Pilot stirred mill for energy efficiency research

IMERYS and Birmingham University are collaborating on a project to use state of the art monitoring equipment to view the internal workings of high energy grinding mills. Supporter by G. T. Jones and Co (a well established Cornish engineering business) and the Minerals Industry Research Organiseation, the project will apply Positron Emission Partical Tracking (PEPT) to see through the structure and shell of the grinding mill and track the motion of individual grinding media within the mill. The facility at Birmingham is one of only two such laboratories world wide. Through the information gathered in these experiments engineers will be able to modify the operation of existing production facilites leading to a reduction of the energy required to manufaccture products and also an improvement in the products made. The team will then go on to apply the increased understanding to making new products with novel properties.