Ultrafine grinding using a fluidized bed opposed jet mill: effects of feed load and rotational speed of classifier wheel on particle shape.

Circularity, aspect ratio, modelx, and pellips were employed to study the effects of process parameters, namely varying feed loads and rotational speeds of the classifier wheel, of the fluidized bed opposed jet mill on the shape of the micronized particles produced. The Shapiro-Wilk statistical test showed that 80.0% of the shape distributions of the four descriptors were not normal. Therefore, the Kruskal-Wallis test, which is a nonparametric statistical test, was employed to analyze the data. Micronized particles were more spherical and less elongated, as indicated respectively by higher median circularity and lower median modelx values when compared to unmilled lactose. These descriptors were able to indicate that the particles had been micronized. When feed loads of 250 and 350 g were used, increasing the rotational speed of the classifier wheel was found to bring about a decrease in span values of all the shape descriptors, indicating that the micronized particles were more uniform in shape. Micronized particles produced had lower median aspect ratio values than the unmilled lactose, whereas a higher feed load of 450 g resulted in the production of micronized particles that were less uniform in shape and more elliptical in nature, as reflected by the lower median pellips values. A higher feed load of 450 g caused a high level of impingement of particles on to the rotating classifier wheel, causing decreased classifier wheel efficiency, and this resulted in a less well-controlled micronization process. Thus, aspect ratio and pellips were sensitive to the changes in performance of the classifier wheel. The four shape descriptors were proposed to be used collectively as indicators for the monitoring of the micronization process.