Clay and Soil

With maximum 3 cm start size, a few particles use to be too big to be fed into the feeding funnel. It is recommended placing the sample into a plastic bag and comminution the sample with a few strokes of a hammer previously. Also a Jaw crusher will be capable to pre grind the sample.

The grinding sound stopped after ~ 15s. No further output has been found in the collecting vessel after a total of 30 seconds. The majority of sample has been ground successfully. A bit of material use to stick between the ribs of the grinding insert.

Even higher amounts of sample can be ground this way.

The grinding insert can be cleaned by grinding a small portion of sand. Afterwards, majority of residues can be removed by vacuuming with a soft brush.

With maximum 3 cm start size, a few particles use to be too big to be fed into the feeding funnel.

Even when sample will be comminuted with e.g. a screw driver inside of the feeding funnel, sample pieces can jam the opening of the feeding funnel. With a first trial, that happened and only an output of ~ 40 g have been achieved therefore (see plastic bag 2a). It is recommended placing the sample into a plastic bag and comminute the sample with a few strokes of a hammer previously (as we did with sample bag 2b).

The grinding sound stopped after ~ 20s. The majority of sample has been ground successfully. A bit of material use to stick between the ribs of the grinding insert.

Even higher amounts of sample can be ground this way.

The grinding insert can be cleaned by grinding a small portion of sand. Afterwards, majority of residues can be removed by vacuuming with a soft brush.

Just for demonstration, we prepared a trial with smaller amounts of both samples with a planetary mill. An equal result will be achieved with a 250 ml grinding bowl as well (which should be suitable for a grinding of up to 100 g of sample as required).

With just 30 seconds of grinding, sample became compressed to the wall of the grinding bowl. Sticking sample can be removed with a scraper. A longer dry grinding is not possible. To achieve a better fineness, a grinding in suspension will be required.

For an intensive cleaning, sand and water have been ground for 1 minutes.

Just for demonstration, we prepared a trial with smaller amounts of both samples with a planetary mill. An equal result will be achieved with a 250 ml grinding bowl as well (which should be suitable for a grinding of up to 100 g of sample as required).

With just 30 seconds of grinding, the soil sample became compressed stronger to the wall of the grinding bowl. Sticking sample can be removed with a scraper. A longer dry grinding is not possible. To achieve a better fineness, a grinding in suspension will be required.

For an intensive cleaning, sand and water have been ground for 1 minutes.