Graphite Applications for Wet & Dry Grinding Attritors
Graphite is a crystalline form of pure carbon. Its structure consists of sheets of hexagonal networks that are one atom thick. Because the sheets are poorly connected, they easily slide against one another when subjected to even a small amount of force, contributing to graphite’s relatively low hardness.
It’s also a factor in graphite’s excellent lubricating capabilities. Aside from lubricants, graphite’s applications are wide ranging, from refractories to brake linings to the common pencil. Graphite’s excellent conductivity makes it particularly useful for applications like:
- Electrodes
- Batteries
- Solar panels
Graphite also is used in steelmaking to increase the molten steel’s carbon content, as a lubricant in foundry facings and as a slurry in oil drilling.
Synthetic graphite fibers are used in a broad spectrum of products, including fishing rods, golf club shafts and bicycle frames.
Graphite is difficult to grind into a fine particle size because of its often occurrence as flakes and the covalent bonds’ strength within the atom-thick sheets that make up graphite.
However, two dry grinding Attritors designed and manufactured by Union Process, the SD Series and the HSA Series, as well as our wet grinding batch Attritor S Series, are well suited for grinding graphite. The impact and shearing forces of the grinding media in these Attritors are particularly effective in reducing the particle size of graphite.
