Frequently Asked Questions

Technical support requests can be submitted through the online contact form or by emailing the service team directly. Be prepared to include your instrument model, serial number, and a description of the issue for faster assistance.

Yes. FRITSCH Milling and Sizing (U.S.) offers technical consultation, product support, service, and application assistance, helping customers select the correct instrument configuration and optimize performance for their materials.

Yes, through the Contact Us form, you can request a product demonstration, application consultation, or sample evaluation, and a representative will follow up with scheduling details.

When submitting a service request, include your instrument model, serial number, operating system/software version (if applicable), and a clear description of the problem or question. This helps the support team respond accurately and efficiently. You may also include short vides and photographs.

Response times can vary depending on inquiry type (sales, technical support, or service), but contacting via the online form or direct email generally ensures that a representative will follow up within 1–2 business days. (Client expectations based on standard industry support practices; site contact form implies active follow-up). You may also call us to connect with members of our team.

Yes — the Contact Us page supports parts inquiries. When contacting, mention the instrument model, serial number, and required parts number or description so the parts team can assist quickly.

Warranty and repair service requests should be submitted through the service or support contact channels on the page. Be sure to include purchase information, serial number, and a description of the issue to facilitate timely service.

FRITSCH Planetary Mills are high-performance mills for fine grinding of hard, medium-hard, soft, brittle, tough and moist materials. They can also mix and homogenize emulsions, pastes or perform mechanical alloying and activation in materials research.

Grinding can be performed dry, in suspension (wet), or under inert gas depending on the sample and application.

Premium line models feature higher rotational speeds for ultra-fine grinding (down to nano range), automatic bowl clamping and advanced safety systems like SelfLOCK and bowl recognition via RFID chips.

Planetary Mills are ideal for chemistry, materials research, battery technology, geology, mineralogy, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, biology, ceramics, and other laboratory applications like mechanochemistry and mechanical alloying.

Yes, many models include two or more grinding stations or multi-tube adapters for simultaneous processing of multiple samples.

Premium line models include automatic safety checks that block operation under impermissible conditions, secure automatic bowl clamping, and imbalance shutdown functions, reach out to us and learn about additional features.

Optional accessories like Software MillControl enable automated control and monitoring (e.g., grinding parameters, gas pressure and temperature), enhancing reproducibility and analysis.

Ball Mills are laboratory mills designed for rapid batchwise comminution of medium-hard, soft, brittle, fibrous, temperature-sensitive, and moist samples to fine particle sizes. They are also used for mixing and homogenizing samples. Ask us about special applications in mechano-chemistry, mechanical alloying, co-crystal screening, and sample preparation to ensure reproducible, accurate results for ICP, XRF, XRD, MassSpec, HPLC, etc.

Yes. FRITSCH Ball Mills can perform both dry and wet grinding, allowing flexibility depending on sample characteristics and downstream analytical requirements. Wet grinding is particularly useful for minimizing dust formation and improving dispersion of fine particles.

FRITSCH Ball Mills are designed for rapid batchwise comminution of medium-hard, soft, brittle, fibrous, elastic, temperature-sensitive, and moist samples. Typical materials include biological tissues, plant materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, geological samples, and environmental samples. Their versatility makes them ideal for laboratories requiring reproducible fine grinding across varied material classes.

Depending on the model, material properties, and grinding parameters, FRITSCH Ball Mills can achieve fine grinding results suitable for analytical sample preparation. Models like the PULVERISETTE 0 are optimized for fine comminution of small sample quantities, while the PULVERISETTE 23 is designed for rapid fine grinding of very small quantities down to analytical fineness.

The PULVERISETTE 0 Vibratory Micro Mill uses vibrational motion for fine size reduction of small sample amounts and is particularly suitable for cryogenic grinding and biological samples. The base unit of the P0 can also expand your capabilities by offering the functionality of a sieve shaker.

The PULVERISETTE 23 Mini-Mill is a compact, high-speed ball mill designed for rapid fine grinding of very small sample quantities, offering efficient processing for laboratory and research environments.It is the perfect size for use in a glove box or remote/field applications.

Yes. Selected models such as the PULVERISETTE 0 and PULVERISETTE 23 are suitable for cryogenic grinding with liquid nitrogen, making them ideal for temperature-sensitive, elastic, or fatty samples. Cryogenic conditions prevent thermal degradation and improve grinding efficiency for difficult materials.

FRITSCH offers various grinding bowls, mortars, and grinding balls in different materials to prevent contamination and match sample requirements. Selecting the correct grinding set material is essential to maintain sample purity and analytical integrity.

A FRITSCH Knife Mill uses high-speed rotating blades to cut, crush, and shred sample material. Unlike impact-based ball or planetary mills, the Knife Mill excels at reducing fibrous, elastic, rubbery, or soft samples into a homogeneous particle size with minimal heat build-up. The flexibility of this instrument is beneficial to labs with wide varieties of sample matrices. You have the capability of a range of sample vessels sizes from <40ml to 1.6l, in stainless steel and polymer formats- reusable and disposable.

Knife Mills are ideal for materials that are difficult to grind with conventional impact mills, including plant material, leaves, roots, wood, plastics, textiles, rubber, paper, bones, fiber composites, food, biological samples and more. Their cutting action efficiently handles fibrous and elastic structures, the choice of different blade geometries enables you to configure the most ideal mechanical and physical interaction for material reduction.

While exact particle size depends on sample properties, the Knife Mill reliably produces coarse to medium size reduction appropriate for pre-grinding before finer milling, for homogenization, and for analytical preparation where particle uniformity matters for reproducibility, representative samples, and accuracy.

Yes, Knife Mills can process dry, brittle, moist, and soft samples. For wet or sticky materials, accessories such as liners and screens help optimize grinding results while minimizing sample adherence to mill surfaces. Difficult to mill samples may benefit from the addition of liquid nitrogen LN2 and/or dry ice.

Because the principle is cutting rather than impact crushing, Knife Mills generate less heat compared to high-energy mills. This minimizes thermal degradation or loss of volatile components, making them suitable for temperature-sensitive samples. The Pulverisette 11 Knife Mill offers effective buffering between the motor and cutting vessel. This engeineering mitigates heat and protects samples from physical and thermal damage versus consumer kitchen appliances such as blenders, food processors, and coffee grinders.

Yes, FRITSCH Knife Mills include safety features and interlocks to prevent accidental operation while the lid is open. Clear viewing ports and secure locking systems ensure safe handling of sharp blades and moving parts. Quick connects between the blades and the bowls allow for complete disassembly while providing safety.

A FRITSCH Mortar Grinder (e.g., the PULVERISETTE 2) is a benchtop laboratory mill that uses reciprocal grinding movement between a stationary pestle and a moving mortar to finely grind a wide range of materials. Its design enables reproducible fine and ultra-fine grinding with uniform particle size and minimum contamination. The automated process protects lab professionals from repetitive use or acute injuries. With enclosed grinding process it helps to avoid exposure to dust, potent, hazardous or toxic substances. Further, this protects the sample from loss or contamination that can occur in manual processes and the lab environment from spills or particulate.

Mortar Grinders are ideal for many sample types, including minerals, soils, ores, rocks, ceramics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plant material, and environmental samples. They are especially suited to materials that are moderately hard yet brittle enough to fracture under impact and shear.

Yes. FRITSCH Mortar Grinders can process both dry and wet grinding applications. Wet grinding helps minimize dust, reduce electrostatic effects, and improve dispersion for samples that require a liquid medium for preparation. Crygenic grinding is also possible when using the stainless steel grinding set.

Depending on the material characteristics and grinding time, a Mortar Grinder can produce fine to very fine powders suitable for analytical testing or subsequent processing. Uniform energy distribution ensures consistent results across samples.

Mortar Grinders provide:

• High reproducibility and uniform fineness
• Gentle grinding with minimized heat build-up
• Greater control for samples sensitive to temperature or contamination
• They are ideal when fine particle distribution and analytical reproducibility are critical.

FRITSCH offers mortars and pestles made from different high-purity materials (e.g., agate, porcelain, zirconia, stainless steel) selected to minimize contamination based on sample type and analysis needs. Choosing the right material is essential for analytical accuracy.

Yes, with appropriate grinding tools (e.g., mortars and pestles made of wear-resistant materials), Mortar Grinders can grind moderately hard and abrasive samples. However, extremely hard or elastic materials may be better suited for planetary or ball milling, ask us for an application review to discuss the most ideal process for your particle reduction or sample preparation.

A FRITSCH Cutting Mill (e.g., PULVERISETTE 13 / 19 / 25 / 29) uses high-speed rotary knives in combination with fixed counter-knives to efficiently shred and pre-grind bulky, fibrous, and tough sample materials. Unlike impact-based mills, cutting mills use precision shearing forces to reduce particle size while preserving sample integrity and minimizing heat buildup.

Cutting Mills handle materials that are difficult to grind otherwise, including plastics, polymers, textiles, rubber, wood, bones, food, plant material, biomass, composites, paper, insulation, secondary fuels, electronics, RoHs samples, and mechanically tough materials. They are especially useful when dealing with large or irregularly shaped starting materials.

Final particle size is primarily determined by the screen or sieve mesh size installed in the mill. Smaller mesh sizes produce finer cut samples, while larger meshes are used for coarse pre-grinding. FRITSCH offers a range of screen sizes and geometries depending on material and final size requirements. Particle size is additionally controlled with a combination of parameter changes such as speed, knife gap, rotor geometry, and collection method.

Yes, FRITSCH Cutting Mills can process both dry and moist materials (percent moisture and sample dependent). For wet or sticky samples, recommended operating procedures and appropriate accessories help optimize throughput and reduce material build-up on knives or screen. Proper embrittlement with liquid nitrogen (LN2) or dry ice can be useful.

Reproducibility is achieved by controlling the cutting parameters: knife speed, feed rate, gap settings, and screen selection. The engineered capabilities ensures effecient milling from material to material and batch to batch. The result is uniform particle size and consistent sample preparation across multiple runs, independent of the individual user mechanics or visual judgement.

FRITSCH Cutting Mills are equipped with secure electronic interlocks, overload protection, and stable housings to prevent accidental operation and safeguard the operator. Clear operating controls ensure safe, reliable processing even with tough materials.

A Rotor Beater Mill, PULVERISETTE 14, utilizes a high-speed rotor with beaters combined with a stationary counter-beater and screen. This design delivers a controlled impact, cutting, and shearing action to efficiently reduce particle size in fibrous or bulky materials. Compared to traditional impact mills, Rotor Beater Mills excel with tough, coherent samples where uniform size reduction is required.

In a Rotor Beater Mill, the rotor beaters accelerate the sample against the rotor teeth and sized sieve screen. The combination of impact and shearing forces breaks down particles to pass through the screen. The screen’s mesh size determines the final particle size distribution, allowing repeatable and controlled processing.

The final particle size from a Rotor Beater Mill depends on the screen mesh size, number of rotor teeth, rotor speed, and sample properties. By selecting appropriate screens and mill settings, users can achieve consistent, uniform, accurate and reproducible results suited for analysis or further processing. Using configurations and settings, create SOPs for regulatory environments.

It is possible, but matreial dependent, and can require proper preparation, screens or accessories optimized for preventing clogging or sticking. With correct configuration, Rotor Beater Mills can process a range of sample conditions for particle reduction or analytical sample preparation.

Rotor Beater Mills are widely used in:

• Additives, pigments, 3D printing feedstock
• Agriculture and plant research
• Environmental and soil laboratories
• Food and feed analysis
• Textile and material testing suites
• Recycling and waste characterization

Their ability to homogenize fibrous and bulk material makes them valuable across many industries.

Rotor Beater Mills offer adjustable rotor speeds and feeding rates, allowing users to optimize milling parameters for different materials. This control enhances reproducibility and ensures efficient processing for various sample types. Consider use of cyclone separator for temperature senstive samples, low density materials, or environmental dust mitigation.

FRITSCH Rotor Beater Mills include safety features like interlock covers and overload protection, preventing operation when access points are open. These measures safeguard operators and ensure compliance with lab safety standards.

This category includes both Jaw Crushers (e.g., PULVERISETTE 1) and Disk Mills (e.g., PULVERISETTE 13, designed for primary crushing, coarse grinding, and fine comminution across a range of laboratory materials. Each machine serves specific stages of sample preparation from coarse breaking to fine grinding. A disk mill can be used in line with a jaw crusher for coarse to fine grinding in a single step.

A FRITSCH Jaw Crusher uses a fixed and movable crushing jaw to exert compressive forces on samples, reducing large or bulky materials into smaller particles. It is ideal for rocks, ores, minerals, concrete, ceramics, brick, glass, and similar hard or brittle samples.

Disk Mills use two counter-rotating discs to grind samples between a stationary and adjustable grinding disc. This principle allows them to process medium-hard to hard materials to finer particle sizes than jaw crushing, making them ideal for final milling after initial jaw crusher reduction.

Disk Mills are effective for materials such as minerals, soil, ores, catalysts, chemicals, ceramics, and similar substances that require precise and uniform fine grinding.

Jaw Crushers are commonly used for primary sample preparation in geology, mineralogy, environmental labs, metallurgy, and materials testing. By reducing large or irregular samples to manageable particle sizes, they ensure consistent downstream processing and improved accuracy attained by representative sampling.

While primarily designed for dry, brittle materials, FRITSCH Disk Mills can process some moderately moist samples with appropriate operating techniques. However, very wet samples may require pre-drying to avoid clogging and inconsistent grinding.

Choose a Jaw Crusher when you need to reduce large, coarse, or bulky samples to a smaller, manageable size as a first step. Use a Disk Mill when you require precise and uniform fine grinding of materials that have already been reduced in size or that initially enter at smaller sizes. Technical factors like sample hardness, desired particle size, and throughput inform the best equipment choice. It is an added advantage to integrate a jaw crusher and disk mill in line with one another for single process flow for pre-crushing and finer grinding.

Particle characterization involves measuring the size and shape of particles in powders, suspensions, or emulsions. These properties critically influence material behavior in manufacturing, quality control, process optimization, and research applications such as pharmaceuticals, food, polymers, minerals, ceramics, environmental analysis, battery, automotive, aerospace, electronics, material science and technology, and more.

FRITSCH provides two core technologies:

• Static Light Scattering (Laser Diffraction) for precise particle size distribution from nanometers to millimeters.
• Dynamic Image Analysis (DIA) for combined particle size and shape analysis using high-speed imaging and advanced software.

Laser diffraction (Static Light Scattering) passes a laser beam through the sample and measures scattered light angles to mathematically calculate particle size distribution. Smaller particles scatter light at wider angles, while larger particles scatter at narrower angles. This method is fast, nondestructive, and suitable for wet and dry samples, including a range of solvents.

The ANALYSETTE 22 NeXT series covers a broad range, with models such as:

• NeXT Micro: approx. 0.5 – 1500 µm
• NeXT Nano: approx. 0.01 µm up to 3800 µm

This allows users to select a system tailored to their specific size range requirements.

Dynamic Image Analysis uses optical imaging and high-speed camera capture to measure particles as they move through the system. Software algorithms then compute both size and shape parameters such as aspect ratio, convexity, and sphericity, delivering deeper insight than size measurement alone.

The ANALYSETTE 28 ImageSizer delivers a wide measuring range:

• Dry measurement: ~20 µm – 20 mm
• Wet measurement: ~5 µm – 3 mm

It reports both particle size distribution and multiple shape metrics in a single analysis run.

Yes. FRITSCH offers free sample submission and application review: users can send samples to the lab, where FRITSCH specialists conduct testing and recommend the most suitable particle sizing instrument or configuration based on their material’s behavior.

FRITSCH instruments are designed to meet international standards such as ISO 13320 for laser diffraction. Features like automated alignment, modular dispersion units, and powerful analysis software help ensure repeatable and reproducible results in production, QC/QA, R&D, engineering, and research environments.

FRITSCH offers a full range of manual and mechanical sieve shakers designed for dry sieving, wet sieving (if applicable), and particle classification. Instruments are built for high reproducibility, reliability, and ease of use in laboratory or quality control environments. Auto-Sieve software and the Analysette 3 pro can combine for expanded programmability, SOPs and methods development.

FRITSCH produces several sieve shaker models with varying motion styles (e.g., horizontal, circular, and vertical motion), sample capacities, and automation levels to suit different particle size ranges and materials. You have access to bench top models in standard and pro configuration, plus a floor model for larger volume sieving.

FRITSCH sieving systems are compatible with a wide range of standardized sieve mesh sizes, allowing users to classify particles from coarse to fine fractions depending on the application or regulatory standards.

Automatic sieve shakers deliver:

• Consistent motion and energy
• Improved reproducibility
• Reduced operator variation
• Better efficiency and throughput

Compared to manual methods, they provide more reliable data and save valuable lab time.

FRITSCH sieve shakers are designed to meet international sieving standards (such as ASTM and ISO), ensuring compliance with industry-accepted testing protocols for particle size distribution and grading. Sieves and accessories are available in 8″ or 100mm, 200mm and 18″ sizes.

Yes, certain FRITSCH models are capable of accommodating larger sample sizes and multiple sieve stacks simultaneously, making them suitable for both small lab tests and higher-throughput quality control environments. Process from 20g up to 15kg, based on model and configuration. Analysette 3 can stack 10 x(50 mm height) Analysette 18 can stack 12 x(65 mm height) sieves.