Spex 35026 Mixer Card

The SPEX SamplePrep 8000 series Mixer/Mills are efficient, compact laboratory mills capable of pulverizing samples in the 10 gram range. Functionally described as shaker mills or high energy ball mills, these Mixer/Mills shake containers back and forth approximately 1080 cycles per minute (60 Hz model). These multipurpose mills are capable of reducing hard, brittle samples to analytical fineness, blending powders, making emulsions, and performing mechanical alloying.

The vial, which contains a sample and one or more balls, is shaken in a complex motion that combines back-and-forth swings with short lateral movements, each end of the vial describing a figure 8. The length of that swing is the same as the internal length of a standard 8000 series vial, about two inches. With each swing the balls impact against one end of the vial, simultaneously milling the sample to a powder and blending it. Because of the amplitude and velocity of the clamp’s swing, each ball develops fairly high G forces, enough to pulverize the toughest rocks, slags, and ceramics.