The demand for fine powders in the lower micrometer range is constantly increasing in various branches of industry. In particular, products with high production volumes are often manufactured using dry-operated mills. Due to the low energy utilization in these machines, increasing energy efficiency in the field of dry ultra-fine comminution is of high economic as well as ecological interest. In the context of this work, it was therefore systematically investigated how so-called grinding aids work particularly for fine particles in the lower micron range and how the energy efficiency in the field of dry fine grinding can be specifically increased by these additives. In addition, investigations were carried out on the dry-operated stirred media mill, which represents a promising and currently emerging, energy-efficient alternative to conventional mill types for dry fine grinding applications. Thereby, it was also considered how fine dry grinding with this more modern type of mill can be further optimized using grinding aids. In a first instance, a closer look is taken at the mechanisms of action of the grinding aids on the micro or particle level. By means of inverse gas chromatography it could be shown for the first time that the adsorption of the grinding aid molecules on the product particles causes a reduction of the surface energy. By further considering the influence of the grinding aids also on the particle collective, it is made clear that this is accompanied by a reduction in the adhesive forces between the particles, so that the flow and agglomeration properties of the product particles are also directly influenced by the grinding aids. Overall, the reduction of the agglomeration behavior of the particles can be confirmed as the primary mechanism of action of the grinding aids within the scope of this work. In addition, however, it is shown that the effectiveness of the grinding aids is primarily determined by the way the product particles behave inside the comminution plant as a consequence of the additive-induced changes of the powder behavior, and how they therefore react to the stress conditions between the grinding tools provided by the mill. This makes it clear for the first time that the process parameters of the mill and the grinding aids used must be matched to each other for achieving an energy-efficient fine grinding process. In the case of batch-wise operated media mills, this can primarily be attributed to the capturing of the particles between the grinding media, which was demonstrated by a combination of drop-weight tests and DEM simulations. Finally, the operating behavior of various dry-operated stirred media mills was investigated as a function of the mill parameters, the grinding aids but also the operation mode. These test series confirm the great potential of this mill type. By using continuously operated stirred mills, it was also shown that grinding aids not only determine the particle behavior between the grinding media, but also the transport processes along the mill and the discharge behavior of the product particles at the mill outlet. The findings are used to determine how the additive-induced particle and powder behavior can be matched to the stress and transport conditions provided by the grinding plant in order to achieve high efficiency increases in the context of the use of grinding aids in dry-operated stirred media mills.weiterlesen