through
Benefits to Wet Grinding:
- Can produce byproducts
- Creates more resilient materials; like metals
- Products are more durable and longer lasting
Contact Custom Milling & Consulting LLC, at sales@cmcmilling.com, to speak to a representative about our wet grinding capabilities and how we can assist you.
