Process for dispersing solids in liquid media

Claim 1

A process for the dispersion of particulate solids in liquid media comprising pumping a liquid premix containing an admixture of said solids and said liquid media through a plurality of orifices at a laminar flow velocity, there being sufficient pressure drop across said plurality of orifices to provide shear energy to cause said dispersion, the orifices being the network of tortuous paths formed from substantially nondeformable spherical particles arranged in a series of beds, each bed consisting of substantially spherical particles of a substantially uniform size in comprising at least one coarse bed of particles having a diameter of at least about 0.5 mm, at least one intermediate bed of particles having a diameter of about from 0.5 to 0.15 mm, and at least one fine bed of particles having a diameter of about from 0.15 to 0.05 mm, and wherein the flow rate of the liquid medium is adjusted to provide a shear rate, as measured assuming random packing of the spherical particles, of about from 1500 to 6300 sec -1 in each coarse bed, a shear rate of about from 3300 to 15,000 sec -1 in each intermediate bed, and a shear rate of about from 10,000 to 30,000 sec - in each fine bed.