The common characteristic of alumina balls and zirconia balls is that they are both used as grinding media. However, zirconia balls have a smooth surface, high density, and are not easily worn, but are expensive with a large one-time investment. Therefore, there are various products on the market called similar to zirconia balls. Alumina balls are cheaper, but have low wear.
Comparison of the performance of the two different grinding balls:
1、First, let's look at the characteristics of zirconia balls:
Zirconia balls use yttrium oxide as a stabilizer and high whiteness, high fineness raw materials to ensure that the material is pollution-free. Its grinding efficiency is high: it is 1.6 times that of yttrium-stabilized zirconia ceramic microbeads material, and its grinding efficiency is higher than that of ordinary zirconia beads under the same conditions.
In addition, zirconia balls have good flowability, good product roundness, smooth surface, and lower wear resistance to equipment than other grinding media. Lastly, the products of Fengta Grinding Heat Storage Ball Factory have their own impact resistance and low wear: TZP zirconia ceramic beads have good toughness during high-speed operation, do not crack or peel in high-concentration machinery, and wear only half as much as zirconium silicate beads.
2、Now let's look at the advantages of alumina balls:
Alumina balls are mainly used as grinding media and are produced through mixing, crushing, powder grinding (slurry, clay), forming, drying, and sintering processes using bauxite, roller powder, alumina, and high-temperature calcined α-alumina powder as raw materials. They are widely used in the industry.
According to the different alumina content, they can be divided into medium alumina balls, medium-high alumina balls, and high alumina balls. Medium-high alumina balls are widely accepted by most ceramic factories due to their low price and are mainly used for grinding ceramic blanks. High alumina balls have excellent properties such as high strength, high hardness, high wear resistance, small volume, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, and no pollution, and have been widely used in thick-hard materials and deep processing of different types of ceramics, enamel, glass, chemical plants, etc., especially the 92% alumina ball is the most commonly used.
3、Advantages and disadvantages of alumina balls and zirconia balls:
Alumina balls have a wide range of varieties and can reduce costs in terms of electricity consumption, labor, equipment, etc., as long as the grinding product is selected properly during ball milling production and processing. Finally, it should be noted that if grinding media materials working under centrifugal force are selected, zirconia grinding balls are more suitable. Their monoclinic crystal type density is 5.85, while the density of alumina grinding balls is only 3.9-4.0. Therefore, selecting zirconia as the grinding medium can produce greater shear force and improve grinding efficiency. If used as materials for components such as grinding cans or bearings, alumina ceramic balls with higher hardness will produce better results.
