AbstractStarting from the Enskog equation we derive an analytical equation for the relaxation time necessary for the equilibration between translational energies of the components in a dense binary mixture of hard spheres. Also we give an expression for the collision number describing the average number of collisions of one particle during the relaxation time. The analytical expressions are verified by molecular dynamics simulations for various values of the packing fraction. The results are shown to be valid even for very dense systems, i.e. for liquids in the ranges of density corresponding to the freezing point.