Cryogenic grinding

Published on 21 May 2021. Written by Bheru Singh

About the project

As a mechanical engineer, we have always learned about properties and behavior of different materials under development of heat. Study of materials under different temperatures is very important and the analysis is not limited only to the production of mechanical application but analysis involves where ever there is a material used and different temperatures involved. As an example, a gulf country completely differs from temperature condition in sub-continent or an African country.

Taking another example of a different condition is temperatures is Russia, Antarctica. Both the location being cold regions and involving cold temperatures but differs in temperatures.

We have studied on a very little note about the behavior of material with cold temperatures probably in Refrigeration concept. There is a separate branch of engineering which involves the behavior of materials at a very low temperature ranging from 0 to -180 degree Celsius, we called it as Cryogenics.

Cryogenics is that branch of engineering that involves low temperatures, procedures to procure low temperatures and how different materials behave at low temperatures. Low temperatures are produced by substances like liquid nitrogen, liquid helium etc.There are multiple sub-branches from cryogenics like cryobiology, cryosurgery, cryotronics, and cryonics. Cryogenic process is not an alternative to heat treatment process, but rather an extension of heating - quenching - tempering cycle.

There are different applications of cryogenics like Nuclear magnetic resonance, magnetic resonance imaging, forward-looking infrared, blood banking, detectors, and production technology like cryogenic grinding like explosive material grinding.

Grinding is a mechanical process of reducing the size/dimensions of a solid material by using with tools. The extensive application can be seen in finishing the process in mechanical production, food industry but it has some disadvantages like heat generation, oxidation and many more.

Cryogenic Grinding is also known as cryo- milling is a process of cooling a material to a low temperature and then reducing the dimensions of the material. Once cooling is completed, the material becomes em-brittle i.e. the material loses its ductility.

The cryogenic Grinding process involves two units i.e. precooling unit and grinding unit. The precooling unit, as the name suggests it uses liquid nitrogen to cool the material and the grinding unit removes the material using specific tools.

Cryogenic Grinding has its own advantages like less maintenance, no cooling agents required, low torque motors can be used for grinding, dimensions of the particle can be controlled but there are some demerits of this process like cost, the hazard of fuels, dry atmosphere is required etc.

Kit required to develop Cryogenic grinding:

Technologies you will learn by working on Cryogenic grinding:

Cryogenic grinding

About the project

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