Economic Benefits of Jet Mill

Jet mill, despite their high precision and good powder quality, have high initial and operating costs compared to conventional mechanical grinding equipment. This paper explores the economics of jet mill, especially considering production capacity, energy consumption and material requirements.

1. Higher initial investment and operating costs

In general, jet mill require a higher initial investment than mechanical grinding equipment. The main reason is the need for additional auxiliary equipment for air compression, separation and filtration.

The operating cost of jet mill depends greatly on the cost of the working gas, especially when grinding requires

It is therefore important to evaluate cost effectiveness when considering the use of jet mill, especially for industries where accuracy and fine grain size are critical. The general principle in industrial environments is that jet grinding should only be chosen when conventional mechanical grinding equipment cannot meet the specific requirements.

2. Cost-effectiveness of high-value materials

Jet mill are primarily used to pulverize valuable materials. At this point, although the cost of pulverization is relatively high, it only accounts for a very small portion of the total cost of the finished product. However, in recent years, some inexpensive materials, also processed with jet mill. For example, crushing natural iron oxide, talcum powder, graphite, etc. with an jet mill, due to the product size is good, high purity, the application of the performance of the great improvement, the user to expand, the value of the body to improve, completely make up for the increase in the cost of jet mill. For a variety of industrial aggregates and cohesive materials, grinding and crushing, due to the crushing of solid relatively low, the cost of jet mill is not very high.

3. Energy efficiency of jet mill

Crushing power consumption and the material produced between the new surface, is proportional to the relationship. For example, when some kind of medium hardness of the material, with the general mechanical pulverizer by 16 mesh crushed to 40 microns (which is for the general mechanical pulverizer, has been quite high fineness), each crushed 1 tons of product, about 33 degrees of electricity. If the equipment is still used to crush to 1 micron particle size, then according to extrapolation, each crushed 1 ton of this material, to consume 1300 degrees of electricity. However, if the use of jet mill, the same by 16 mesh crushed to 1 micron or less, only 330 degrees of electricity. In this way, the power consumption of the jet mill is still relatively low. It is said that the same material by the same feed size crushed to 30 ~ 90 microns, jet mill sometimes than dry ball mill to save power. It is reported that with the jet mill  crushing high silica sand, fineness -200 mesh 98%, its crushing cost is the same as other crushing methods, but the particle size distribution and particle shape is much better.

4. Continuous operation and economies of scale

Jet mill is a continuous operation, only continuous operation can show all the superiority. Especially with steam mass of jet mill, if intermittent operation will waste a lot of power. Also, according to the theory of jet mill amplification can be seen, the larger the specification of the jet mill, the more power saving. So in the case of conditions permit, try to use large-scale jet mill.

5. Conclusion: Considerations for selecting jet mill

Selecting the right jet mill requires careful consideration of several key factors: material properties, hardness and brittleness, moisture content, heat sensitivity, particle size and distribution requirements, powder fineness, narrow size distribution, throughput and throughput capacity, and required production rate.