Ball Mill is a type of grinder used for grinding materials such as ores, chemicals, ceramic raw materials and paints. Filled partially with materials to be grind including the grinding medium, ball mills are made to rotate around a horizontal axis. The medium here refers to balls or pebbles such as including ceramic balls, flint pebbles and stainless steel balls. The rotation of the ball mills generates an internal cascading effect that reduces the material to a fine powder. Ball mills come in different quality grade. High-quality ball mills, though expensive, can grind mixture particles to as small as 5 nm.
Application-wise, ball mills are used extensively in the mechanical alloying process wherein these are not only used for grinding but for cold welding as well for the purpose of producing alloys from powders. The equipment is also used in pyrotechnics such as in the production of black powder.