Conical Mill: The Definitive FAQ Guide

Many industries, including the pharmaceutical industry, food processing industry, and the cosmetics industry, have become acquainted with the use of conical mills to reduce the size of particles.

These mills help to ground crystals into powder, de-agglomerate particles, etc.

In the making of pharmaceutical products, cone mills are particularly important.

While they are used to de-agglomerate crystals into particles, they are also used to combine particles into the required shapes and sizes in the making of tablets

In this FAQ Guide, you will learn all you need to know about Conical Mill.

What Is Conical Mill?

A Conical Mill is a machine used to reduce the size of particles uniformly. It is low heat and low dust milling method.

It consists of a vertically mounted impeller that moves material across the mill screen and causes the material to be cut to the desired shape.

Conical Mill

If the particle is already the desired size, it will pass through the screen into the receptacle. But if it is not, it will remain on the screen until its size has been reduced.

What Is Conical Mill Used For?

A Conical Mill is used for reducing the size of materials or particles so they can be fit for industrial use.

For instance, in the pharmaceutical industry, you may use your conical Mill to reduce the size of particles, making them uniform before getting them pressed into tablets.

This ensures that all tablets look smooth and can easily be swallowed. It may be for any other particle that needs uniform size reduction, e.g., cosmetics materials used to make body creams.

Which Industries Use Conical Mill?

There are a few industries out there that make use of Cone mill. Some of them include the pharmaceutical industry, the chemical industry, and the food processing industry.

The importance of Conical mills to these industries cannot be overemphasized. They are used for size reduction, de-agglomeration, granulation, and other things.

Imagine buying a body cream, and applying it to your body, only to discover that some particles are not small enough to be absorbed by your body. I bet you’ll never use that brand of body cream again.

Also, imagine buying a tablet that is not smooth. It may just scatter inside your mouth while trying to swallow it, putting its bitter taste all over your tongue. Hence the importance of conical mills to such industries.

What Is The Advantage Of Conical Mill Over Other Milling Methods?

Conical Mill produces less heat and less noise than other milling methods while still giving a better output.

It can be used to achieve a uniform size of particles, which makes it better than other methods.

Traditional milling methods may not make all particles of equal sizes. They give off a lot of noise and heat, making factories very tiring for employees.

Because of its effectiveness, it is the preferred milling method for most manufacturers. It can even mill particles to a size as small as 80 mesh.

This makes it particularly useful to industries, where they need to mill particles to a size small enough to be easily absorbed on water or by the human body.

What Factors Affect The Efficiency Of Cone Mill?

Some of the factors that affect the efficiency of a cone mill include lubrication, heat, and the size of its pores. If the cone mill is overused, the heat produced due to friction may limit its capacity to function.

A cone mill needs lubrication regularly. This aids the parts to move smoothly over one another, making the milling process faster.

This smoothness in the motion of its parts enables the size of particles to be reduced accurately.

Also, you might want to consider the size of its pores. The pores are those holes on the mill screen. If the size of your Conical Mill pores is more than required, you are likely not to get the desired size of particles.

If you want your conical Mill to be 100% efficient, you should always lubricate it to avoid overheating due to friction.

Always use a mill screen with the right pore size to give you the desired particle size.

How Does Conical Mill Work?

Particles may be fed into the conical Mill by hand or by gravity, which means pouring down the particles into the open end of the Conical Mill.

Conical mills reduce the size of particles by grinding by the blades when these particles are compacted between the blades and the other parts of the screen.

Working Principle

A centrifugal force pushes up this ground particle to get to the pores on the cone screen.

On getting to the pores, particles that have been reduced to the necessary size pass through the pores while others are grounded again until they get to the required size.

This makes uniformly sized particles come down from the cone screen, while the ones that have not gotten to the required sizes remain in the Mill until they are ground to the required size.

What Are The Technical Specifications Of Cone Mill?

A Conical Mill is metallic, usually made of stainless steel or other metal that easily rust.

It consists of an impeller, which is used to reduce the size of particles, and a screen, through which the sieved particles pass.

Particles that have been reduced to the required size pass freely through the screen’s pores.

While the other particles remain in the screen under the reducing action of the impeller blades.

Technical Specifications of Cone Mill

The cone mill screen should have the right size of pores as the fineness of the particles that pass through the pores depends mainly on the size of the pores. This works for both dry and wet materials.

Lubricants are used between the engine parts to prevent rust and increase efficiency.

What Are The Components Of Conical Mill?

Here are the components of a Conical Mill machine.

Feed inlet: This is the part of the Mill into which the material to be reduced is fed. Materials are fed into it by hand or by gravity. It should be large enough to accommodate the number of materials poured into it.

Components of Conical Mill

The screen: This is the sieving portion of the cone mill. Materials already grounded and reduced pass through the pores on the screen into the receptacle.
The impeller consists of the blades used to reduce the size of particles to the required size. Fine and already ground particles get reduced by the whirling action of the impeller blades. When particles are reduced to the required size, they pass through the pores on the screen.
The receptacle: This is the final part of the cone mill where the already reduced particles are sieved into. All particles reduced to size are found here.

The parts listed above are the essential parts of a cone mill.

How Effective Is Conical Mill?

The effectiveness of a conical mill is that it can ground particles to the smallest possible size. There has not been any machine developed that can ground particles into such small sizes.

It has been found that a Conical Mill can be used to ground particles to a size as small as 80 mesh.

It is also used for de-agglomeration, which means reducing crystals to particles without reducing the actual size of the particles.

It is also used for granulation, which means compacting particles into tablets, and dumping, which means reducing the size of improperly sized tablets into particles that can be used for other purposes.

How Much Does Cone Mill Cost?

There are different types of Conical mills.

They include the driven Mill, the tabletop mill, the multi Mill, etc. The costs and prices of each vary, depending on what you want.

You may, however, get a Conical Mill for between $2,000 and $4,000. This depends on the type and size you want.

The quantity of it you want will also play a key role in how much you are likely to spend.

Industrial cone mills have an output capacity of between 100 kg and 1000 kg per hour. You may therefore evaluate your production capacity to determine how many of them you need to get.

What Is The Conical Mill Principle?

The Conical Mill sieves all particles ground to size through the sieved mesh on the Conical Mill screen.

But first of all, the material to be ground is fed into the feed inlet by hand or gravity.

These particles are ground inside the feed inlet and are then moved into the conical sieve chamber.

In the conical sieve chamber, the materials come under the rotating action of the rotary knives. These knives rub against the ground particles by force until their size is reduced.

As this rotation continues, the particles are forced upwards through centrifugal force and are filtered by the sieve on the conical mill screen.

Materials that have been reduced to the required size pass through the pores into the receptacle.

Other materials roll back down the screen to the milling chamber again to come under the action of the rotary knives.

What Is Uni Conical Mill?

A Uni Conical Mill, also called a Uni Mill, is a type of Conical Mill that can be mounted inside an isolator.

This type of Conical Mill helps you to protect your working environment during milling processes.

The Uni Mill may be mounted inside an isolator, with its motor and control left outside. This enables you to use the Mill.

Uni Conical Mill

Uni Mill produces less noise and less dust and helps you protect the milling environment. It is generally called an Under Driven Conical Mill.

What Are The Different Types Of Conical Mill?

They are many different types of Conical mills. Each type has been specially built to match up with certain specifications.

Some of the types of Conical Mill include the laboratory/tabletop conical Mill, the multi mill conical mill, the under driven conical Mill, the oscillating granulator.

Each Conical Mill type was designed to meet certain specifications.

For instance, the multi Mill is suitable for high-speed granulation and processing, while the driven Mill is better for protecting the environment.

Anyway, before choosing any Conical Mill for your industrial processes, consult specialists in this field so that they can advise you on what is best for you.

What Is The difference Between Conical Mill And Uni Mill?

One significant difference between a Uni Mill and other types of Conical mills is its flexibility.

It is flexible because it can be used both in the industry and in the laboratory.

Otherwise, a Uni Mill is primarily just a type of Conical Mill. It is just one of the many different types of Conical mills.

A Uni Mill is also different from other types of Conical Mill in the sense that it can be placed inside an isolator.

This makes it produce less noise, thereby creating better working conditions for industrial workers.

What Are The Features Of Conical Mill?

Several different features are associated with your conical mill. Some of the main features are as follows:

Short Processing Time:

The short processing time in Conical mill means less power consumption and shorter the total production time so that the capacity of this machine will be increased.

Continuous Or Batch Operation:

In a batch operation, you can feed the material you want to grind through the machine in a single process.

In a continuous conical mill, the material to be ground is fed in at all times, so the machine is always effectively operating and grinding.

Gentle Grinding:

A gentle movement in the grinding chamber makes fines generation very well controlled in the conical mill.

This, as a result, increases the quality of the end product.

Multiple Perforated Sieves:

Perforated sieves in conical mills play different roles to grind material while passing through it.

The perforated screen can separate coarse and fine materials. You can choose any one depending on the size you desire.

Mobility:

You can move your conical mill anywhere you want. It comes with wheels embedded in the foundation, which facilitates mobility.

How To Choose A Suitable Conical Mill?

It would be best to consider several things in the conical mill before choosing the best fit for your needs. Some of the primary considerations are as follows:

The type of material you want to process with your conical mill
Size of the particle you want to achieve
The quantity of material you wish to process
The variable speed of your conical mill
The cost associated with the conical mill and your budget
How long will a particular type of conical mill last?
Is there any warranty associated with your conical mill?
Materials used in the manufacturing of your conical mill

These are the things you need to consider before choosing your conical mill. Keeping in mind these considerations will help you select a perfect fit just according to your needs.

What Is The Role Of Rotating Beater In Conical Mill?.

Rotating beaters are knives placed in the Conical Mill for the specific purpose of size reduction.

These knives or beaters make already fine particles finer when they rotate by force against those particles.

The Rotating Beater is very important to a Conical Mill because it makes it more effective than other milling methods.

Rotating Beater

The Rotating Beater has downsized materials pass through the sieve pores on the screen to the receptacle, coming out as acceptable materials.

How Does Interlock Option In The Conical Mill add up to safety?

Safety Interlock Switches or Safety Door Switches are gadgets attached to a safety door to detect entry. These gadgets can lock a door automatically when an industrial process is going on inside that area.

Safety Interlock Switches may come in contact mode and contactless mode.

The contact model is divided into two types, which include the power-to-lock type and power-to-release type.

The power to lock type uses an electric solenoid to lock doors; therefore, it releases the door once the light goes out.

Therefore, it is useful in situations where it is necessary to protect workers from a hazard immediately if the electricity goes out.

The power-to-release model, however, uses a spring to lock the doors. It does not release its lock even when the electricity goes out.

It is useful for locking doors where it is only safe for workers to enter when the machine has stopped working. Once the machine stops working, a signal is sent to the interlock, releasing its lock.

Safety Interlock Switches also come in non-contact types.

These models are mainly used to prevent dust and debris in areas that can infiltrate the material produced.

They are therefore used to preserve the quality of the product.

Safety Interlock Switches may be used to prevent machines from starting up or functioning in unsafe situations, such as when the guard doors are open.

They also help to keep the guard doors closed during the manufacturing process.

Safety Interlock Switches only release the guard doors when the power goes out or when the manufacturing process is completed, and the machine stops working.

This guarantees the safety of the workers and the safety of the machine.

Conclusion

If the particles used to make a particular brand of body cream are not tiny enough to be easily absorbed by your body, rubbing that cream will make you feel very uncomfortable because its particles will be too large to be absorbed by your body.

In extreme cases of such, you may switch to another brand. If, however, your new brand of body cream easily gets absorbed by your body and has other obvious advantages over the old brand, you are not likely to go back to that old brand any more.

Thus, not using Conical Mill properly might have just made your old brand of body cream lose a customer, which is you.

Therefore, it is advisable for every manufacturer to properly use Conical Mills whenever their manufacturing processes require size reduction.