=] (MILL EFFICIENCY ” Cement grinding considered by John Kline & Charles Kline, While grinding technology has advanced considerably over recent years, Kline Consulting LLC, USA the right choice of mill and improved operation of mills are still key to grinding efficiency. While energy efficiency has become the driving force in grinding technology, Kline Consulting considers some of the other important factors when specifying grinding equipment. dy here are mary chokesin : “Teter he Prevent conpesson ene 08 toa meas for coment arcing wasn bal rs bal ll Teuenaly ong dum Med wa Geran lvl wth ging med For cavers, the ging med des vas carat of came sel bf varus, — In early designs, the ball mils had a single chamber witha single pass of material through the mil. The design os pes eta ter i ‘evolved with external clasifirs to separate fine product from coarse materia This coarse material was then returned to _parcles are exposed to diferent introduced tothe cement industry ona the bal milo further grinding. Most ball siding actions, suchas experienced when large scale was the ol ress mils today use two chamber for grinding. bal eacade over each other in ball The rol press consis of bo large nd have slengthto-dameter ratio of” mils. Atttion grinding is less effective ameter oles mounted ona horizontal “ibn 248 Refinements in ball mil design asthe rer parties ae removed from frame. One ole i statonary and the included beter liner and ciapag the surface ofthe lager ones without other llr an move in & horzontal designs. Bal mil ar sweep was aso impacting the parce core. This ype ot direction. The movable aller is pushed Improved to remove mare nes. Today i’ grinding is most prevalent inthe second into the horizontal ler while they both sweep of ims orhigheris recommended; chamber ofa ball mil ‘late ina syncivonsed manner Exch “These advances along wit he ‘Al cement rndng systems rely roller isindvdualy powered, The grinding improved, higher-efiieney design of then both compression and ation pressure is apple trough hydra jacks tvtrnal separators have taken ball mils to grinding. In two-compartment ball mis, that push the movable lle towards the thoircurent level of performance. Stl tthe compression grinding is usualy fired lle. Stop blocks prevent the two is eimated that only some 5-10 percent accomplished in the frst compartment lls from coming into contact. ‘ofthe enegys actually consumed by the= where large al (@80-10Orwm) are ‘The ng roller mile into the She reducbon ofthe material That means dropped ono the cinker parties. In other indus soon after the rll press. This that some 290 percent ofthe enery is miltypes, the compression is applied by mill consists of a smal, ot rll that being lost ashest note and vibration. squeezing the particles between the olrs apples presure tothe bed of mateal and or between the roles and the table. This llr operates inside a large rng or Compression versus ‘tition grinding is most prevalent in shell thats rotated at superrital speeds, attrition grinding the second compartment of all mil The materials fd into the gap between Compression grinding outs when wera lage quantity of smaller bal’ the ring and rele and passes through the pares ar squeezed between wo hard ae tumbled wth the clinker nother zane of maximum compression Ground Surfaces, tis more efficent for har mil types ation grinding i achieved materia travels wth the ing around érystaline materials suchas coment cinker. through the iferental speed ofthe {nd over the top of ther, where i ‘The compresive forces not ony break’ material and the grinding element isremoved by scrapers and returned to apart the larger clinker partices, they also-~ the gap between the ring and the roller. create micro-racksin the inkerstucture’ Different grinding equipment — Materalis expected to make several “The micro-cracks make additonal grinding Equipment suppliers have been moving _passes between the ring and roller before steps more effective. way from ball mils due to their high making its way out of the mil. ‘Attrition grinding eccuts when smaller energy consumption, which in turn is The vertical roller mill (VRM) is parties are broken off the lager particle due to their low efficiency. The first high-_newer technology. VRMs have become ‘through shear fores that occur when pressure compression grinding equipment the defacto standard for raw materialTable 1: comparison of different cement grinding technologies all mul Primary grinding type Compression + attrition Separator Separate Product to separator Mechanical No of ral NA Nip angle NA ‘Additional equipment Additive drying Mill heat ‘Bal mill + coll press Roll press ‘Compresssion ‘Compression + ation Separate Separate ‘Mechanical ‘Mechanical 2 2 . e Veseparator V-separator Mil heat External MILL EFFICIENCY ay Vertical mill Ring roller mill. Compression Compression Integral Separate Preumatic Mechanical 4 2 2 1s In ll ith extemal external heat srinding over the past 50 years. However, tater designs were not considered robust enough for cement grinding with high parts consumption due to wear. Improvements in metallurgy and machine design have led to acceptable performance and now VRMSs are well on their way to becoming the new standard for cement grinding, One advantage that \VRIMs have is thatthe separators internal tothe mil What's in an angle? The nip angle is an important concept in compression grinding, Ths angle is considered to be the point at which the compression equipment will engage the ‘material and draw it into the compression zone. Its also the maximum size of feed ‘material as any material that s larger than the nip angle could rotate ahead ofthe roller causing increased component wear before being pulled into the compression zone. The precise nip angle depends on the exact machine configuration ‘could be sai that a larger nip angle is better ast would allow for a larger feed size. However, the nip angle also represents the area over which the high pressure is spread, Hence, a larger nip angle also requires a higher overall pressure to achieve the peak pressure desired for material breakage. The final consideration related to nip angles s the component wear. As material is released from the high pressure zone, it ‘ean accelerate as it is essentially squeezed ut. Ths acceleration or slippage of material past metal, causes wear which can be higher with smaller nip angles. Therefore, selection of the best compression grinding technology is a matter of several factors, all af which could involve the nip angle: © maximum feed sie «= maximum pressure requied for breakage * component wear life Interestingly, the fist two factors are ‘not related to the grinding technology employed. Grinding component wear Crinding component wear isthe second largest expense in mi operation, after power consumption. in general compresion grinding has much less wear than attrition grinding. However, grinding component wearin compression grinding equipment can sil be considerable ‘Wear increases when the material sides cover the grinding surface. This is where —_ the nip angle is important as it predicts the material expansion zone after the ‘maximum pressure is met. ‘Wear also occurs when the bed is too thin or the rallers become skewed, Some wear occurs due to equipment design, such as the differential speeds between the roller and the table in VRMs. This differential speed creates shear which arinds the material but atthe expense of some surface wear. Since most of the wear ‘occurs due to material siding over the ‘wear surface it can be seen that material Bp in the compression zone is important This is why uneven surfaces are preferred to.smooth surfaces. Wear should be tracked over time to determine not only wear rates but aso locations. Areas of extreme high wear may be designed out through analysis and improvements inthe composition of the wear parts. ‘Compression grinding relies on the application of high pressure to a thin bed of material that passes through a narrow gap between hard metal surfaces. Needless to say, tramp metal can cause «catastrophic failure in these compression _arinding machines. The higher the peak pressure, the larger the issue when tramp metal enters into the equipment. The best location for metal detection is as cose as possible to the equipment feed point. This includes all recirculated materials Issues with cement grinding Feeding systems One ofthe common issues wth grinding in compression equipments the stability of the material bed. The grinding pressure works when the materials caught and compressed between the moving surfaces. Excess fine material ean fush around and through the grinding elements, causing instality. This is parteularly marked in the ral press design where fine material can‘MILL EFFICIENCY pass through the roller by eravity Fines flushing is often symptomatic of feed systems that are not designed for mass flow: ‘Many cement mils are fed {rom small feed bins close to the mil. These feed bins or ather bins and silos in the feed system can size- segregate the material, That is, when the bin is fing the larger particles will tend to line the outside of the bin, ‘When a bin empties under funnel flow, the fines that accumulate in the centre of ‘the bin wll empty first and the coarse material wil follow asthe bin empties. Uneven material bed thickness can ‘cause skew in roll presses and ring roller mils. This can create problems in the control and stability ofthe equipment. Itcan also lead to uneven wear across the roler surfaces. Its recommended to gravity-fed roller presses from mass flow feed bins designed specifically for that function, The feed bin is normally ‘mounted on load cells and the material level inthe bin closely controle. Ring roller mils are fed from the side ofthe mil. Thus, the even spreading of ‘material between the roller and the ring, is controlled inside the machine. Here again, uneven distribution can result in roller skew, uneven wear patterns, and ‘excessive equipment vibration, leading to breakdowns. Drives “The trend for larger mill sizes has affected the design ofthe mil drive system. Smaller mills (<3000kW) of al types can use a single drive system, These drive systems can be robustly designed and operated for long periods under normal operating, conditions. However, as mil sizes have increased over time, drive systems have had to adapt as wel Ball lls went from single-pinion drives wit large girth gears to dual-pinion drives with completely separate drive trans. These dive trains hhave also been combined in a single box with two outbound pinions driven by a single input shaft. Another innovation is the wrap-around, gearless dive for large bal mils \VRMs have increased in size as well ‘This has led to the need for new deve designs as single gear boxes (5000KW) ‘were fang, often exacerbated by uneven mill loads and high levels of vibration. Several supplier are now providing multiple drives for their large VRMs. Roller press drives are not as large as those installed on the large ball and vertical mils due tothe nature ofthe roll press design. However, the needs of the movable roll andthe issues of vibration have also made this dive system challenging, New, more robust designs of ‘gear boxes and flexible connections have improved the performance ofthese drives as well ‘Multiple drive mils of ll types need to have good synchronisation control to censure that the diferent drves are not fighting each other. Vibration analysis eral tool for monitoring the health ofthe drive train, Frequent gear box lubrication checks for metal pieces and contamination are recommended to ensure adequate life ofthis essential equipment. Heat requirements “The bal mil i ineficient from an energy stand point, However, itis a very forgiving piece of equipment in many areas when ‘compared to compression grinding technologies. Balls mils tolerate changes in feed sizes wel, are not prone to excessive vibration, can endure tramp metal and ‘generate a lot of heat that can be used for additive dying ‘More and more additives are being combined with the clinker in cement ‘rinding operations, The days where _ground cement consisted of approximately 95 per cent of clinker and five per cent ‘of gypsum are mosty over. Today cement additives can include fly ash, slag, limestone and pozzolans, among others. The use of synthetic gypsum (residue from sulphur scrubbers) has also become popular in many countries. These additives ae usually brought in from other locations and are stored at ambient conditions on ste. ‘This means that many cement grinding operations hhave gone from a "too much heat’ to a ‘not enough heat’ condition. ‘This is most noticeable when the gypsum does not dehydrate sufficiently. n bal mill systems the heat of grinding was often too high and water sprays were needed to contro the cement temperature and limit the amount of gypsum dehydration. In today’s mil, auxiliary heat generation is often required to dry the cement additives land achieve an adequate amount of ‘gypsum dehydration. “This adds complexity to the cement ‘rinding operation as auxiliary heaters reed to be included in the system design Roll presses and ring roller mils do not ‘accommodate the drying inside the ‘equipment and rely on external drying, whereas VRMs can accomplish the drying Inside the device Considering all the factors Energy efficiency has become the driving force in cement grinding technology. However, cement producers need to consider the "bigger picture’ when specifying cement grinding equipment. “The total cost of ownership depends also on the plant configuration, wear ‘component lf, heat requirements and maintenance costs, among others. Once the cement grinding equipment is installed It requires continuous monitoring to ‘optimise the operation and maintain the lowest cost of ground cement. References hitp://pdf directindustry.com/pat ives- ‘cement-minerals/new-grinding- process hhoromill/62064-101559.htm!