Next Step in Bead Mill Technology

Quality requirements in inks and paints have increased substantially. Today, there is growing market expectation for highly glossy colors and paints with long service life. At the same time, with increased competition in the global market, formulation and process optimization have become critical for cost reduction. Wet grinding with bead mills is a critical process stage for productions such as paints and inks. However, to better understand where we stand today, we must first understand where grinding began. Grinding was a manual process carried out in stone mills until the industrial revolution. With the first cylinders for roller mills being cast by Bühler in 1871, the grinding process became a machine-based operation. In the 1930s, the grinding process met with attritor mills, the first mills using a separate grinding medium. In the 1950s, mills known as sand mills, which used sand as the grinding medium, entered the industry. In the 1970s, horizontal bead mills, which are still widely used and sold today, began to be used intensively. In 2000, Bühler introduced the Centex, a horizontal full-volume disk-type bead mill, for industrial use. Shortly after came MicroMedia, which enables high-efficiency wet grinding through the use of the smallest possible beads. Today, Bühler is introducing the next step in bead mill technology. (Figure 1) [caption id="attachment_103648" align="aligncenter"] Figure 1. New external design of Bühler Invicta[/caption]  

MicroMedia Invicta 25% More Efficient and 50% More Productive

MicroMedia Invicta is the latest version of Bühler's bead mills. With its innovative process chamber design and new bead separation system, it achieves 25% higher efficiency and 50% higher productivity values.

25% Efficiency Increase

In customer trials, Invicta achieved the same high-quality product output compared to the best alternative solutions while using 25% less energy. And all this while using the same compact space in your production facility.

50% Productivity Increase

With its intelligently designed new chamber design and improved bead separation technology, a 50% increase in productivity is achieved. Imagine how this could change your production volume.

100% Greater Flow Rate

With the new bead separation system, blockages and pressure increases are significantly reduced. This, combined with the new process chamber design, delivers an average 100% increase in flow rates. This allows you to reach the desired particle size faster with less production loss and a smoother process. [caption id="attachment_103649" align="aligncenter"] Figure 2. MicroMedia process chamber (for illustration purposes only)[/caption]

MicroMedia Invicta Process Chamber, Improved Design

The key to Invicta's unique process performance is its proprietary process chamber design and enhanced bead separation system. The proprietary process chamber design delivers savings in production costs. Years of customer experience from thousands of different wet grinding applications worldwide, combined with lengthy research and development, resulted in a new geometric design within the process chamber. With Invicta, the same high MicroMedia quality is now delivered with significantly less energy consumption. And despite the process chamber being slightly longer, it still fits in the same space in your facility. The new bead separation system enables a more reliable process. At the same time, the redesigned bead separation system and new filter design reduce filter blocking while increasing flow rates. All of this provides faster achievement of your target particle size, ensuring process safety and maximum reliability.

Benefits of the New Step in Wet Grinding Technology

With Invicta, which uses all the best technologies developed in our MicroMedia and MicroMedia+ machines, we offer our customers easy configurations that comply with local regulations and precisely meet the needs of each application. An easy-to-use lifting device and easy access to all parts required for operation and maintenance are provided. Additionally, operation is possible with a user-friendly integrated control panel. It can be used in many applications such as liquid packaging inks, textile inkjet, automotive paints, protective coatings, electronic materials, battery materials, agrochemicals.

Table 1. Comparison of MicroMedia X3 and MicroMedia Invicta in liquid packaging ink application

Table 2. Comparison of MicroMedia X3 and MicroMedia Invicta in automotive paint application

We have used MicroMedia Invicta with our customers in many different applications. Values for two separate applications can be reviewed in Table 1 and Table 2. With MicroMedia Invicta versus the best alternative machines; productivity can be doubled in liquid packaging ink applications, while 30% more efficient production is possible in automotive paints. Invicta is designed within the existing SuperFlow and MicroMedia chassis. This gives our customers the opportunity to upgrade their machines to Invicta without changing the entire system. Additionally, the new machine can still work integrated with our MacroMedia pre-dispersion unit, thus providing a complete solution for a wide range of applications. Aybars Kaya - Regional Sales Manager (Turkey), Grinding and Dispersion Unit, Bühler Sales and Service Ltd. (Bühler Turkey)