AC/off-grid photovoltaic powered open-source ball mill

Ball milling is used for comminution by rotating a drum to grind materials using balls with specific diameters. Ball milling advantages include the potential for high capacity, pre-dicted fineness in a specific amount of time, reliability, safety, and simplicity, but has dis-advantages of high weight, energy consumption and costs, which limit accessibility. To overcome these limitations this study applies the free and open source hardware approach coupled to distributed digital manufacturing to fabricate a ball mill with a simple, cus-tomizable design that can be used in a wide range of scientific applications and circum-stances including those without access to reliable grid electricity. The highly -customizable design reduces the cost to 130 for an AC powered version and 315 for a switchable power that enables off-grid operation with a solar module and bat-tery. Using a solar photovoltaic energy source not only improves the power reliability, but also makes it easier to move the ball mill for use in field environments. The open source ball mill is capable of reducing silicon particle sizes from the millimeter scale down to the nanometer scale.& COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

Ball milling is a grinding method that utilizes rotating drums and specific diameter balls to comminute materials. It offers advantages such as high capacity, predictable fineness, reliability, safety, and simplicity, but is limited by its high weight, energy consumption, and costs. To overcome these limitations, this study presents an open source, customizable ball mill designed using free and open source hardware and distributed digital manufacturing. It offers a cost reduction to $130 for an AC-powered version and $315 for a switchable power version that allows off-grid operation, using a solar module and battery. The use of solar photovoltaic energy improves power reliability and portability in field environments, and the open source design allows for size reduction of silicon particles from millimeter to nanometer scale.