Enhance the performance of Tube grinding mills:

Let us employ Grinding Rollers

D.S. Venkatesh,
Freelance Tech. Consultant, Bangalore
Compression grinding employing rollers as grinding elements has become the wayleading to specific
energy values markedly lower than those obtained in ballmilling plants in cement and mineral processing
industries all over the world.Here are some novel ways, other than conventional, to re-engineer the existing
ball milling plants to employ Rollers as grinding elements for enhancing the productivity.
1.0 Introduction:
In short, of well known compression grinding machines, in HPGR roller presses, the bed thickness will be
low, speed has to be limited to below 1.5 m/sec because of vibrations, and nip angle is around 6 degrees. In
Vertical Roller mills, speed is limited by centrifugation of material, nip is around 12 degrees and bed depth
is medium. In the latest Beta Mills, by having defined feeding velocity, material height and width, a defined
layer of homogeneous pre-aired material will be fed to the grinding zone assuring perfect utilization of the
employed energy in the grinding process.
In all these cases, more than one roller is employed. Horomill employs only one grinding roller under
medium pressure functioning within a rotating shell... Communition will be by multiple compressions. The
conjugate concave and convex geometries of the grinding surfaces lead to angles of nip two or three times
higher than in roll presses, which lead to a thicker ground layer and a more important grinding work.
Multiple compression permits to vary the circulating load for same finished product to achieve the required
size distribution. The mill is less sensitive to feed size distribution. In view of shell size limitation, higher
production rate calls for multiple units.
The main advantage of Shell roller grinding mills (SRG Mills) is wide flexibility of operating mill speed.
Conventional tube mills have limitations as regards the mill speed, and usually function at speeds around
75 to 78 percent critical speed. With roller as grinding element inside the mill shell, the upper value of
speed is not critical, and can be run either at sub-critical or super critical speeds, as required. Here are some
novel ways, other than conventional, to re-engineer the existing ball milling plants to employ Rollers as
grinding elements for enhancing productivity.
2.0 Re-engineer to function as SRG Mill:
Incorporate Grinding roller in tube mill. This converts the mill to function as shell roller grinding mill
(SRG Mill). Each chamber can be treated as a unit and grinding roller incorporated in one or all the
chambers. From mechanical point of view, the Shell Roller Mill combines proven elements of ball mill and
elements akin to roll press but with much lower grinding pressures. The material advances regularly in the
mill thanks to the combined effects of centrifugal force and passes several times between the roller and the
shell to be ground there. Grinding is achieved in several steps viz., multiple compression. Pressing pressure
of grinding roll, bed thickness and speed are the three operational parameters that govern the circulating
load, fineness of grind, particle size distribution, output and power consumption. All shell roller grinding
mills can be run at sub-critical or super-critical speeds in excess of conventional ball or rod mills. The
greater peripheral speed of mill shell increases the amount of material ground in direct proportion, but only
if the material ground is promptly removed from the grinding chamber. Various measures for applying the
grinding force on the roller have resulted in several configurations. These measures may be, to cite a few,
multiple co-axial rolls, magnetic biasing of rollers, magnetic lining of mill shell, mechanical or hydraulic
means of applying the pressure on rolls. Also, the horizontal roller mills can be of two broad categories:
Shell driving the rollers or Rollers driving the Shell by frictional contact.

3.0 Simple SRG Mill:

The simplest mill has a large diameter roller freely revolving in contact with the mill shell. The weight of
the grinding roller will be sufficient enough to rest vertically downwards in contact with the mill shell
lining. Material is fed through the trunnion as usual, and ground material is air-swept out of the mill,
alternatively by grate/end discharge. The roller diameter determines the line pressure and along with its
length, the weight of grinding element. It is desirable to have vertical grooved liners, with ridges, as this
will allow material to flow through avoiding building up on one side of the roller only. Moreover, the roller
may be made slightly conical and the shell fitted with conical lining. This improves material flow towards
the discharge end.

4.0 SRG Mill with Pressure Rollers:

Another alternative is to provide one or more fixed grinding rollers disposed radially within the mill shell
and supported by a fixed shaft which extends along the axis of rotation, each of said rollers being idle and
above to rotate by friction within the inner wall of the mill shell. The average pressure exerted by the roller
on the material during grinding is between 10 and 40 MPa. The material tends to occupy a determined zone
of the inner chamber of the mill shell which depends upon the particle size and on the speed of rotation of
the mill, which must be slow enough not to produce centrifuging. In view of this, the power consumption is
reduced to as low as 60 percent of that of tube mill

5.0 SRG Mill with simultaneous planetary grinding:

Fit the mill shell with Planetary Lining. Each liner will have a central circular hallow core. When the liners
are fitted, the combination will form centrifugal tubes at the inner circumference of the shell. While the
feed is reduced first by the roller, subsequent material enters the planetary tubes in the shell for
simultaneous centrifugal grinding. The planetary tubes shall have either large dia rod or conventional
grinding media. The PSRG mill can be run at higher speeds and the required fineness and output can be
obtained without recourse to classification. Air is sucked through the planetary tubes for venting the mill.
Planetary shell roller grinding mills are usually operated at super-critical speeds.

6.0 Incorporate a Pre-grinding Roll:

The supporting roller from a rotary kiln or dryer can be gainfully adopted to serve as the grinding roller.
Necessary hard facing can be carried out to withstand the wear during operations. The riding ring needs to
be split type and fixed to the mill shell over shoe plates to serve as the larger drive roller. The grinding
roller is mounted in the 90 to 180 deg quadrant touching the top surface of the riding ring and the feed
hopper is arranged in the 0 to 90 deg quadrant when looking the direction of rotation, as shown in the
figure. The riding ring is located usually directly above the first diaphragm of the mill The effective width
of the riding ring/supporting roller and the bed depth determines the throughput as the mill speed is usually
fixed around 75 to 80 percent critical speed. The pressing force of grinding roller can be hydraulically
adjusted depending upon the material ground.

7.0 Re-engineering of Existing mils:

Re-engineering of existing media mill to function as SRG Mill will be economical than additional
installation of either a separate Pre-grinder, High pressure grinding rolls or Vertical Roller Pre-grind Mills,
since the roller set up will be integrated with the existing mill and no additional equipment foundations,
buildings, or civil engineering works are required.

Air swept Coal mills, being single compartment and already having air sweeping arrangement for
ground material carry over outside the mill, will become the apt choice.
In case of two compartment raw mills with end diaphragm discharge, the first compartment may
be re-engineered for pre-grinding and the second compartment for finish grinding. In case of
intermediate discharge arrangement, both the compartments may be re-engineered for finish
grinding simultaneously.
In case of three compartment mills, the first compartment may be employed for Pre-grinding, the
second for grinding and the third for finish grinding of material.

The extent of capacity increase and possible reduction in specific power consumption will much depend
upon roller configuration within the mill shell, number of compartments and more than all on the practical
measure employed how the grinding force is exerted on the roll surface. Each case has to be customized for
achieving best possible enhancement in performance of the re-engineered mill.
For Re-engineering, please contact:

D.S. Venkatesh,
Freelance Tech. Consultant,
# 105, Seventh Cross, Blekahalli Dollar Layout,
B T M 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560076
Phone: 91 080 26688098 E-mail: dsvenkatesh40@yahoo.com
E-mail: dsvenkatesh40@gmail.com