Coatings manufacturers spend a lot of time researching and choosing the best raw materials and milling equipment for their products due to the large variability of products in terms of components, viscosities, particle size distributions (before and after the dispersing/milling process), and other properties. Very often the first stage of this work is done on lab-scale mills. This research work is necessary for reliable scale up from the lab to the production scale. Hence, milling equipment manufacturers have developed flexible lab mills, with exchangeable process zones with a high similarity to the production mill types.
This article addresses typical scale up procedures and potential challenges. The question of the smallest possible process zone size, which is important for efficient R&D work, is also discussed.