Increasing Energy Efficiency and Productivity of the Comminution Process in Tumbling Mills by Indirect Measurements of Internal Dynamics—An Overview

Góralczyk, Krot, Radosław, Ogonowski

Abstract

Tumbling mills have been widely implemented in many industrial sectors for the grinding of bulk materials. They have been used for decades in the production of fines and in the final stages of ore comminution, where optimal levels for the enrichment particles’ sizes are obtained. Even though these ubiquitous machines of relatively simple construction have been subjected to extensive studies, the industry still struggles with very low energy efficiency of the comminution process. Moreover, obtaining an optimal size for the grinding product particles is crucial for the effectiveness of the following processes and waste production reduction.

New, innovative processing methods and machines are being developed to tackle the problem; however, tumbling mills are still most commonly used in all ranges of the industry. Since heavy equipment retrofitting is the most costly approach, process optimization with dedicated models and control systems is the most preferable solution for energy consumption reduction.

While the classic technological measurements in mineral processing are well adopted by the industry, nowadays research focuses on new methods of the mill’s internal dynamics analysis and control. This paper presents a retrospective overview of the existing models of internal load motion, an overview of the innovations in process control, and some recent research and industrial approaches from the energy consumption reduction point of view.

Keywords

Ball mills; energy efficiency; internal dynamics; DEM model; resonance oscillations; measurements

Authors

Mateusz Góralczyk1,* , Pavlo Krot1,* , Radosław Zimro1 and Szymon Ogonowski2

1 Faculty of Geoengineering, Mining and Geology, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Na Grobli 15, 50-421Wrocław, Poland; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

2 Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 16, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

* Correspondence: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (M.G.); This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (P.K.)

Received: 15 November 2020; Accepted: 10 December 2020; Published: 21 December 2020

Acknowledgements

This research has received funding from European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, under the Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. This work is supported by EIT Raw Materials GmbH under framework partnership agreement number 18253 (OPMO—Operational Monitoring of Mineral Crushing Machinery).