A discussion on the measurement of grinding media wear

Comminution operations are the most expensive and energy consuming in the mineral industry. Any action aiming at reducing the costs associated with that step is welcome, and lowering the consumption of grinding media figures among the main concerns related to decreasing comminution costs. To reach that goal, it is necessary to know and understand the wear mechanisms that take place during the grinding process, as well as to consider the details of such process like the inhomogeneous feed and the interaction between mineral slurry and grinding media. Wet grinding can also add a corrosive component to total wear mechanism, and then wear rates are expected to rise from synergies between corrosive and abrasive components. Though corrosion phenomena are broadly accepted to happen in wet grinding – even when the ball alloy has high chromium content – studies on verifying its importance are scarce. Tests in laboratory mills can simulate most of the conditions present in the industrial mill, despite being inexpensive and much faster than the tests performed with industrial equipment.