Grinding mill

(lapidary) A lathe designed for lapidary work.
(mechanical engineering) A machine consisting of a rotating cylindrical drum, that reduces the size of particles of ore or other materials fed into it; three main types are ball, rod, and tube mills.

A machine that reduces the size of particles of raw material fed into it. The size reduction may be to facilitate removal of valuable constituents from an ore or to prepare the material for industrial use, as in preparing clay for pottery making or coal for furnace firing. Coarse material is first crushed.

Grinding mills are of three principal types, as shown in the illustration. In ring-roller pulverizers, the material is fed past spring-loaded rollers. The rolling surfaces apply a slow large force to the material as the bowl or other container revolves. The fine particles may be swept by an air stream up out of the mill. In tumbling mills the material is fed into a shell or drum that rotates about its horizontal axis. The attrition or abrasion between particles grinds the material. The grinding bodies may be flint pebbles, steel balls, metal rods lying parallel to the axis of the drum, or simply larger pieces of the material itself. In hammer mills, driven swinging hammers reduce the material by sudden impacts. See also Ball-and-race-type pulverizer; Crushing and pulverizing; Pebble mill; Tumbling mill.

Tumbling mill. (c) Hammer mill.">
Basic grinding mills. (a) Ring-roller mill. (b) Tumbling mill. (c) Hammer mill.