GRINDING

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51. Taggart,Arthur F.:Tests on the Hardinge Conical Mill,Trans . Am.Inst . Mining Engrs.,58,126177 (1918).
52. Taggart, Arthur F., and R. W. Young : Grinding Brass Ashes in the Conical Ball Mill ,Trans.
Am. Inst. Mining Engrs., 54, 26-33 (1916).
53. VAN WINKLE, C. T.:Recent Test of Ball mill Crushing, Trans. Am. Inst. Mining Engrs.,59,
227-248 (1918).
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Met., 14, 505-506 (1933).
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(1915).

CHAPTER VI
ATTRIBUTES OF COMMINUTION
Some attributes of comminution deserve a rather detailed examination from a cost or an
utilization standpoint. They pertain to the comminuting operation, e.g., crushing and grinding
efficiency,cr to the comminuted product, e.g., the shape and size of the particles in the product.
Shape of Comminuted Particles. A widespread belief exists that whereas particles visible to
the eye may be angular fine particles are more or less rounded, until a fineness is reached beyond
which the particles are definitely spherical. Actually, the shape of crushed or ground particles
varies but little with size, and the finest particles that can be examined under the microscope are
as angular as any. In some instances, the finest particles are more angular than the coarsest
particles, as will be explained presently, but in no case is there truth in the reverse.
In the first place, it is physically absurd to expect sphericity in extremely fine particles of
crystalline solids inasmuch as these particle come closer to a unit crystal than coarse particles.
Although it is conceivable that a large grain may be broken ( or more exactly, worn ) to appear
round, a very small particle whose diameter may be but that of a few hundred unit crystals is
bound to display angularity since matter is not infinitely divisible, it fine particles of rounded
outline were to be formed by comminution, even finer particles should also have formed that
would have been fitted between the rounded particles in the unbroken grains. In other words, the
finest particles produced by comminution cannot be rounded but must have sharp corners.
Among extremely fine particles are particles which approximate the finest detail that can be
resolved microscopically. It might be recalled at this point that, according to the classical theory ,
this ultimately resolvable detail is /2n, in which is the
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ATTRIBUTES OF COMMINUTION

125

wave length of the light used and the numerical aperture of the objective of the
microscope , In the best lenses, n=1.4, and with blue light =0.45 micron, so that the ultimately
resolvable detail is about 0.15 micron. A sharp corner in a submicron particle will appear
rounded simply because that detail is too small in reference to the light wave used to examine it :
light goes around it just as sound goes around a building.
Particles somewhat coarser, yet still very fine ( micron size and coarser ), are all angular as
may be verified easily with a microscope.
Although angular, the coarsest particle in comminuted products are frequently shaped
somewhat differently than fineparticles: their shape is more regular, in the sense that their three
dimensions of length, breadth, and thickness are more nearly equal. This seems to be due to the
sizing action of most grinding devices, which imposes a slight preferential fracturing of long or
flat particles in the coarsest size.
If wear has been applied ( as in a ball mill that is made to grind a feed to coarse for the balls ),
truly rounded coarse particles are obtained. But this is an ineffective means of comminuting and
should be regarded as an exception.
Effect of Cleavage and Crystalline Habit . Angularity, of course, is modified by cleavge and
general fracturing habit of each mineral species.
Quartz, which has a conchoidal habit and practically no cleavage , produce the sharpest of
splinters.
Galena and sphalerite , which display good and fair cleavage, respectively, yield particles with
points and edges, although generally not regarded as sharply angular.
Mica, molybdenite, and graphite yield plates and are not usually regarded as angular.
Stibnite and other crystals of acicular habit yield needlike particles.
Chalcocite, bornite, and pyrite yield equidimensional angular particles.
Sizes Present in Comminuted Products. It is important to observe that, irrespective of
whether the feed to a crusher or grinder is sized or not, the products is not fully sized, i.e, it
contains particles of all sizes from the coarsest to the finest. The coarsest size in the products of a
comminuting operation is gener-

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PRINCIPLES OF MINERAL DRESSING

ally determined by the setting of the comminuting device in the case of a jaw crusher, a gyratory
crusher, a cone crusher, or rolls; by the size of the screen in a stamp mill; and by the rate of rock
passage through a tube, rod, or ball mill. But there is no way of estabilishing a lower size limit
for crushed or ground particles: there are always produced some particles finer than is desirable.
The practical issue, then, is to limit the overgrinding to the strict minimum. (1) Overgrinding cost
money and cause increased losses by rendering material subject to concentration unfit for that
purpose. This desire to avoid overgrinding is responsible for the wide utilization of rolls, rod
mills, and other crushers and grinders that have the reputation, more or less justified, of
minimizing overgrinding. This desire to avoid overgrinding is also at the root of elaborate flow
sheets featuring alternations of comminuting with concentrating steps-as, for example, the
concentration by jigging at a size at which liberation is far from complete, regrinding of the
tailing or of a middling product in which locked particles have been concentrated, and further
concentration of the reground product by tabling or flotation.
It has also been sought to minimize overgrinding by the use of comminuting methods that do
not utilize a force applied externally to the particle. Thus, it has been proposed to soak the
particles to be ground in water at a temperature well above the boiling point and under
considerable pressure, then to suddenly release the pressure so as to form steam under pressure in
the pores and cracks within particles, and thus explode them with an internal force selectively
applied at boundaries of heterogeneity. The idea is very attractive and if practically utilizable
may prove revolutionary.
It is of interest to inquire whether any lower size limit at all exist among the particles in a
comminuted product. From an experimental point of view, all that may be said is that there exist
particles finer than any size at which observation can be made. Whether the limit is the finest
screen ( 37 microns ), elutriation ( about 5 microns ), the microscope ( about 0.25 micron ),of the
centrifuge ( about 0.05 micron ), material finer than the limiting size does occur. From a
theoretical point of view, on the other hand, a particle finer than a molecules is unthinkable. The
equation even arises whether a molecule, e.g., of SiO2, cont-