How Far the Crushing Performance Can be Pushed? Con Crusher vs Vertical Shaft Impactor (VSI)

Hamid Manouchehri

Comminution '18, April 16-19, Cape Town, South Africa

ABSTRACT

As an energy intensive industry, mining consumes about 6-7% of total world’s energy to produce raw materials for subsequent industries. Grinding, however, is the most energy intensive process in mining which is responsible for consuming about 40% of the energy in whole mining chain. Inefficiency in grinding has long been an outstanding problem, particularly when production of fines and ultra-fines are considered. To improve efficiency in grinding has been subject of number of R&D projects.

Unlike milling, crushers are much more energy efficient which can be up to 50% of the input energy. Therefore, it is logic to push the comminution process towards crushing stage for energy efficiency. Furthermore, crushing is done in dry mode which reduces water consumption and related potential water contamination in whole mining activities.

To push down-sizing in crushing stage(s) as far as technically possible as well as design and manufacture advanced, productive, and energy efficient crushers have been our main strategy at Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology. It is believed that fine crushing would potentially possible by wisely design comminution plants. There are areas in designing, developing, and manufacturing of crushing device to improve efficiency in comminution. That could be achieved through designing of new crushing chambers, introducing more energy and higher rotation speed in crushing chamber, etc.

To explore the potential of fine crushing and its effects on subsequent milling process it was planned to test fine crushing performance of Sandvik’s conventional cone crusher and Vertical Shaft Impactor (VSI) in pilot scale by pushing crushing performance to produce fine crushed product, i.e., P ≤ 2 mm. The particle size distribution and the circulating load for production fines were monitored and the energy consumption with respect to fine production was calculated to potentially define potentials for fine crushing. Furthermore, the crushed products from two different crushers were compared by grindability, morphology, surface area measurement, and other characterization tests.

AUTHOR

Hamid Manouchehri (1)

1. Global Manager Process Intelligence and Development, Sandvik SRPAB, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology (SMRT), Svedala, Sweden, SE- 23381 and

Adjunct Professor, NBK Institute of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CEEC acknowledges and thanks MEI for organising Comminution '18. The conference papers proceedings USB is available by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The cost is £95 which includes postage.