Ball Mills

The Retsch MM 500 control is a high energy laboratory ball mill suitable for dry, wet and cryogenic grinding with a frequency of up to 30 Hz. The MM 500 is the first mixer mill on the market that allows to monitor and control the grinding process temperature, thereby covering a range from -100 to 100 °C. The mill can be operated with various thermal fluids, enabling the use of different tempering devices for cooling or heating to achieve maximum flexibility. If liquid nitrogen is chosen for cooling, the mill needs to be equipped with the optionally available extension device cryoPad. Moreover, with the innovative cryoPad technology you can select and control a specific cooling temperature for the grinding process in the range from – 100 to 0 °C.

The mixer mill MM 500 nano is a compact, versatile bench-top unit developed for dry, wet and cryogenic grinding of up to 2 x 45 ml sample material in just seconds. With a maximum frequency of 35 Hz, it creates enough energy to produce particles on the nanometer scale. The robust high-performance drive makes the MM 500 suitable for long-term grinding processes of up to 99 hours. This makes it very interesting for research and mechanochemistry. Therefore, the MM 500 nano is a unique mixer mill in the market that provides a real alternative to grinding in a planetary ball mill – with more comfortable handling and less warming effects.

The new Retsch Mixer Mill MM 500 Vario is a versatile bench-top unit that provides ultimate performance with maximum flexibility in your sample preparation process. It is used for high throughput dry, wet as well as cryogenic grinding of small sample amounts. It can be equipped with screw-top grinding jars of 1.5 ml to 50 ml. Available materials include stainless steel, hardened steel, agate, tungsten carbide, zirconium oxide and PTFE.
Equipped with different adapters for single-use vials from 0.2 – 5 ml, the MM 500 Vario is also suitable for biological applications such as homogenization of plant materials and tissues, or for cell disruption via bead beating.

The Mixer Mill MM 400 is a compact, versatile bench-top unit designed for dry, wet as well as cryogenic grinding of small sample amounts. This laboratory mill mixes and homogenizes up to 2 x 20 ml of powders and suspensions in just a few seconds. In addition, it is perfectly suitable for the disruption of cells as well as for DNA/RNA and protein extraction. With the powerful performance and great flexibility, the MM 400 is a unique product on the market.

The mixer mill MM 200 is a compact and versatile benchtop unit, developed specially for dry grinding of small amounts of sample. The MM 200 can mix and homogenize powders within seconds. Moreover, it is ideally suitable for the disruption of cells as well as for DNA/RNA extraction.

Cryogenic grinding is a process in which thermally sensitive and elastic substances are processed by cooling with liquid nitrogen. The CryoMill is a laboratory ball mill specifically manufactured for this application. It features an integrated liquid nitrogen cooling system which continually cools the grinding jar – before and during the grinding process. Therefore, the sample is embrittled, and its volatile components are preserved.

The Retsch’s Emax is an entirely new type of ball mill for high energy milling. Its unique combination of high friction and impact results in extremely fine particles within the shortest amount of time. This model provides faster and finer grinding than any other ball mill. The features include:

• Speed of 2000 min-1 that allows for ultra-fast pulverization of the sample
• water cooling which permits continuous operation without cool-down breaks
• temperature-controlled grinding
• narrow particle size distribution due to the special jar design which improves sample mixing

Planetary Ball Mills are utilized when the highest degree of fineness is required. Besides well-proven mixing and size reduction processes, these mills also meet all technical requirements for colloidal grinding and provide the energy input necessary for mechanical alloying. Planetary ball mills produce extremely high centrifugal forces that result in high pulverization energy and hence short grinding times. The PM 100 is a convenient benchtop model with one grinding station, same as PM 100 CM which operates in centrifugal mode, leading to a more gentle size reduction process with less abrasion. The PM 200 has two and PM 400 four grinding stations.

The Retsch’s PM GrindControl is a pressure and temperature measuring system. In order to understand the processes which occur during grinding with ball mills, such as chemical reactions or phase changes, it is helpful to record the key thermodynamic parameters: pressure and temperature. Due to their high energy input, planetary ball mills are also frequently used for development of new materials by mechanical alloying. Moreover, the processes and reactions taking place in the grinding jar can be monitored and recorded. The PM GrindControl is available for stainless steel grinding jars of 250 ml and 500 ml.

The XRD-Mill McCrone is specially designed for the sample preparation for X-ray diffraction (XRD), and is used for applications in geology, mineralogy, chemistry, material science, quality control as well as R&D. The XRD-Mill McCrone is particularly effective for this analytical method because of the unique grinding motion, where the 48 cylindrical grinding elements grind the samples gently via friction. The result is a short grinding time with minimal sample loss and an exceptionally narrow particle size distribution.
Moreover, the crystal lattice is almost entirely preserved during the grinding operation, a prerequisite for meaningful X-ray diffraction.

The Retsch TM 300 Drum Mill is used for the preparation of granules and powders, where the grinding process is performed either in dry or wet conditions. The drum mill can be operated either as a Ball or a Rod Mill by employing the corresponding module. An effective grinding process requires a sufficient number of balls or rods. Typically, a final fineness below 20 microns is obtained.
The drum mill is comprised of a gear motor mounted on a solid steel frame complete with outlet funnel and a set of separation screens as well as a sample collector. The TM 300 features a yoke and locking mechanism for a simple access to the sample. In addition, a quick release locking mechanism fascilitates the removal of the drum cover for easy cleaning.

The Drum Mill TM 500 is a laboratory ball mill suitable for grinding large sample volumes of up to 35 l. This mill accepts initial feed sizes of up to 20 mm and can achieve grind sizes down to 15 µm by the friction and impact. Hard, brittle or fibrous samples are pulverized in the 150 l drum filled with 80 kg grinding balls. The variable speed of 10 to 50 rpm, different grinding ball sizes as well as the possibility of long-term grinding (up to 100 h) ensure the required treatment of a sample depending on its properties as well as reproducible results. A TM 500 foodGrade model that features a stainless steel 316 L drum and a hopper is available for applications where the sample must not be contaminated.