Pulverising

Pulverising mills - fast, fine pulverising of mineral samples

When it comes to the fine pulverising of mineral samples, you need a hard-wearing mill that offers a long life, high productivity, and cost-effective operation. And that’s what you get with our range of manual and automated pulverising mills.

High productivity pulverising with long-term performance

  • Short pulverising times and flexible configurations

    From small-scale sample preparation to high-capacity operations, FLS’s industry-leading pulverizing solutions are built to perform. Choose from the durable Essa® and Herzog Manual Pulverizing Mills, the efficient Herzog Automated Pulverizing Mills, or our innovative Modular and Fully Automated Robotic Pulverizing Systems. Designed for flexibility and reliability, our pulverisers offer exceptional performance and value for a variety of applications.

  • Efficient, easy cleaning

    The detachable access panels in all our pulverising mills mean that maintenance is an uncomplicated process with everything within easy reach. In our automated pulverising mills, the automated cleaning process minimises the risk of sample carryover between successive samples. An automatic compressed air, sand cleaning (option) or wet cleaning (option) process is initiated once the grinding vessel is automatically cleared of the sample material, ensuring a clean vessel is presented for next-stage sample dosing.

  • Long service life and durable

    Our mills and bowls are built to last. The robust construction of our pulverising mills ensures long service life with minimum downtime, while the grinding bowls are crafted from carefully selected steel to optimise performance and longevity.

Manual pulverising mills

Essa® LM2 pulverising mill

The Essa® LM2 Pulverising Mill is an industry-standard ring mill designed for fast pulverising of a wide range of samples, including ores, minerals, ceramics, soils, and similar particulate. Having processed hundreds of millions of samples across all continents, it is powered by a 2.2 kW driven shaft and prepares up to 1.6 kg of mineral ore sample for analysis. 

Samples are typically ground to 95% minus 75 micron in approximately three minutes, with the user-friendly pneumatic bowl clamping adding to the efficiency. It offers flexibility across a wide range of applications as it can be fitted with a unique 800, 1000 or 2000 cc single-disc type grinding bowl, as well as any standard size (50, 100, 125, 300 or 400 cc) ring-and-roller grinding bowl. Optional bowl materials include chrome steel, standard (low chrome) steel and tungsten carbide.

The LM2 is ideal for high-volume mineral labs and remote locations, featuring noise suppression and easy maintenance.

Automated pulverising mills

HP-MA automatic pulverising mill

The HP-MA Automatic Pulverising Mill is designed for fine grinding of samples for X-ray fluorescence and diffractometry, handling input sizes up to 3 mm for materials like ores, cement and slag. Robust with a high RPM drive motor, short grinding times are guaranteed, even for hard materials – our HP-MA can grind materials with a hardness up to 9 Mohs.

The HP-MA’s automatic emptying and cleaning function minimises the risk of sample cross-contamination and allows different sample materials to be prepared consecutively. After pulverising, the grinding vessel is automatically emptied, and the ground material is made available at the discharge point. Three automatic cleaning functions – compressed air, sand cleaning (option) and wet cleaning (option) – ensure efficient and thorough cleaning of the grinding vessel.

The HP-MA’s modular design means it can be operated in automatic, stand-alone, stand-alone with magazine, linear automation, and robot automation modes. Use it standalone, with 30 to 60 position magazines, or combine it with the HP-PA Pellet Press to further improve productivity and sample handling. Choose from tungsten carbide or chrome steel grinding vessels for maximum sample grinding efficiency and a long life. Other optional extras include a cooling device for the grinding vessel, blank sample dosing device, cleaning device for transport cups, and magnetic separator for extracting metallic particles from the sample.

Combination machines

HP-MP automatic combination pulverizing mill and press

The HP-MP is the state-of-the art solution for grinding of powder material and preparation of pressed pellets for XRF and XRD analyses. The compact dimensions, the wealth of functions and easy operation make the HP-MP the perfect choice for mineral quality control laboratories.

The operator has full control over the pulverizing process and can adjust all relevant machine parameters and process steps. The rotation speed of the grinding vessel is continuously adjustable between 600 and 1500 rpm. The temperature is constantly monitored and kept constant at target temperature. The sample feeding and discharge intervals, the timing for adding grinding aid, the cleaning cycle and much more can be adapted to achieve the optimum result for each material.

The grinding vessel has a volume of 100 ccm which offers maximum flexibility for operation of all kinds of material. Both chrome steel and tungsten carbide grinding vessels are available and can be exchanged with little effort. After pulverizing, a sample aliquot can be automatically retained for preparation of duplicate pellets or administration of further analytical methods. The grinding vessel can be flushed with a blank sample to minimize cross-contamination between subsequent samples.

As a stand- alone machine, the HP-MP can be operated with an input and output device where the operator inserts a single cup and removes the pressed pellet. As an option, a 23-position-magazine is available to allow automatic batch processing of samples. The prepared pressed pellets are collected in an output magazine attached to the side of the machine. As a matter of choice for the operator, the cup can be returned empty to the magazine or filled with retained sample material for further sample processing or analysis.

Thorough cleaning of all contact surfaces, blind dosing and other processes are used to effectively avoid cross-contamination between subsequent samples. The powerful hydraulic module with continuously adjustable press forces up to 200 kN is suitable even for challenging analytical tasks. The HP-MP can automatically retain a sample aliquot for further analyses. Grinding and pelletizing can be carried out independently.