Fragmentation - Technology

Fragmentation machines are tailored to specific industrial needs, and their technologies differ according to the field of application. For example, it is impossible to imagine a single device capable of both dividing material into large blocks and reducing it to fine grains. Similarly, a machine designed to crush or grind rocky materials characterized by brittle fracture will not be suitable for shredding metals or for defibrating and grinding plants. However, for all industries, the common concern to be met by the fragmentation device and its integration into a production system will be the use value of the fragmented material. To this will be added other concerns more specific to the industry in question.

In the mining industry, in addition to the need to free up sufficient quantities of the minerals to be concentrated, it is necessary to ensure a high throughput of material, and to obtain efficient fragmentation operations, given the high investment costs and high operating costs resulting from energy expenditure, wear and tear, etc. For these reasons, the use of ball mills has been steadily eroded by the use of autogenous and impact mills. For these reasons, for over 50 years now, ball mills have been steadily replaced by autogenous and impact mills.

For the shredding of metal scrap, we had to design shredders that were highly resistant to impact and wear, could handle high throughputs, and could process material of extremely variable composition.

Grinding in cement plants requires technologies that avoid high wear and tear and high energy consumption, while still achieving high material throughputs.

In contrast to the previous applications, where the main concern was to use equipment capable of processing large masses of material, there are now applications where the main priority is to use equipment capable of delivering quality ground material with high added value. In the mineral filler and ceramics industries, in addition to the need for fineness, there are requirements for very narrow granular distributions, specific grain morphologies and well-controlled surface characteristics.

In the food and pharmaceutical industries, equipment technology will be quite specific: fineness remains a very important criterion, but the grinding equipment must be easy to dismantle and clean, and provide a highly homogeneous product. On the other hand, throughput will not be an essential parameter in most cases.

This dossier, which covers a wide range of classic technologies, is supplemented by a dossier on applications to metal ores. and another file dealing with applications to industrial minerals and various substances. .