As automobile demand grows, and their performance continues to improve, the role of the material used in the manufacture of car tires has started to play a major factor in the comfort and safety aspects of automotive design. Carbon black is an additive in the rubber used to manufacture tires which, when compounded into the polymer matrix, significantly improves tensile strength and abrasion resistance. Improved rubber chemistry and tire design are creating exciting new tires that offer ever greater mileage and performance under extreme weather conditions.

However, the carbon black manufacturing operation also produces an impurity known simply as “grit” which, since the average grit size is several times larger than the clustered carbon black particles, if left in there with the carbon black will significantly and adversely impact the tire manufacturing equipment as well as the final quality of the tire. Reducing these grits using high-speed grinding mills, down to a size whereby they are rendered harmless, is the focus of this paper.