Both glass beads and zirconia beads can be used for dispersive grinding of coatings, pesticides, paints, color pastes, inks, suspending agents, titanium dioxide, etc. Both are grinding media, but the grinding efficiency is completely different.
First of all, from the composition analysis, the main composition of glass beads is SiO2>65.0 Na2O<14.0 CaO>8.0 MgO>2.5. The glass beads have uniform size, smooth surface, high hardness, good chemical stability, and the hardness is 6-7.
The main components of zirconia beads are zirconia and yttrium oxide, with a hardness of 9. Yttrium stabilized zirconia has high strength, good fracture toughness, high hardness, high elastic modulus, linear expansion coefficient similar to that of metal, good wear resistance, non-magnetic, and acid and alkali medium corrosion resistance.
From the comparison of hardness and composition, zirconia beads are hard, have good wear resistance, will not break the beads, and the wear resistance is about 20 times that of glass beads.
The density of glass beads: 2.4-2.6g/cm3, the density of zirconium beads is 6.0g/cm3, the zirconia beads are heavier, and the grinding efficiency will be higher during the grinding process. Under the same conditions, the grinding time will be shorter with zirconium beads Short, the fineness of the material is easier to grind down.
Glass beads are fragile. When used in a sand mill, the beads need to be replenished every 3 days. The frequency is too frequent, which also increases labor. Zirconia beads have low wear and long service life.
To sum up, zirconia beads have good grinding efficiency, low abrasion and good wear resistance. From the perspective of overall cost, they are ideal grinding media.
