Ceramic Powder Processing in France: Epic Powder Ceramic-Lined Ball Mill & ITC Classifier

A well-known French manufacturer of advanced ceramic materials supplies raw materials for the aerospace and precision electronics industries. With extensive experience in Ceramic Powder Processing, the customer places extremely stringent requirements on the purity of its core products—alumina/zirconia composite powders—and requires a final particle size of D97: 10 μm.

Key Challenges

• Zero metal contamination:
  Ceramic powders have extremely high hardness. Any metallic wear during processing would contaminate the product and lead to rejection.
• Narrow particle size distribution:
  The system must strictly control the proportion of coarse particles to maintain a stable D97 of 10 μm.
• Continuous high throughput:
  The production line must achieve an industrial-scale throughput of 1.5 t/h while maintaining ultrafine particle size.

Ceramic Powder Processing System Configuration

To meet the stringent requirements of high-hardness and high-purity Ceramic Powder Processing, EPIC Powder designed a fully ceramic-protected closed-circuit grinding and classification system.

Grinding System:

• Equipment: EPIC Powder ceramic-lined ball mill
• Lining: High-alumina ceramic liners (or zirconia liners)
• Grinding Media: Matching ceramic balls

Classification System:

• Equipment: ITC Ultrafine Air Classifier
• Protection: Fully ceramic-lined classifier rotor and internal pipelines

Design Targets:

• Target Capacity: 1.5 t/h
• Product Specification: D97 = 10 μm

Process Flow

• Closed-Circuit Grinding:
  Ceramic powder is fed into the ball mill via a feeder.
• Pneumatic Conveying:
  The ground powder mixture is transported by negative-pressure airflow to the top-mounted ITC air classifier.
• Dynamic Classification:
  • Qualified powder (≤ 10 μm): Passes through the classifier wheel and is collected by a pulse dust collector.
  • Oversized particles (> 10 μm): Rejected by centrifugal force and returned by gravity through the recycle pipe to the ball mill for further grinding.
• Intelligent Control:
  The entire system operates under negative pressure with no dust leakage. A PLC system continuously monitors mill load and classifier speed in real time.

Performance Results

After six months of continuous operation at the French customer’s facility, the system significantly exceeded expectations:

Parameter	Customer Requirement	Actual Performance
Product Fineness (D97)	10 μm	9.6 μm
Throughput	1.5 t/h	1.55 t/h
Impurity Increase (Fe)	< 5 ppm	Not Detected (ND)
Particle Size Distribution	Narrow	Extremely steep distribution curve