One Article Helps You to Understand Ball Mill and Rod Mill

In the beneficiation process, the grinding operation occupies a considerable proportion, and the quality of the grinding effect also has a great influence on the final beneficiation result. Both ball mill and rod mill are commonly used equipment for grinding operations in beneficiation. They have similar appearance and the same working principle. They are both driven by the rotation of the drum of the mill to drive the grinding medium to move to a certain height and drop it, impacting the material. So as to achieve the purpose of crushing and grinding. However, ball mills and rod mills cannot completely replace each other, and their differences determine their different usage scenarios.

Different Grinding Media

The difference between the grinding medium of the ball mill and the rod mill is shown in their names. The grinding medium of the ball mill is steel balls, generally less than 100mm in diameter, while the rod mill uses steel rods as the grinding medium. The length of the rod is generally greater than 500mm.

Different Applicable Materials

Ball mills have strong adaptability to grinding minerals, and can achieve better grinding results for harder minerals, while rod mills are suitable for grinding brittle minerals with low hardness.

Different Device Performance

When the ball mill is grinding, the grinding medium and the material are in point contact, with strong impact force and great destructiveness. Therefore, the ball mill has better crushing and grinding effect and finer product particle size, but there is also a serious over-crushing phenomenon. The grinding medium of the rod mill is in surface contact with the material, and the finer ore particles are protected from impact grinding, so the particle size of the product is more uniform and the degree of overgrinding is light.

Different Scope of Application

The ball mill has a good grinding effect, so it is more suitable for fine grinding, but it is also not suitable for metal gravity separation because of the small particle size of the product.The rod mill has a certain function of selectively protecting the fine particles, so it is suitable for the rough grinding of one-stage grinding.

Different Ways of Discharging

There are two types of discharge methods of ball mill: overflow type and grid type, which can be selected according to actual production needs. Rod mills do not have grid plates, and there are mainly two discharge methods: overflow type and open type.

Rod mills are not as adaptable as ball mills and have weaker processing capacity, so they are not as widely used as ball mills. However, when dealing with some special minerals, the status of the rod mill is irreplaceable, so in actual production, it is necessary to select the appropriate type of mill according to the difference in the properties of the materials.