Patent ID: 8485456

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a submicron polymer powder comprising the following steps: providing an apparatus comprising a polymer grinding unit having a rotating abrasive tool; an aerodynamic disintegration zone formed between two bodies that have vortex generation members and rotate in mutually opposite directions; and a cooling system; providing a polymer charge selected from solid polymer blocks and a coarse polymer powder; subjecting the polymer charge to abrasive grinding in the polymer grinding unit to obtain fibrous particles and particle aggregates; forming a gas-particle mixture by mixing the fibrous particles and particle aggregates with a carrying gas and transferring the gas-particle mixture to the aerodynamic disintegration zone; placing the gas-particle mixture in the aerodynamic disintegration zone into a space formed between the two bodies that have vortex generation members and rotate in mutually opposite directions; disintegrating the fibrous particles and particle aggregates in the aerodynamic disintegration zone by causing collisions of fibrous particles and particle aggregates with said vortex generation members and simultaneously subjecting the fibrous particles to the effect of vortexes, centrifugal forces, and suction forces acting in a direction opposite to the centrifugal forces, as well as to a pulsating sign-alternating temperature field generated by said cooling system, and to pulsating aerodynamic forces generated by the vortex generation members and cause alternating compression and expansion of the carrying gas; separating submicron particles by mass from the gas-particle mixture by means of the submicron-particle separation unit; and removing the separate particles from the apparatus.