Wear-Resistant Zirconia Grinding Media for Pigment Dispersion

Material grinding is a crucial process in ink production, and the quality of grinding can be represented by the dispersion degree of the material. The use of zirconia beads with different particle sizes affects the grinding effect and efficiency of the material. In ink production, it is necessary to pre-disperse the material with zirconia beads first, and then use grinding equipment for grinding until the grinding fineness meets the process requirements. Pigment grinding is an important link in the production process of solvent-based and water-based inks. Grinding equipment relies on grinding media such as balls and zirconia beads to impact, friction, and shear the material through different movements, thereby crushing and dispersing the material. The smaller the diameter of the zirconia beads, the higher the probability of mutual collision; the larger the active area, the greater the shear force on pigment dispersion, resulting in a narrower particle size distribution of the ink. After grinding, the overall pigment particle size becomes smaller, with a higher proportion of small-particle-size pigments, leading to superior grinding effect and efficiency. Conversely, zirconia beads with larger diameters have a smaller specific surface area and active area, resulting in a wider particle size distribution of the ink with a higher proportion of large-particle-size pigments. Therefore, when using small-diameter zirconia beads as the grinding medium, the pigment particle size can be reduced. According to our experiments, when using our Baitian’s 1.0–1.2 mm zirconia beads for grinding, 95% of the ink particle size is less than 1 micron, achieving excellent grinding results.
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