Size reduction

Crushing

grinding

seperation
 Introduction
Definition:

Subdividing large solid particles into smaller particles

Why do we need a size reduction?

 easier handling – workable size
 increase heat and mass transfer rates – small size and large surface
area
 increase reactivity
 separation of unwanted material via mechanical method
 meet industry specification – small NaCl crystal
 facilitate mixing processes
 prepare the material for further processing: leaching, combustion, …
 Liberation of minerals
 Industrial Applications

 Mineral Processing and benificiation

 Agricultural chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers)
 Inorganic chemicals (potassium sulfate, aluminum oxide)
 Flavorings (spices, herbs)
 Pharmaceuticals (drugs, inactive ingredients)
 Food materials (cereal grains, oilseeds)
 Ceramics (clays)
 Others (carbon, coke, cement)
 Comminution
• Comminution is a process whereby particulate materials are
reduced by blasting, crushing and grinding to the product sizes
required for downstream processing or end use. This mainly is
carried out to increase the surface area where reaction rate is
proportional to SA
• There are four fundamental patterns of breaking rock
and similar materials:

– Compression
– Impact
– Shear
– Attrition- produces fines as a result of shear failure
 Compression
Squeezing of the material
particles between two
surfaces. Mostly employed
in metalliferous industry as
leaves residual stress in
the material
Large particles are produced as a result of
tensile stresses, while fine particles are
produces as a result of compression stress
 Impact
Particle concussion by single rigid
force
Breakage without the production of
residual stress.
Rock is impacted by high energy
crushing surfaces. With hard and
abrasive ores this leads to wear
problems. It is often used in
quarrying industry or for soft
materials
Fracture is mainly occurred by tensile
Failure
 Breakage Mechanisms

• Compression
– suitable for most materials but induces flaws,
weakening the product
– Produces coarse materials and less fines

• Impact
– efficient only for weak, stiff, brittle rocks
– may be used where product strength and
durability is more important than process
efficiency
They range from the
small
To the fairly big….
To the absolutely
enormous
 Size Reduction
• Done in stages
– Blasting - infinite blocks to 1-2m
– Crushing - 1-2m to 20mm
– Grinding/Milling - 20mm to 1-2 microns
• Number of stages should be minimised as all
these processes are energy intensive
 Flowsheets

• There are two basic concepts in

comminution:

– Open circuit

– Closed circuit
 Open Circuit
• Open circuit used in initial stages where
the product is much larger than is
ultimately required - usually primary and
secondary reductions

• The product goes to the next stage of

processing without further treatment
• Used if crusher is producing rod mill feed
 Closed Circuit

• In a closed circuit, the product is screened

and any oversize returned to the feed stage
of the equipment.

• Only material below a certain size is taken

onto the next stage of processing
 Closed Circuit
• Why is such a complicated system needed?

• Closed circuits are used where product size

is critical and fines production must be
minimal
• Fines are difficult to process efficiently so
much valuable material will be lost to “slimes”
and “tailings”
• Used if crusher is producing ball mill feed
 Closed Circuit

• They are expensive to operate and the

recirculating load level is critical to economic
operation - ideally it should be zero

• This restricts the types of material that can be

handled and may require expensive
segregation systems to remove parts of the
feed
 Typical Machines for
Various Stages of Crushing
• Primary
– Jaw
– Gyratory
• Secondary If the ore is slippery and
tough, the tertiary crushing
– Cone stage maybe substituted by
coarse grinding in rod mills. If
• Tertiary - less common the ore is extra hard or where
is important not to produce
fines secondary crushing
– Cone may have two stages.
 Primary crushers
– Primary crushers (often compression) are
heavy-duty machines used to reduce the run of
mine ore down to a size suitable for transport
and finer crushing.
– They are always operated in open circuit often
with a scalping screen (grizzlies).
• Jaw
• Gyratory
• Impact crusher has a limited use due to wear
 Jaw Crusher
Chamber
 Types of Jaw crushers
pivot
• Blake Crusher: Pivoted at the top and therefore
has fixed opening and variable discharge
– Single toggle
– Double toggle
• Dodge Crusher: the jaw is pivoted at the bottom,
giving variable feed size but fixed dilevery area.
– Only used in Lab scale work where close sizing is
required.
– Never used for heavy duty crushing as it chokes very
easily

• Throw is the distance of Jaw movement

– Large throw- coarse material
pivot
– -small throw- fine material
 Single toggle jaw crusher
• Eccentric shaft which gives
vertical motion
• It moves also horizontally. This
assists in pushing material
through the chamber
• More compact design and
higher capacity
• Less expensive (50% lower
than double toggle)
• Also has a higher capacity
than the double toggle for the
same gap
• but wear is higher
 Double toggle jaw crusher
• Moves minimum
distance from the entry
point and maximum
distance at delivery

• The horizontal
displacement of the
swing jaw is greatest at
the bottom of the pitman
cycle and then
diminishes steadily
through the rising half of
the cycle
• Used mainly on hard, Frame
tough abrasive materials
 Design of Jaw crushers
• They are rated according to their receiving
area (the width of the plates and the gape
(distance between plates at the feed opening)
• Example: 1234×987 mm crusher has a
width of 1234 mm and a gap of 987 mm.
• Jaw crushers range in size up to 1680 mm gap by 2130 mm width.
This size of machine can handle ore with a maximum size of 1.22 m
at a crushing rate of 725 t/hr with a 203 set.
• Above 545 t/hr the economic advantage of jaw crusher over gyratory
crushing diminishes. Above 725 t/hr it totally disappears
 Gyratory Crusher
The main components are:
1) Long spindle: carrying a
hard steel conical
grinding element
2) The head: seated in an
eccentric sleeve
As the head rotates (85-150
rpm) it sweeps out a
conical path due to the
gyratory action of the
eccentric

•Gyratory crusher is regarded as infinitely large number of jaw crusher each of infinitely
small width (at any time and any cross-section there are two sets of jaw operating)
•High capacity
•Found in high throughput plants
Design of gyratory crushers
• Identified by dimensions of feed
opening and mantle diameter
• Size up to gaps of 1830 mm
• Crush rocks with top size 1370
mm
• With rate of 5000t/hr
• Power consumption up to 750
kW/hr
• They are normally fed from
trucks with head buried in the
feed
 Choice of crusher
(comminution machines in General)
• The main factor is the size of the rock that can handle and produce

– Gyratory is chosen for high capacity

– Jaw crushers are chosen when the crusher gap is more important than capacity
(but if the gyratory crusher has the required gap it would have 3 times capacity of
the jaw crusher)
– Design relationship: if t/hr < 161.7 × gap (m) use jaw crusher otherwise gyratory
Other important factors
• Stressing mechanism:
– Compression: stress applied between two surfaces at low velocity (0.01-10m/s)

– Impact: stress applied at a single solid surface at high velocity (10-200m/s)

– Stress applied by carrier medium

 Choice of crusher
(comminution machines in General)
• Material properties:
– Hardness: measured by Mohs’ scale of hardness (graphite 1, diamond 10). harder
materials require more energy, therefore a longer residence time (lower throughput) or
higher capacity equipment will be required
– Abrasiveness: closely related to hardness, (abrasive materials- low speed machines to
reduce wear)
– Toughness: resistance to crack propagation where excess stress cause plastic
deformation (operate at lower T to minimize the effect). The opposite is brittleness
– Cohesivity/ adhesivity: property of particle to stick together and to surface. It is related to
• moisture content and particle size
• Amount of contained clay (jaw is better for clay because of greater throw, gyratory is better for hard,
abrasive material)
• sticky materials need easily cleaned machines

– Fibrous nature: such materials are comminuted in shredders and cutters based on
hammer mill design
– Low melting point: heat generated causes smelting

– Moisture content: materials with 5-50% moisture do not flow easily and can be difficult to
process
– Other properties: high flammability (use carrier medium), radioactivity and toxicity (carrier
medium and close circuit)
 Choice of crusher
(comminution machines in General)
• Mode of operation:
– Batch
– continuous
• Size of plant
– installation cost of gyratory is lower
• Location of plant: jaw crusher is easy to handle
• Feed method (truck, belt)
• Gyratory: self feeding
• Jaw crusher: needs feed device
 Secondary crushers
• Much lighter than primary crushers
because the size of the feed is less
• Operate normally with dry feed to produce
a product for grinding
• Almost all secondary crushing in
metalliferrous ores is carried out using
cone crushers, although roll and hammer mills
are sometimes used
 Cone crushers
• Modified gyratory crushers with the differences that
• The spindle is shorter
• It is not suspended, as in gyratory, but supported in a curved
universal bearing below the gyratory head or cone
• Rated by diameter of cone lining
• range in size from 559 to 3100 mm
• output up to 1100t/hr
• Discharge setting 19 mm
• Much higher rotating speed compared to gyratory  less stress
• The material passing the head receives a series of hammer like blows
rather than being slowly compressed as in the gyratory
Cone crushers
Rolls Crushers
 Roll crushers
• Used for: friable, sticky, frozen or less abrasive
materials like, limestone, chalk, coal, gypsum,
phosphate, and soft iron ore (Gyratory and cone
choke with very soft materials)
• Operation: rotation
• Disadvantages:
• need large R to achieve reasonable reduction ratio high
capital cost (reduction 4:1)
• High wear on roll surface
• Starvation feed to prevent chocking
 Roll crushers
Friction force = µ C
• If
• r1 - radius of the rolls
• r2 - particle radius
• µ - coefficient of friction
• θ - the angle formed by the
tangents of the roll surfaces at θ C
their point of contact (nip
angle),
• C - compressive force exerted
by the roll on particle
C sin  / 2  C cos  / 2
  tan  / 2 From geometry θ/2=α
• µ is 0.2-0.3 between steel
and most ore particles θ<30
• To determine the maximum
size of ore to be crushed
 Example
• If crushing rolls, 1m diameter, are set so that the crushing surfaces
are 12.5 mm apart and the angle of nip is(2α = 31º), what is the
maximum size of particle which should be fed to the rolls

Answer : r2= 25mm

 Impact crushers
• Crushing is by impact
• High speed blows is applied to free falling
materials
• High internal stresses are enough to shatter the
particles
• No residual stress (important for road making,
buildings, and binding materials like bitumen)
• Widely used in quarrying industry
• Used for rock which tend to be plastic and pack
when crushing force is applied slowly
 Types of impact crushers
Hummer mill
• Crushing is due to severity of high speed blows
of hammer and subsequent impact the casing or
grid.
• Since the particles have very high velocities
much of the size reduction is Mainly impact
breakage  fine particles are produced and less
controllable size
• Weight of hummer up to 100kg
• Feed up to 20 cm
• Speed 500-3000rpm
 Types of impact crushers
Impact mill
• Rotating rotor with a speed of
250-500rpm give a glancing
impact which send the material
to impact plate

• More controllable size

distribution than hummer
• Maximum capacity up to
1500t/hr
• Maximum feed 1.5 m
• Wear is significant
• Not used for hard rock
• High reduction ratio (40:1)
Grinding
 Energy Consumption

o Size reduction is the most inefficient of all unit operations

o 99% of the energy goes to operating the equipment (15%-transmission
losses), producing undesirable heat (80%) and noise (4%)
 1% for creating new surface (size reduction)
o Heat removal is required to protect the solids
(cooling water, dry ice, liquid nitrogen)
 Grinding

• Purpose of grinding is correct degree of liberation, although

can be used to increase surface area in hydrometallurgical
processes like in cyanide leaching

• Grinding is influenced by size, quantity, type of motion and

the spaces between the individual particles.
•
• As apposed to crushing grinding is more random process,
and is subject to the laws of probability

• The degree of grinding of an ore depends on the probability

of it entering a zone between medium shapes and the
probability of some occurrence taking place after entry
 Energy Required for
Breakage
•Three laws - Rittinger (1867), Kick (1885) and Bond (1952)
For Rittinger: E~D2
• If the initial size is D1  Volume of initial particles Vi  av D13
• and the final size is D2 Volume of final particles V f  av D23

D13
• Number of particles N 3 Surface shape factor
D2
D13 1 1
•  new surface area created by S  ( 3 )as D22  as D12  as D13[  ]
reduction D2 D2 D1
• New surface per unit mass Sum  as D13 [ 1  1 ]  [ No.of .orig . particles / unit .mass]
D2 D1
1 1 1 as 1 1
 as D13[  ][ ]  [  ]
D2 D1 av D13  p av  p D2 D1
• Assuming av, as, ρp are constants 1 1
E  CR [  ]
Rittinger’s postulate can be D2 D1 E is breakage energy
expressed as: per unit mass of feed
dE 1
 CR CR constant
dD D2
Energy Required for Breakage

Rittingers law - Energy consumed in size reduction is proportional to the

area of new surface produced (n=2)

 1 1 
E  CR    E = energy input, D1 initial and D2 final
 D2 D1  particle size and CR is a constant

Experiments have shown that in practise energy requirement is 200-300

times that required for creation of new surfaces
Unlikely that energy requirement and surface created are related
Energy Required for Breakage
• Kick stated that the energy required for breakage is directly
proportional to the ratio of the volume of the feed particle to the
product particles (n=1)

 D1  E = energy input, D1 feed and D2 product

E  CK ln   particle volume and Ck is a constant
 D2 
dE 1
 CK
dD D

Method unrealistic as it assumes that same energy is required

to reduce 10m particles to 1m particle as 1m to 10cm

This is clearly not true

 Energy Required for Breakage
• Bond's Law is based on the theory that the work input is
proportional to the new crack tip length produced
 1 1  E = energy input (kWht-1), D2 size of product,
E  CB  
 D D1  D1 size of feed , CB is a constant
 2

dE 1
 CB 3 / 2 CB
dD D WI   CB  0.3162 *WI If size is given in mm
0.1
Otherwise use the following if size is given in micron

 10 10  E = energy input (kWht-1), P is 80% passing

E  WI    size of product, F is 80% passing size of
 P F
feed , WI is a work index
The work index is the energy required to reduce the size of unit mass of
material from infinite size to a D80 of 100 µm (kW.h/t).( it is determined
experimentally)
Bond's law gives best approximation and is most widely used law
 Applicability of the 3 laws
General formula
Energy required to make a small change in the size of an object is proportional to
the size change and inversely proportional to size of the object to some power n

dE 1
 C n
dD D Rittenger: 10 - 1000µm(ultrafine grinding)
Rittenger
n=2, C=CR  for Rittenger Bond: range of ball and rod mill grinding
(the top size is >100 µm)
n=1, C=CK  for Kick
W, (kWh/t)

n=1.5, C=CB  for Bond Kick: >10000µm (crushing)

Bond

Kick

Feed particle size (mm)

Energy Required for Breakage
• Example
A material consisting originally of 25 mm particles
is crushed to an average size of 7 mm and
requires 20 kJ/kg for this size reduction.
Determine the energy required to crush the
material from 25 mm to 3.5 mm assuming
a) Rittingers law,
b) Kick's law
c) Bond's law

 1 1 
  E  CK ln  D1 
 1 1 
E  CR  E  CB 
 D

D1 
D  
 2
D D1  2
2
 Bond Work Index
Property Soft Medium Hard V.Hard
Bond WI 7-9 9-14 14-20 >20

Typical values include:

Barite 4.73
Fluorspar 8.91
Dolomite 11.27
Dolorite 30.10
 Bond Work Index
Examples
How is Bond's equation useful?

We want to reduce a material from 80% less than 1000 microns to 80% finer
than 100 microns. The material has a work index of 10 kWh/t. How much
energy is required?
E = 10.0(10/100-10/1000
= 6.84 kWh/t
How much energy is required to reduce the product from above to 80% finer
than 10 microns?

E = 10 (10/10 - 10/100)
= 21.6 kWh/t
Example:
What is the power required to crush 100 ton/h of limestone if 80% of the
feed passes a mesh size a 2-in screen and 80% of the product passes a
1/8-in screen?
Solution:
m  100 ton/h Dpa = 2 × 25.4 = 50.8 mm Dpb = 1/8 × 25.4 = 3.175 mm

From Table 28.2, the work index for limestone is 12.74

 1 1 
P  mW  m  0.3162  Wi   
 D pb D pa 
 
 1 1 
 100  0.3162  12.74   
 3.175 50.8 
= 169.6 kW = 227 hp
 Grinding Mills
There are many types of grinding mills, the main ones
include:
Rods, balls,
Rod Mills ore itself
Tumbling Ball mills
mills Autogenous Mills Size of 5-250 mm is
Semi Autogenous Mills reduced to 10-300µm
The structure of tumbling mill is a horizontal cylindrical steel shell provided with a
renewable charge of medium
The mill rotates on hollow trunnions attached to the end walls. The diameter of the mill
determines the force of the impact on the ore particle and the length of the mill
determines the volumetric throughput.
Material is fed into the mill through one trunnion and leaves through the other
 Grinding Mechanisms
All mills use one of the major mechanisms of grinding

Chipping Abrasion
Impact
There is always a combination of mechanisms in a mill
Breakage Mechanisms

Impact and Attrition

Rod Mills
 Rod Mill

Note length compared to diameter

Rod Mills - Mechanism

Rods act like crushing rolls, coarse feed spreads the rods,
producing a wedge array.

This gives "preferential grinding" - product has narrow

size distribution
Rod Mills - Classification
• Rod mills can be classed as fine crushers or coarse
mills
• Feed <50 mm, product ~300m
• High reduction ratios - 15-20:1
• Length of shell is 1.5 - 2.5 x diameter (max 6m)
• Assorted diameters of rods
• Worn rods removed - no tangle
• Used as first stage in grinding circuit
• Rod mills are classified by power not capacity
• Power required can be calculated from Bond’s
equation
Rod Mills - Classification
• Rod mills are classified according to their discharge
mechanism
• In general the closer discharge to the periphery of
the shell, the quicker the material will pass through
and less over grinding will take place
– Central peripheral discharge mill
– End peripheral discharge mill
– Overflow mill
 Central peripheral discharge
mill

• Feed from both ends

• Discharge through center
• Small reduction ratio
• Used when
1. high
tonnage of
product is
required and
when

2. Extremely
coarse
product is
required
 End peripheral
discharge mill
• Feed from one end and discharge at other by means of several
apertures in to a close-fitting circumferential Shute
• Used for coarse dry/dump products of moderately coarse size
distribution
 Overflow rod mill

• The most important type of mill in the mining industry

• Feed is fed through one trunnion and discharge through the
other
• Only used for wet grinding and the principal role is to convert
crushed product in to ball mill feed
 The charge of the rod mill

• Assorted diameter rods used (25-250mm)

• Largest diameter rod must be no larger than that required to break
largest particle in the feed coarse feed = coarse rods and vise
versa

• Rods below 25 mm are removed as the are liable to break and

tangle

• High carbon steel construction

• Consumption is approximately 0.1-1.0 kg/tonne of ore

• 50-65% of critical speed

Ball Mills

Typical View
 Ball Mills

• Better suited to fine grinding - higher surface area per unit

weight of media

• Length - diameter ratio is 1-1.5:1

• The mill charge volume is about 40-50% of the mil volume,

about 40% of this being void space.

• Energy input increases with ball charge, and reached a

maximum at approximately 50%.
•
• Ball mills are operated at higher speeds than rod mills to
encourage impact at the toe. The work input to a mill
increases in proportion to the mill speed and ball mills are
run at as high a speed as possible without centrifuging.
Normally this is approximately 65-80% of the critical speed
Ball Mills - Charge Motion

Cascade - attrition breakage Low speed - attrition breakage

Cataract - impact breakage High speed - impact breakage
Critical speed - no breakage
 Charge Motion
• The distinctive feature of tumbling
mills is the use of loose crushing
bodies, which are large, hard and
heavy in relation to the ore particles
but small in relation to the mill
• The media is lifted due to friction
between the mill shell and the media.
It rises until a position of dynamic
equilibrium is reached, when the
bodies cascade and cataract down
the free surface of the other bodies,
about a dead zone where little
movement occurs, down to the toe of
the mill charge.

•Mill speed is important as it governs the nature of the product and the
amount of wear on the media and liner. Most grinding is carried out at
the toe of the charge where there is direct impact of the cataracting
medium on the charge and also the ore packed between the charge
receives the shock transmitted.
 Critical Mill Speed
The forces acting on a medium in a mill shell are shown below.

(a) Trajectory of (b) forces acting on

grinding medium in the medium
tumbling mill Circular path

It is possible to derive the critical speed of a mill and the resulting equation is
42.3
Nc 
Dd

where Nc = critical speed of the mill [rev min-1], D is the mill diameter and d is the rod or ball
diameter.
• The above equation assumes that there is no slip between the medium and shell. To account for
this it is common practice to increase the value of critical speed by 20%. In practice mills are run at
between 65-80% of critical speed.
• Increase in speed increases capacity but NOT efficiency.
• Low speeds low capacity fine grinding
• High speeds high capacity coarse grinding.
 Critical Mill Speed
The critical speed of the mill correspond to the situation when the ball is located at
the uppermost position of the mill lining where the centrifugal force will be exactly
equal to the weight of the ball.
So if the mill is rotating at critical angular velocity ωc, then

rc2  g Where r is radius of the mill – radius

of the ball or rod or particle
or
g
c  [rad./s]
r
The corresponding rotational speed Nc in revolutions per unit time (s)

c 1 g
Nc   [Rev.s-1]
2 2 r Nc 
42.3
Dd
Example:
A ball mill 1.2 m in diameter is being operated at 70 rpm, it found that the mill
is not working satisfactory. Would you suggest any solution to this problem?

Balls are 100 mm size.

Example:
A ball mill 1.2 m in diameter is being operated at 70 rpm, it found that the mill
is not working satisfactory. Would you suggest any solution to this problem?

Balls are 100 mm size.

Solution:

1 g R = 0.6 m, r = 50 × 10-3 m
Nc 
2 Rr

→ Nc = 0.67 rps → Nc  40 rpm

Use 70% of the critical speed → N  28 rpm

 Ball Mills Types
Feed

Feed
 Ball Mills Types
Overflow most popular mill Type. Lower energy consumption, they are simpler to
operate. Operated in close circuit, less energy consumption compared to GDM (15%
less). Rated by power

Grate discharge mill is fitted with discharge grates between the cylindrical mill body
and the discharge trunnion. The pulp can flow freely through openings in the grate and
is then lifted up to the level of the discharge trunnion. These mills have lower pulp level
than overflow mills, thus reducing the dwell time of the particles. Little overgrinding
occurs and the product contains a large amount of coarse material which is returned to
the mill by a classifier. This type of mill is almost always operated in close circuit.
 Factors affecting size of
product
• The rate of feed: with high feed rate less size reduction is expected
• Properties of feed materials: smaller size reduction is obtained with
a hard material
• Weight of balls: heavier balls produce fine material
• Diameter of balls: small balls produce finer material
• The slope of the mill: the higher the slope the higher the capacity the
coarser the particle size
• Discharge point location
• The speed of rotation
 Autogenous Mills (AG)

• No grinding media present

• Advantages include
– Lower capital cost
– Ability to handle sticky materials
– Simple flowsheet design
– Minimal media cost
– High capacity equipment

• Semi autogenous mill has some media (SAG)

Autogenous Mills (AG)

Autogenous mill
at Bingham canyon
Utah, USA
 Autogeneous mills

• Grinding is a result of ore/ore impact in true AG grinding

• Primary auto mills reduce from 250 mm to 0.1 mm in one

device.

• Working speed 75-80% of critical speed

• The main mechanism is abrasion, which increases mineral
liberation due to grain boundary fracture.

• Energy costs are higher (much bigger machine) than

conventional circuit but here is no media costs. Problems can
occur with very hard materials within softer matrix
• D>>L
Autogenous Mills (AG)

Mills can be up to 12m

diameter
Largest SAG Mill

~20MW 12.2m diameter

Cadia Hill Gold Mine,
NSW, Australia
 Dry Grinding
• Advantages
– Less liner wear
– Less media wear
– Higher proportion of fines in product (can
be important)
– Inhibits reactions with water

Advantages here are the disadvantages of wet

grinding
 Wet Grinding
• Advantages
– Lower power consumption per tonne
– High capacity per unit mill volume
– Makes possible wet classification and screening
– Elimination of dust problem
– Makes possible use of transport methods, e.g.
slurries etc.
 Advantages of ball mill
1. The mill may be used for wet and dry grinding
2. The cost of installation and power is low
3. The ball mill may be used with an inert atmosphere and
therefore can be used for grinding of explosive materials
4. The grinding medium is cheap
5. The mill is suitable for all degrees of hardness
6. Can be used for batch or continuous operations
7. Can be used in open or closed circuit
Special techniques for size
reduction
1. Electrohydroulic crushing
2. Ultrasonic grinding
3. Cryogenic grinding
4. Explosive shattering