Solid and Fluid Solid

Operations
Size reduction
Size reduction
2
Examples:
Crude ore crushed to small & workable size
Synthetic chemicals are grounded into powder
Plastic sheets are cut into tiny cubes
Commercial requirements to meet specific size and
shape
Reduced particle size increases the reactivity of
solids
Reduction can enhance the separation of unwanted
ingredients by mechanical means
Methods of size reduction
3
1. Compression (nutcrackers)
For coarse reduction of hard solids to give fines
2. Impact (hammer)
Gives fine, medium or coarse products
3. Attrition or rubbing (file)
Yields very fine particles from soft, nonabrasive materials
Size reduction can occur from attrition of one particle by one or more
other particles
4. Cutting (pair of shears)
Definite size and shape of particles with very few fines
Force Principle Example
Compressive Nutcracker Crushing rolls
Impact Hammer Hammer mill
Attrition File Disc attrition mill
Cut Scissors Rotary knife cutter
Characteristics of comminuted products
4
Crushing or grinding is to produce small particles
because of their large surface or their shape, size and
number
In mechanical separations, the energy required to
create new surface is a measure of efficiency
Irrespective of uniformity of feed, most actual crushers
or grinders does not yield uniform product the
product particle size distribution is very wide
Some grinders can control the magnitude of largest
particles in their product but not the fines
Some grinders may minimize fines, but can not
eliminate them
5
If the feed is uniform (both physical and chemical structure), then
shapes of individual units in the product may be quite uniform
Ratio between diameters of largest and smallest particles in a
comminuted product is of the order of 10
4
relationships adequate for uniform sizes must be modified when
applied to such mixtures
Because of extreme variation in sizes of the individual particles,
After crushing, unless the particles are smoothed by abrasion,
comminuted particles resemble to polyhedrons with nearly plane
faces and sharp edges and corners
These particles may be compact, with length, breadth and
thickness nearly equal; or they may be plate-like or needle-like
Energy and power requirements in
comminution
6
Major expense in crushing and grinding is the power cost
Factors that control power cost are very important
During size reduction, the particles of feed material are first distorted
and strained
Work necessary to strain the particles is stored temporarily in the solids
as mechanical energy of stress (as in coiled spring)
Then additional force is applied to the stressed particles so that they
distorted beyond their ultimate strength and suddenly ruptured into
fragments and new surfaces are generated
Since a unit area of solid has a definite amount of surface energy,
the creation of new surfaces requires work
This work is supplied by release of energy of stress when the
particles break
By conservation of energy, all energy of stress in excess of the new
surface energy created must appear as heat
Efficiency
7
Size reduction is one of the least energy-efficient of
all the unit operations
Studies reveal that < 1% of energy applied to the
solids is used to create new surface
Rest is dissipated as heat
In operating size reduction machines, energy must
also be supplied to overcome friction in the bearings
and moving parts
Mechanical efficiency is the ratio of the energy
delivered to the solids to the total energy input to the
machine
This efficiency ranges from 25-60%
Crushing laws and work index
8
Various laws and theories are proposed for predicting
power requirements for size reduction of solids do not
apply well in practice
Approximate calculations give actual efficiencies of
about 0.1-2%
Assumption: the energy required to produce a change
dD
p
in a particle of size D
p
is a power function of D
p
:
D
p
: particle size, mm
P: Power required, kW
m: mass flow rate, tons per hour
1
n
p p
dP
dD D

9
Rittingers law: n = 2
This law implies that the same energy required to produce
a material from 100 mm to 50mm as is needed to reduce
the same material from 50 mm to 33.3 mm
Kicks law: n = 1
This law implies that the same energy required to produce
a material from 100 mm to 50 mm as is required to
reduce the same material from 50 mm to 25mm
1 1
R
pb pa
p
K
m D D
| |
=
|
|
\ .
ln
pa
K
pb
D
p
K
m D
| |
=
|
|
\ .
Bonds law
10
More realistic way of estimating power required
for crushing and grinding of material
This law postulates that the work required to form
particles of size D
p
from a very large feed the
square root of the surface-to-volume ratio of
product (S
p
/V
p
)
K
B
is a constant depends on the type of the machine
and on the material crushed
6
p
p s p
B
p
S
p p
m V m D
K p
m
D

u
=
11
Work index is defined as the gross energy
requirement in kilowatthour per ton of feed needed to
reduce a very large feed to such a size that 80% of
the product passes a 100m screens
D
p
in mm
P in kW
m in tons per hour
3
100 10 0.3162
B i
p
K W
m

| |
= =
|
\ .
12
If 80% of feed passes a mesh size of D
pa
(mm) and
80% of product passes a mesh of D
pb
(mm)
W
i
includes the friction in the crusher and the power
achieved by above equation is the gross power
W
i
is available for many standard solid materials (both
wet grinding and dry crushing) such as bauxite, coal,
coke, cement clinker, clay, granite, limestone, etc.
1 1
0.3162
i
pb pa
p
W
m
D D
| |
|
=
|
\ .
Work indices for dry crushing and
grinding
13
S. No Material Specific gravity Work index, W
i
1 Bauxite 2.20 8.78
2 Cement clinker 3.15 13.45
3 Cement raw material 2.67 10.51
4 Clay 2.51 6.30
5 Coal 1.4 13.00
6 Coke 1.31 15.13
7 Granite 2.66 15.13
8 Gypsum rock 2.69 6.73
9 Hematite (iron ore) 3.53 12.84
10 Limestone 2.66 12.74
11 Phosphate rock 2.74 9.92
12 Quartz 2.65 13.57
For dry grinding, multiply by 4/3.
14
Ex. Calculate power required to crush 100 ton/h of
limestone if 80% of feed passes a 2 screen and
80% of the product passes a (1/8) screen
( )
i
100 ton/h
2" 2 25.4 50.8
1
" 3.175
8
1 1
0.3162 ; W for limestone is 12.74
169.6
pa
pb
i
pb pa
m
D mm
D mm
p mW
D D
p kW
=
= = =
= =
| |
|
=
|
\ .
=
Equipment for size reduction
15
Divided into four types: crushers, grinders, ultrafine
grinders, cutting machines
Crushers employ compression;
grinders employ impact and attrition (sometimes
combined with compression);
ultrafine grinders operate by attrition
Feed size Product size
Coarse crushers 1500-40mm 50-5mm
Intermediate crushers 50-5mm 5-0.1mm
Fine crushers 5-2mm 0.1mm
Colloid crushers 0.2mm
Down to 0.01m
16
Crushers
Breaking large pieces of solid material into small lumps
Primary crusher operates on run-of-mine material, accepting
anything that comes from the mine face and breaking it into 150-
250mm lumps
Secondary crusher reduces these lumps to particles 6 mm in size
Grinders
Reduce crushed feed to powder
Product from an intermediate grinder might pass a 40-mesh screen
Product from a fine grinder may pass a 200-mesh with a 74m
opening
Ultrafine grinder
Accepts feed no larger than 6mm
Product size is approximately 1-50m
Cutters
Give particles of definite size and shape, 2-10mm in length
Size reduction machines used in food
processing engineering
Range of reduction Generic equipment
name
Type of equipment
Coarse Crushers Jaw crushers
Gyratory crushers
Crushing rolls
Intermediate Grinders Roller mills
Hammer mills
Tumbling mills
Disc attrition mills
Fine Ultrafine grinders Hammer mills with
internal classification
Fluid-energy mills
Agitation mills
17
Methods of operating crushers
Two methods of feeding material to a crusher
Free crushing: feeding the material at a comparatively low
rate so that product can readily escapes
Residence time in the machine is short and production of
appreciable quantities of undersize material is avoided
Choke feeding: machine is kept full of material and
discharge of product is impeded so that the material
remains in the crusher for a longer period
Higher degree of crushing but capacity is reduced
Energy consumption is high because of accumulated product
inside machine
used only for small amounts of materials and when it is desired to
complete the whole of size reduction in one operation
18
Crushers
19
Slow-speed machines for coarse reduction of large
quantities of solids
Types of crushers
Jaw crushers
Gyratory crushers
Smooth-roll crushers
Toothed-roll crushers
Jaw, gyratory and smooth-roll crushers operate by
compression, for instance, primary and secondary
reduction of rocks and ores
Such primary crushers are often used in mining,
cement manufacture industries, etc.
Jaw crushers
20
Feed is admitted between two
jaws, set to form a V open at top
One jaw is stationary; the other
driven by eccentric, reciprocates in
a horizontal plane and crushes
lumps caught between jaws
Advantages:
high and constant capacity,
high operational reliability,
long lifetime,
easy replacement of wear and spare
parts,
low maintenance requirements
Gyratory grinders
21
Conical crushing head
gyrates inside a funnel-
shaped casing, open at
the top
Eccentric drives the
shaft carrying the
crushing head
Solids caught between
the head and the casing
are broken and re-
broken until they pass
out the bottom
Smooth-roll crushers
22
These are secondary
crushers, producing a
product 1-12mm in size
Limited by the size of
particle that can be
nipped by the rolls to
feed that range in size
from 12-75mm
Toothed-roll crushers
23
Roll faces carry
corrugations, breaker bars
or teeth
May contain two rolls, or
only one roll working against
a stationary curved breaker
plate
Not limited by the problem of
nip inherent with smooth
rolls
Operate by compression,
impact and shear, not by
compression alone
Handle softer materials such
as coal, bone and soft shale
Grinders
24
Size reduction machines for intermediate duty
Crusher products are often fed to grinder for further
reduction
Commercial grinders
Haller mills and impactors
Rolling-compression machines
Attrition mills
Tumbling mills
Hammer mills
25
Contain high-speed rotor turning
inside a cylindrical casing
Feed dropped into the top of the
casing is broken and falls out through
a bottom opening
Particles are broken by sets of swing
hammers pinned to a rotor disk
Particle entering the grinding zone
cannot escape being struck by the
hammers
Particle shatters into pieces, which fly
against a stationary plate inside the
casing and break into still smaller
fragments
These in turn are rubbed into powder
by hammers and pushed through a
grate or screen that covers the
discharge opening
26
Several rotor disks, 150-450 mm in diameter and
each carrying four to eight swing hammers, are often
mounted on the same shaft
Hammers may be straight bars of metal with plain or
enlarged ends or with ends sharpened to a cutting
edge
Intermediate hammer mills yield a product 25mm to
20-mesh in particle size
Hammer mills for fine production, the peripheral
speed of the hammer tips may reach 110m/s and
reduce 0.1-15 tons/h to sizes finer than 200mesh
(74m)
27
Hammer mills can grind anything tough fibrous
solids like bark or leather, steel turnings, soft wet
pastes, sticky clays, hard rock
For fine production, they are limited to softer materials
Capacity and power requirements of a hammer mill
vary greatly with the nature of the feed and cannot be
estimated with confidence from theoretical
considerations
They may be found from small-scale or full-scale tests
of the mill with a sample of the actual material to be
ground
Commercial mills typically reduce 60 240 kg of solid
per kilowatthour of energy consumed
Impactors
28
Impactors resembles s
heavy-duty hammer mill
except that contains no
grate or screen
Particles are broken by
impact alone, without the
rubbing action
characteristics of hammer
mill
These are often primary
reduction machines for rock
and ore, processing up to
600 tons/h
Rotor in an impactor may be
run in either direction to
prolong the life of hammers
Roller mills
29
Solids are caught and crushed between
vertical cylindrical rollers and a stationary
anvil ring or bull ring
Rollers are driven at moderate speeds in
a circular path
Plows lift the solid lumps from the floor of
the mill and direct them between the ring
and the rolls where the reduction takes
place
Product is swept out of the mill by a
stream of air to a classifier separator,
from which oversize particles are
returned to the mill for further reduction
Application: in reduction of limestone,
cement clinkers and coal
They pulverize up to 50tons/h
If the classifier is used, the product may
be as fine as 99% through a 200-mesh
Attrition mills
30
Particles of soft solids are
rubbed between the grooved flat
faces of rotating circular disks
In a single runner mill one disk is
stationary and one rotates
In double runner machine both
disks are driven at high speed in
opposite directions
Feed enters through an opening
in the hub of one of the disks
Then feed passes outward
though narrow gap between the
disks and discharges from the
periphery into a stationary
casing
The width of the gap, within
limits, is adjustable
31
At least one grinding plate is spring-mounted so that
the disks can separate if unbreakable material gets
into the mill
Mills with different patterns of grooves, corrugations,
or teeth on the disks perform a variety of operations,
including grinding, cracking, granulating, shredding
and sometimes blending
Attrition mills grind from 0.5 to 8 tons/h to products
that will pass a 200-mesh screen
Energy required depends strongly on the nature of the
feed and the degree of reduction accomplished and is
much higher than in any other crushers and grinders
considered so far
Energy requirement is typically between 8 80 kWh
per ton of product
Single runner
attrition mill
Double runner attrition
mill
32
Contain disks of
buhrstone or rock emery
for reducing solids such
as clay and talc, or metal
disks for solids such as
wood, starch, insecticide
powders, and carnauba
wax
Metal disks are usually of
white iron, although for
corrosive materials disks
of stainless steel are
necessary
Disks are 250-1400mm in
diameter turning at 350-
700 rpm
In general, grind to finer
products than single
runner mills but process
softer feeds
Air is often drawn
through the mill to
remove the product and
prevent choking
Disks may be cooled
with water or
refrigerated brine
Turn faster at 1200-
7000 rpm
Tumbling mills
33
A cylindrical shell slowly
turning about a horizontal axis
and filled to about one-half its
volume with a solid grinding
medium forms a tumbling mill
Shell is usually steel, lined
with high carbon steel plate,
porcelain, silica rock or rubber
Grinding medium is metal
rods in a rod mill, lengths of
chain or balls of metal, rubber,
or wood in a ball mill, flint
pebbles or porcelain or
zirconia spheres in a pebble
mill
34
For intermediate and fine reduction of abrasive materials, tumbling
mills are unequalled
Unlike other mills seen so far (require continuous feed), tumbling
mills can be continuous or batch
In a batch machine, a measured quantity of solid to be ground is
loaded into the mill through an opening in the shell
The opening is then closed and the mill turned on for several hours;
it is then stopped, and the product is discharged
In a continuous mill, the solid flows steadily through the revolving
shell
In a tumbling mill, the grinding elements are carried up the side of
the shell nearly to the top, from whence they fall on the particles
underneath
Energy expended in lifting the grinding units is utilized in reducing
the size of the particles
Rod mill
35
Much of the reduction is done by
rolling compression and by attrition
as the rods slide downward and roll
over one another
Grinding rods are usually steel, 25-
125mm in diameter with several
sizes present at all times in any given
mill
Rod mills are intermediate grinders,
reducing a 20mm feed to perhaps
10-mesh
Often preparing product from a
crusher for final reduction in a ball
mill
They yield a product with little
oversize and a minimum of fines
Ball mill or pebble mill
36
Most of the reduction
done by impact as the
balls or pebbles drop
from the top of the shell
In a large ball mill the
shell might be 3m in
diameter and 4.25m
long
Balls are 25-125mm in
diameter; the pebbles in
pebble mill are 50-
175mm
Tube mills and compartment mills
37
Tube mill is a continuous mill with a cylindrical shell, in
which material is ground for 2-5 times as long as in the
shorter ball mill
Tube mills are excellent for grinding to very fine
powders in a single pass where the amount of energy
consumed is not of primary importance
Putting slotted transverse partitions in a tube mill
converts it into a compartment mill
One compartment mill may contain large balls, another
small balls, and a third pebbles
This segregation of the grinding media into elements of
different size and weight aids considerably in avoiding
wasted work, for the large, heavy balls break only the
large particles, without interference by the fines
Critical speed of rotating mills
38
Faster the mill is rotated, the farther the balls are carried up
inside the mill and greater the power consumption and the
capacity of the mill
If the speed is too high, the balls are carried over and the mill is
said to be centrifuging
The speed at which centrifuging occurs is called the critical
speed
From a balance between the gravitational and centrifugal
forces, the critical speed n
c
may be founds as below
g is the acceleration of gravity
R is the radius of the mill
r is the radius of the grinding elements
Operating speed must be less than n
c
Tumbling mills run at 65-80% of the critical speed, with lower
values for wet grinding in viscous suspensions
1
2
c
g
n
R r t
=

Ultrafine grinders
39
Many commercial powders must contain particles
averaging 1-20m with substantially all particles
passing 325-mesh screen that has opening 44m
Ultrafine grinders can reduce particles to such fine
size
Ultrafine grinding of dry powder is done by high
speed hammer mills, provided with internal or
external classification, and by fluid-energy or jet mills
Ultrafine wet grinding is done in agitated mills
Classifying hammer mills
40
In a hammer mill with internal classification a set of
swing hammers is held between two rotor disks as in
a conventional machine
But in addition to the hammers the rotor shaft carries
two fans, which draw air through the mill inward
toward the drive shaft and then discharge into ducts
leading to collectors for the product
On the rotor disks, there are short radial vanes for
separating oversize particles from the required
product size
41
Fine particles are carried past the radial vanes as
product
Particles which are too large are thrown back for
further reduction in the grinding chamber
Maximum particle size of the product is varied by
changing the rotor speed or by the size and no. of
separator vanes
Capacity: 1 2 tons/h to an average size of 1 20
m
Energy requirement: 40 kWh/ton
Fluid energy mills
42
Particles are suspended in a high velocity gas stream
Gas may flow in a circular or elliptical path
Gas flow may act as jets which rigorously agitate a
fluidized bed
Some reduction may occur when particles strike or rub
against the walls of the confining chamber
But most of reduction is caused by interparticle attrition
Internal classification keeps the larger particles in the mill
until they are reduced to desired size
Suspending gas is usually compressed air or super
heated steam admitted at 7atm through energizing
nozzles
43
Grinding chamber is an oval loop
of pipe 25-200mm
Feed enters near the bottom of
the loop through a venturi
injector
Classification of ground particles
takes place at the upper bend of
the loop
As gas stream flows around this
bend at high speed, coarser
particles are thrown outward
against the outer wall while fines
congregate at the inner wall
44
Discharge opening in the inner wall at this point leads
to a cyclone separator and a bag collector for product
Classification is aided by the complex pattern of swirl
generated in the gas stream at the bend in the loop of
pipe
Fluid energy mills can accept feed particles as large
as 12mm but more effective when the feed particles
are no larger than 100-mesh screen
They reduce up to 1 ton/h of nonsticky solid to
particles of average size 0.5-10m in diameter using
1 4 kg of steam or 6 9 kg of air per kg of product
Loop mills can process up to 6000 kg/h
Agitated mills
45
Small batch non-rotating mills containing solid grinding
medium are available
Grinding medium consists of hard solid elements such as
balls, pellets, or sand grains
These mills are vertical vessel 4 1200l in capacity, filled
with liquid in which the grinding medium is suspended
The charge is agitated with multiarmed impellers
Also reciprocating central column vibrates the vessel
contents at about 20 Hz
Concentrated feed slurry is admitted at the top and
product (with some liquid) is withdrawn through a screen
at the bottom
Useful in producing particles < 1m
Colloid mills
46
Intense fluid shear in a high velocity stream is used
to disperse particles or liquid droplets to form a
stable suspension or emulsion
Final size of particles or droplets is usually < 5m
Often there is a little actual size reduction in the mills
Principal action is the disruption of lightly bonded
clusters or agglomerates
Syrups, milk, purees, ointments, paints, and greases
are typical products using colloid mills
Chemical additives are often useful for stabilizing
suspensions
47
The feed liquid is pumped
between closely spaced
surfaces, one of which is
moving relative to the other
at speeds of 50m/s or more
In some design, liquid
passes through the narrow
spaces between a disk-
shaped rotor and its casing
This clearance are
adjustable down to 25m
Often cooling is required to
remove the heat generated
Capacity is relatively low up
to 2-3 l/min for small mills
and up to 440 l/m for largest
mill
Cutting machines
48
In some size reduction problems, the feed stocks are too
resilient to be broken by compression, impact or attrition
In other problems the feed must be reduced to particles
of fixed dimensions
These requirements can be met by machines known as
granulators which yield more or less irregular pieces
Other machines can meet these requirements are cutter
which produces cubes, thin squares or diamonds
These devices find application in many manufacturing
processes but are especially well adapted to size
reduction problems in making rubber and plastics
They find important applications in recycling paper and
plastic materials
Rotary knife cutters
49
Contain a horizontal rotor
turning at 200 900 rpm
in a cylindrical chamber
On the rotor 2 12 flying
knives with edges of
tempered steel , passing
with close clearance over
1 to 7 stationary bed
knives
Feed particles entering
from above may be cut
several times before they
are small enough to pass
through a bottom screen
with 5 8 mm openings
Criteria for size reduction process
50
A crusher, grinder or cutter cannot be expected to
perform satisfactorily unless
The feed is of suitable size and enters at a uniform rate
The product is removed asap after the particles are of
desired size achieved
Unbreakable material is kept out of machine
In the reduction of low melting or heat sensitive products,
the heat generated in the mill is removed
Therefore heaters and coolers, metal separators,
pumps and blowers and constant-rate feeders are
important adjuncts to the size reduction unit
Open- and close-circuit operations
51
In many mills, the feed is broken into particles of satisfactory
size by passing it once through the mill
When no attempt is made to return oversize particles to the
machines for further reduction, the mill is said to be
operating in open-circuit
This may require excessive amounts of power, for much of
the energy is wasted in regrinding particles that are already
fine enough
Thus it is often economical to remove partially ground
materials from the mill and pass it through a size separation
device
The undersize becomes the product and the oversize is
returned to be grounded
The separation device is sometimes inside the mill, as in
ultrafine grinders; more commonly it is outside the mill
52
Close-circuit operation is
applied to the action of a
mill and separator
connected so that the
oversize particles are
returned to the mill
Energy must be supplied
to drive the conveyors and
separators in a closed-
circuit system
But despite this, the
reduction in total energy
requirement over open-
circuit grinding often
reaches 25%
Preliminary guide for selecting size
reduction equipment
Equipment Max. Feed
size (mm)
Min. Prod.
size (mm)
Capacity
(ton/day)
Applications examples
Jaw crushers 1500 150 <1 - >10
3
Metallic and nonmetallic
minerals
Gyratory
crushers
2000 300 >10
3
Metallic and nonmetallic
minerals
Roller mill 30 1 1 - >10
3
Cereals, vegetables,
calcite, kaolin
Hammer mill 40 0.01 <1 - <10
3
Phosphates, pigments,
dried fruits
Disc attrition
mill
12 0.07 <1 - 10
3
Cellulose, asbestos,
rubber
Ball mill 4 0.3 10 - >10
3
Calcite, kaolin, ceramics
Fluid-energy
mill
30 0.001 <1 - 10
2
Ceramics, pesticides,
pigments
Agitation mill 0.075 0.005 <1 - 10
2
Silicon, titanium dioxide,
ceramics
53