The normal wear and abnormal breakage of zirconium beads are unavoidable issues during use.

 

normal wear and tear

To determine whether wear is within the normal range, the first step is to observe the appearance of the medium. As the usage time of zirconia beads increases, the zirconia beads will gradually become smaller, the surface will become smooth, and there will no longer be sharp angles. This situation is considered normal wear and tear. However, when zirconium beads exhibit sharp angles, fragments, or irregular shapes, it is considered abnormal fragmentation.

 

Reason for breakage

The reasons for the breakage of zirconium beads can be divided into two aspects: the material problem of the beads themselves and the mismatch with the grinding machine model.

From the perspective of force, when the viscosity of the liquid transferred from the dispersing disk to the zirconium beads is high, such as when using solvents or water to clean the sand mill, the thrust of the material is insufficient, and the zirconium beads may come into contact with the dispersing disk and break. Therefore, it is recommended to shorten the cleaning time as much as possible to reduce the risk of breakage.

If high viscosity liquids are used to clean the machine, zirconium beads may also wear down the contact parts of other beads or sand mills. In order to extend the service life of zirconia beads and sand mills, it is best to use resin for cleaning and maintain sufficient material viscosity during the production process.

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Exploration into the Causes of Fragmentation

1. Incorrect internal contacts and installation of the sand mill: loose dispersion disk, sharp edges of the dispersion disk, foreign objects inside the sand mill, loose valves inside, etc. may cause zirconia beads to break.

2. Wear or incorrect installation of sand mill contacts: The dynamic separator or screen may be worn, the screen may be damaged or installed incorrectly. If the worn medium enters the feed pump through the separator, the pump may crush the beads before clogging or shutting down.

3.  Back pressure: When the feed pump is turned off, the residual pressure inside the sand mill will push the beads into the pump. Therefore, when the pump is restarted, it may crush these beads. A one-way valve may not be reliable and sometimes allows beads to pass through before the valve is closed.

4. Accumulation of zirconia beads: If zirconia beads accumulate at the bottom of the sand mill, or if the speed of the working pump is too fast, causing zirconia beads to concentrate at the outlet of the horizontal sand mill, it may lead to breakage. The solution is to use a jog method when starting the sand mill to loosen the accumulated zirconia beads first.

5. Wear of dispersion disk: The wear of the edges of the dispersion disk may be difficult to determine. The worn edges of the dispersing disk are uneven, and the edges of the dispersing disk are the areas where the rotating speed of the dispersing disk is high, which may form strong eddy currents. For vertical grinding machines, zirconia beads tend to concentrate near the edge of the lower scattered disc due to their own weight. These factors combined may lead to the breakage of zirconia beads. The solution includes replacing severely worn components and then installing the same batch of zirconia beads.

6. Mixing zirconia beads produced by different manufacturers: Zirconia beads produced by different manufacturers may have differences in density. Mixing zirconium beads from different manufacturers will increase mutual wear between beads. The solution is not to mix zirconium beads from different manufacturers. If they have already been mixed, they can only be discarded.

7. Garbage or small worn-out beads: Garbage or small worn-out beads often adhere to screens, shafts, brackets, and other locations. When new zirconia beads are added, these small objects may detach from the attachment site and mix into the new beads. This may cause the new beads to appear to break quickly, but in reality they are just natural wear and tear beads from the past. If the problem is not serious, these small objects can be naturally expelled after a period of time. Otherwise, the old beads must be replaced and new zirconium beads must be used.