What applications benefit from a lump breaker?

Lump breakers reduce agglomerated or clumped bulk solids to free-flowing material, ideal before feeding, drying, or conveying.

How do lump breakers protect downstream equipment?

By preconditioning material to a consistent size, lump breakers reduce surges, blockages, and wear on conveyors, feeders, and screens.

Can lump breakers handle abrasive or moist materials?

Yes, with the correct rotor and liner configurations, they effectively handle abrasive and slightly cohesive materials.

How do I choose the right lump breaker configuration?

Carrier engineers consider material size, hardness, and moisture content to recommend rotor geometry and operating speed.

What maintenance is expected with lump breakers?

Maintenance primarily involves inspecting and replacing rotor tips and wear liners—periodic and predictable, not reactive.

Attrition Mills / Lump Breakers

Reclaim more usable sand while reducing waste disposal and new sand costs through aggressive attrition scrubbing and efficient lump reduction.

Achieve cleaner, more consistent reclaimed sand

Reduce energy use with efficient attrition action

Process more sand within the same footprint

Lower maintenance demands with a robust, wear-resistant design

Attrition Mills / Lump Breakers

Combined attrition and screening of no-bake sand and core butts. Carrier attrition mills, also known as lump breakers, combine the technologies of attrition and screening of no-bake sand or core sand / core butts into a single unit. The attrition mill reduces sand lumps to grain size and removes tramp metal. Carrier’s heavy-duty attrition mills are designed for reliable use and low maintenance requirements and utilize a unique pneumatic gate that discharges metallic without shutting down.

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Features & Benefits

Removes tramp metal from the sand system.

Scrubbing process design reduces the LOI of chemically bonded sand.

Heavy duty, natural frequency attrition mill design reduces noise and energy consumption.

Continuous operation inline discharge means no stopping to discharge debris – prevents tramp metal overload without stopping the unit.

Isolated-base design reduces dynamic reactions transmitted to supports or foundation.

Simple, single direct drive provides reliable foundry operation.

Compact design makes it easy to fit into existing operations to return sand to the process system.

Easy installation for quick startup and a low maintenance design for minimum downtime.

Equipment Options & Accessories

Combined Attrition + Screening Unit

The attrition mill is equipped to both break lumps and screen sand

Automatic Metal Discharge Gate

To remove tramp metal (cores, gating, shot, foreign metal) from the sand system without shutting down the mill.

Replaceable Wear Liners

Because sand is very abrasive, wear liners protect the mill internals and are replaceable to simplify maintenance.

Natural-Frequency, Vibration-Based Design

The mill uses vibration-based attrition rather than heavy impact, which reduces noise, energy consumption, and mechanical stress on the system.

Isolated-Base Design

To minimize dynamic reactions transmitted to supports or building foundation

Direct-Drive Option

For reliable, low-maintenance power transmission under heavy loads / abrasive conditions.

Gentle or Aggressive Designs

Available in low or high vibration designs to process the widest range of materials.

Custom Controls

Minimize field commissioning work with simple starter panels or customized PLC-based controllers complete with remote startup and engineering services.

Applications

No-bake Sand

Carrier lump breakers and attrition mills reduce agglomerated no-bake foundry sand to a more uniform, free-flowing material for reclamation and downstream processing. Controlled impact and attrition break chemically bonded sand lumps while helping separate sand grains from residual binder and fines without excessive degradation of the sand.

Tramp Metal

Process foundry sand containing incidental tramp metal by breaking apart consolidated material and exposing embedded metal for downstream magnetic separation. Robust construction and heavy-duty components are designed to withstand the demanding conditions associated with reclaimed foundry materials.

PepSet Sands

Break down chemically bonded PepSet sand agglomerates following shakeout, improving liberation of individual sand grains for reclamation. Controlled mechanical action promotes effective deagglomeration while limiting unnecessary fracture of the underlying sand particles.

Reclaimed Foundry Sand

Deagglomerate reclaimed foundry sand and reduce compacted masses to a consistent feed for subsequent screening, classification, and thermal or mechanical reclamation. Attrition action promotes binder removal and grain liberation while maintaining the physical characteristics of the reusable sand. Carrier’s attrition mill lowers LOI (Loss on Ignition) through its scrubbing action.

Core Sand & Core Butts

Break down large core sand and core butt agglomerates into manageable particles for reclamation and reuse. High-intensity mechanical action promotes separation of sand grains from cured binder and core material, preparing the sand for downstream processing while minimizing excessive fines generation.

Brochures

Foundry Equipment Solutions Brochure

Carrier Capabilities Brochure

CPEG Capabilities Brochure

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Attrition Mill – Lump Breaker FAQs

How does an attrition mill work?

Vibratory motors shake a box into which no-bake sand lumps have been placed. The box has built-in, heavy duty screens to reduce the lumps to grain size, and also includes a final mesh screen to filter out any agglomerated grains that were not broken down.

What is an attrition mill used for in a foundry?

An attrition mill is used to break down sand lumps, remove tramp metal and agglomerates, and prepare the no-bake sand to be re-used or thermally reclaimed.

How does the mill help reduce disposal costs?

By reusing the sand rather than sending it to landfill, the disposal costs as well as new sand purchase costs are greatly reduced.

Is the unit designed for continuous or batch process?

An attrition mill can be used for either batch or continuous processes provided it is sized appropriately for the desired tons per hour rate. Attrition mills operate more efficiently at higher fill levels due to the abrading of sand through lump-on-lump attrition motion.

What maintenance is required?

Routine inspection of vibratory motors, wear plates, screens, and springs and replacement when necessary.