Steel Media

Glass balls and beads are a versatile grinding, milling, mixing, and dispersion media used across a wide range of laboratory and industrial applications. Available in Soda Lime Glass and Borosilicate Glass, these media provide a clean, cost-effective option for particle size reduction, sample preparation, blending, and surface finishing where metallic contamination must be avoided. Glass balls and beads are commonly used in paints, inks, pigments, coatings, chemicals, minerals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food-related processing, and precision component applications.

Soda Lime Glass beads are an economical choice for general-purpose grinding, dispersion, polishing, and filling applications. They offer good hardness, smooth surface finish, and reliable performance in many standard milling and processing environments. Borosilicate Glass beads provide improved chemical resistance, lower thermal expansion, and greater durability when working with more sensitive materials, higher temperatures, or chemically active formulations.

Available in a wide range of sizes, glass balls and beads can be selected to match the specific requirements of your mill, material, and desired final particle size. Their smooth, spherical shape helps promote efficient energy transfer, consistent grinding action, and reduced wear on equipment. Whether used for fine grinding, wet milling, dispersion, decorative applications, flow control, or specialty industrial processes, Glen Mills can help supply the right glass media for your application.

Zirconium oxide balls and beads are a high-performance grinding media designed for demanding milling, dispersion, mixing, and size-reduction applications. Known for their excellent wear resistance, high density, and strong impact strength, zirconium oxide media provides efficient particle size reduction while helping to minimize contamination during processing. This makes it an excellent choice for applications requiring clean, consistent, and repeatable grinding results.

These balls and beads are commonly used in fine grinding, wet milling, bead milling, dispersion, homogenization, and particle size reduction of powders, slurries, pigments, ceramics, minerals, chemicals, coatings, inks, and specialty materials. Their high hardness and smooth surface finish help reduce media wear, improve milling efficiency, and extend service life compared to many traditional grinding media options.

Glen Mills carries zirconium oxide grinding media in a wide range of sizes to support laboratory, pilot-scale, and production applications. In addition to standard zirconium oxide balls and beads, we also offer additional specialized types suitable for pharmaceutical and high-purity applications where material compatibility, cleanliness, and contamination control are critical. These options are ideal for customers working with sensitive formulations, active ingredients, medical materials, and other applications requiring a higher level of process control.

Whether your application requires aggressive particle size reduction, gentle dispersion, or high-purity milling, zirconium oxide balls and beads provide a durable and reliable media solution for consistent performance across a wide range of industries.