This article discusses a new mill that has demonstrated the capability to produce dispersion products with a demonstrated quality maximum beyond the capability of existing fine media mills operated under the same conditions of agitator tip speed, and media size, type and load.
A number of industries are based on the development of products from particulate dispersions. In many cases, these industries are faced with the competitive need to develop increasingly finer dispersions having narrower particle size distributions. Ceramics, printing and ink jet inks and automotive OEM finish manufacturers are specific areas where this is true.
Automotive OEM manufacturers and their finish suppliers are extremely style oriented. Each OEM finish manufacturer attempts to develop unique new color effects annually to gain a larger share of the OEM business. While unique colored flake pigments have been introduced in this area in recent years and are becoming increasingly popular, they must be formulated with very high transparency pigment dispersions in order to take advantage of the multi-angle color variation inherent in these flake pigments. The need for very high transparency colored pigment dispersions has pushed the processing of these pigments very close to the limits of conventional fine media milling technology.