Open Source Ball Mill

Basics

• Part of the Open Source Laboratory Construction Set
• It is essentially a cylendar placed on its side, it has an axis going down the center of it's axis as well (preendicular to the circle faces), this is spun causing the material placed inside to repeatidly fall carying ball bearings with them, these then meet and collide on the cylendar walls. This process is repeated untill the internal materials are powderized to the desired consistency. Then the contents are removed and seperated. (PS Sorry if this rambled a bit, feel free to simplify it)

Used For

• Powderization of solids
• Mixing of said powders

Existing Open Source Designs

• [This one might honestly be ready to use with the addition of a housing, motor, and motor control system (also maybe scale up/down)]

Minimum Viable Products

• Scaleable
• Modular
• Quick Removal of Main Container for Little Delay Time In Use
• Noise Reduction
• AC or DC input power

Basic Design

Container

• A cylendrical container in which the grinding takes place
• Needs to Be Durable
• Also has the addition of the axis through the middle

Mechanism

• The part that takes the rotation from the modor and adapts it to the axle of container
• Could be as simple as direct attatchment or much more complex

Housing

• The shell in which all the above componets are contained

Balls

• Stainless Steel Ball Bearings work well for most cases
• Ceramic or Teflon are better for more reactive substances

Useful Links

• [Wikipedia Page on Ball Mills]