Webinar: Understanding and Controlling Breakage in Processing or Milling – A Mechanistic ViewWebinar: Understanding and Controlling Breakage in Processing or Milling – A Mechanistic View

On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific, Dr. Kerry Johanson, chief operations officer, Material Flow Solutions Inc., will present, “Understanding and Controlling Breakage in Processing or Milling – A Mechanistic View” as part of Powder & Bulk Solids' DryPro webinar series.

Sometimes we want to break particles so as to achieve a certain particle size or particle size distribution with the least energy input. In such a case, it is necessary to select a milling unit operation that is capable of breaking our particular product effectively. Choosing that mill is dependent on understanding how a particle breaks as this data is best used to determine the optimal mill that should be utilized to reduce the particle size.

Some materials are prone to breakage particles in half (fracture). Some are prone to breaking small particles off the surface of larger particles (attrition). Some require subjecting particles to many potential breakage events before these particles finally break (fatigue). Often the selection of the proper mill requires knowledge of how the material breaks, and how a material breaks suggests which specific mill will produce the proper size products for our downstream processes.

Likewise, sometimes a product is sent through a feed or handling system where it is necessary to avoid breakage, or the generation of particles of a prescribed size or size distribution, because the smaller particles do not play well in the subsequent handling or packing systems. In every handling system there are places where material undergoes impact events that cause breakage as well as stress-strain events that induce breakage. There are also places in every process where these events occur repeatedly, resulting in particle breakage by fatigue. If we understand how a particular material breaks due to impact and/or stress-strain events over time, then we can predict the amount and type of breakage that will happen in our process and design/optimize the process to avoid breakage.

This webinar will address controlling breakage of material in processes, including milling. Once it is understood what causes a particular material to break, and how it breaks, then that knowledge can be used to understand how a particular material might behave in a mill – or how that material might behave in a prescribed process. For a process, it is desirable to design the process to limit the breakage. In the case of milling, it is desirable to design or choose the mill to create a material with a prescribed size distribution.

This webinar will also touch upon the breakage of structured particles (i.e. how does a pretzel or potato chip break – and why)

What you will learn:

Who should attend this webinar: Process engineers, formulators and product development scientists, and plant managers or project managers.

Register for this webinar