Carbon Black is a material produced from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons such as heavy oil and other petroleum products. It is an essential component in tires, rubber, plastics and liquids, enhancing these products by adding strength and durability.

Most Carbon Black is produced in an atmosphere controlled furnace where fuel is introduced into a hot gas stream that produces sufficient heat to vaporize and pyrolyze the fuel into ultra-fine carbon particles. At this point the carbon black is an inconsistent mixture of fine particles and agglomerates referred to as grit.  These grit particles are an unwanted byproduct, and can adversely affect the physical properties of the rubber and plastic products.

Traditionally, devices like hammer mill (like the Hosokawa Mikro-Pulverizer) were used to reduce grit levels to 100 to 200 PPM +325 MESH. Though this process was cost effective and efficient, the final material quality was limited. Hosokawa recognized carbon black manufacturers had a market for much higher grade, nearly grit free materials.

In recent years, Hosokawa Micron Powder Systems released a new milling system capable reducing grit levels to a fraction of what was previously available. The new milling system offers many new advantages over competing technologies:

• Lower grit levels = value-added product
• Increased performance with decreased energy consumption
• Can be installed inline in existing process or offline
• Wear resistant construction for longer operation
• Poorer grade feedstock can be used while still producing clean, high quality material

The newly developed Mikro-eACM Carbon Black Air Classifier Mill  greatly transcend the performance of conventional hammer mills. It offer superior grit reduction capabilities, are more energy efficient and have lower costs of operation.

Mikro e-ACM® Carbon Black Air Classifying Mill

• Reduces grit levels as low as < 1 PPM + 325 Mesh
• Impact milling with internal classification
• Operates in gas streams up to 200°C
• Capacities up to 10 tons/hr
• Available in sizes from 10 to 600 HP

This mill can be retrofitted in existing process flow streams without major changes. This technology will dramatically improve the quality of your product and provide the opportunity to reach higher profit, value-added specialty products.