In the middle of 2017 one of our partners began a major industrial test to track changes of the technological parameters of the factory while decreasing the average diameter of the grinding balls used in ball mills.
The first eight months-long stage was the transition from the using of 100mm ball in the mills of the first grinding stage to 80mm steel ball. In order to avoid distortion of the results, the chemical composition of the steel, from which the 80 mm balls were made, had to be completely identical to the previously used grinding balls of diameter 100mm. The hardness values should also be identical. The test was conducted by the method of substitution.
After eight months all indicators of the tested mill were analyzed. The experiment showed the following results:
– Reduction of grinding balls consumption rate by 5-6%;
– Improving of grinding quality – the content of the finished product in the discharge of the mill of the first grinding stage increased on an average 12%.
Based on this experiment, the plant’s management decided to refit all mills of the first grinding stage for using grinding balls 80mm.
The next stage of this large-scale industrial test was approval of reduction of the grinding balls diameter on 10-15 mm, which are used at the second and third grinding stages. At the moment, Energosteel has made the first deliveries of the necessary grinding balls to our client.
It should be noted that the improvement of the technological indicators of the grinding process possible not only by changing of diameter of the used grinding balls, but also due to the constant modernization of related technological processes, such as screening, crushing, classification, enrichment, etc.
In the future, we will keep our readers posted about the progress of this large-scale industrial experiment.
