Measurement of electrical energy consumption in a Bond ball mill

In this paper a new digital energy meter is being evaluated as a means of measuring the energy required to grind ore in the Bond mill and to test if the results are consistent with Bond's original methodology. The specific comminution energy for milling in the Bond test mill appears to be based on 60 J/rev, which defines the net energy required in the Bond ball mill to realise the same grinding conditions of a 2.4 m wet grinding mill. However, upon close inspection of Bond's original paper published in 1949, Bond stated that the net energy input to the laboratory scale ball mill was 93 J/rev which is comparable to the digital energy meter measurement of 91.4 J/rev. Bond's empirical relationship thus suggests that there is a built in scale up factor which accounts for the differences between dry laboratory milling tests and a full scale (2.4m) wet grinding mill. The significance of this is that the new digital energy meter has confirmed that small electrical energy measurements in motors/mills are possible, and that direct specific comminution energy is measurable. The paper researches and confirms the above mentioned energy measurement from several perspectives, including various mill power models, DEM and Bond back-calculation methods