The difference between zirconia balls and alumina balls

Zirconia beads and alumina balls are both grinding media with similar properties but have differences. Zirconia beads have less wear and tear, while alumina balls are cheaper. We need to choose zirconia beads or alumina balls according to different occasions.

Zirconia beads use yttrium oxide as a stabilizer and high whiteness, fine particle size as raw materials to ensure no contamination in the raw materials. They have high grinding efficiency, 1.6 times higher than other types of zirconia beads, and higher than ordinary zirconia beads under the same conditions. Compared with other grinding media, zirconia beads have good flowability, roundness, and smooth surface, which results in low equipment wear and tear. Zirconia beads also have the characteristics of impact resistance and low wear: TZP zirconia beads have good toughness at high speed operation and do not crack, peel, or wear out in high concentration machinery, only half of zirconium silicate microbeads. Zirconia beads have a smooth surface, high density, and are not easy to wear, but they have high prices and require large one-time investment, and there are various types of zirconia beads on the market. Alumina balls are cheap but have less wear and tear.

Alumina balls refer to aluminum oxide powder made from bauxite, rolling powder, alumina, and high-temperature calcination as raw materials through mixing, grinding, slurry, clay, molding, drying, sintering, and other processes, mainly used as grinding media, widely used in ball stones. According to different alumina content, it can be divided into high alumina balls and medium alumina balls.

As a type of ball mill equipment in production processing, alumina balls not only have a wide range of varieties but also comprehensively reduce costs in terms of power consumption, labor, equipment, and other aspects.

Comparing the performance of these two different grinding balls, alumina balls have less wear and tear, high hardness, corrosion resistance, impact resistance, and are economical and practical. Alumina balls are mainly used in non-ferrous metal ore, industrial ceramic powder materials, non-metallic powder materials, titanium dioxide, papermaking, coatings, inks, and other powder materials. They are suitable for sand mills, ball mills, mixing mills, peeling machines, polishing machines, grinding machines, etc.

Undeniably, if the grinding media material is still zirconia beads under centrifugal force, the monoclinic crystal density is 5.85. The density of alumina balls is only 3.9 to 4.0. Therefore, choosing zirconia beads as the grinding medium will produce greater shear force and improve grinding efficiency. If used as a material for grinding grooves or bearings, it is better to choose alumina balls with higher hardness.