Customer Background:
The customer is located in Gujarat, India, and is a well-known local producer of inorganic salts. With the growing global demand from the coatings and rubber industries for high-performance fillers, the customer sought to upgrade conventional silica to ultrafine powder via precision grinding, aiming for high-end market entry.
Core Challenges:
- Hardness and wear: Silica is abrasive to equipment, requiring long-term operational stability and high wear resistance.
- Fineness limitation: The finished product had to be strictly controlled at d₉₀ = 9.8 μm, with no escape of coarse particles.
- Climate adaptability: Due to high ambient temperatures in India, the system needed excellent heat-dissipation capability to prevent material agglomeration.
Solution: Epic Powder Air Jet Mill System
Based on the physical properties of silica, Epic Powder configured a core jet milling unit and carried out targeted wear-resistance optimization for the entire system.
Equipment Selection: Disc Jet Mill vs. Fluidized Bed Jet Mill
To meet the customer’s precise fineness requirement of 9.8 μm, we selected an integrated jet grinding and classification system for ultrafine silica powder:
- Supersonic nozzles: High-pressure air generates supersonic airflow, enabling silica particles to be rapidly pulverized through high-frequency inter-particle collisions.
- Vertical turbo classifier: An integrated high-precision classifier wheel accurately intercepts particles larger than 9.8 μm and returns them to the grinding zone, ensuring an extremely narrow particle size distribution.
Customized Design Features
- Wear-resistant lining: Considering the abrasive nature of silica, critical internal components (such as the classifier wheel and nozzles) were protected with alumina ceramic or tungsten carbide linings, significantly extending maintenance intervals.
- Enhanced cooling system: To cope with India’s high-temperature climate, a compressed-air cooling and drying system was added to maintain a stable grinding chamber temperature and prevent moisture absorption or thermal agglomeration of silica.
Operating Parameters and Results
| Item | Test Index / Result |
|---|---|
| Processed material | Precipitated silica |
| Final fineness | d₉₀ = 9.8 μm (measured by Malvern particle size analyzer) |
| Moisture content | < 0.5% |
| Production capacity | Reached 115% of the customer’s designed target |