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This study investigates the influence of mechanical pretreatment methods – screening, mixing, and spheroidizing - on the performance of autogenous silicon grinding media (aGM) in stirred media milling. Screening resulted in steeper particle size distributions (PSD) and increased bulk porosity, but did not significantly affect wear rate or energy consumption. Mixing different aGM sizes broadened PSD and reduced porosity, particularly in bimodal mixtures, leading to notably lower wear rates during abrasion-dominated wear phases, though without being beneficial for the energy efficiency. Spheroidization, achieved during autogenous milling, increased sphericity and reduced bulk porosity at rest, leading to reduced wear rate by abrasion and a slight improvement in energy efficiency, especially at coarser particle sizes. High-resolution particle size analysis confirmed that the PSD generated with aGM are comparable to those achieved using conventional ZrO₂ media. These findings highlight spheroidized aGM as a promising, low-contamination alternative to traditional grinding media.
Möller et al. (Wed,) studied this question.