FEATURES OF TUBULAR GRINDING MILLS

PRESENTED BY

SUBRATA CHAKRABARTTI

INTRODUCTION
A tubular grinding mill is often used for efficient size
reduction application of variety of products such as metallic
ores, coal, cement, refractory, pigments and chemicals with
the purpose varying from product to product.

CEMENT
The basic raw material for producing cement is a carbonaceous
rock called Limestone. In addition, other partial substitutes
such as blast furnace slag, pozzolanas, fly-ash etc are used for
various purposes. The cement manufacturing process involves
several stages of size reduction by crushing and grinding, the
most critical being the final grinding of clinker after the raw
material has been thermally processed in a kiln. This finish
grinding operation is most vital as the properties of cement
depends, to a large degree, on the particle size which is a
controlling parameter for the cement manufacturers.

IRON ORE
To make best use of low grade iron ores now available worldwide,
some type of beneficiation process needs to be carried out to
ensure efficient blast furnace operation. Pelletisation is one such
process which relies upon the ore being ground to separate the
iron bearing particles from the gangue, the ore subsequently
being formed into pellets which are sintered prior to the melting
operation.

COPPER AND OTHER NON-FERROUS ORES

These metals are normally extracted in the form of very low grade
ores, which requires complex processing to extract useful
minerals. Initially the metallic ore particles must be physically
separated from gangue materials by milling. Subsequent
separation is then achieved by a flotation process based on
either differential densities or chemical activation.

COAL
Coal is frequently ground for use as pulverized fuel, the most
common application being power generation. This is an
operation which is sometimes carried out by ball milling, but it
is also a field in which a vertical spindle mill is predominant.

TYPES OF GRINDING MILL

Two main milling processes exist, those in which the product is ground as a dry
powder and those in which the material to be ground is fed to the mill in the form
of an aqueous slurry.
In cement grinding, the raw meal for kiln input can be ground either wet or dry,
this being decided primarily by the moisture content of the quarried rock. If the
rock is chalk based and have a high moisture content, it is more economical to
wet grind whereas hard limestone rock is almost exclusively ground dry.
The final clinker grinding is obviously always carried out dry. Several other ancillary
grinding processes are frequently located within a cement plant such as for coal
grinding for kiln firing which is a dry process or sand grinding for silica additions
which is normally carried out wet.
In case of iron ore preparation, either wet or dry grinding can be employed
although most modern plants tend to be of the dry process, due to energy
considerations.
The preparation of non-ferrous metal ores always tend to be performed wet
because of the nature of the subsequent separation process.

Four main types of grinding mill can be identified, each type having its own
characteristic design variations.
a) BALL MILL: This consists of a rotating tube approximately one third filled
with balls, the cascading action of the balls generating a grinding action.
b) ROD MILL: The principle is similar to that of a ball mill but the grinding
media consists of a series of rods instead of balls. This process had certain
limitations because of the minimum size of particle which can conveniently
be produced by the action of rods.
c) AUTOGENOUS MILL: These are again of tubular design but the grinding
action is produced by introducing large rocks and boulders into the mill feed
which replace the ball or rod charge. In semi-autogenous practice a small
quantity of balls are introduced and, therefore ball and rod mills are of semiautogenous type.
d) VERTICAL MILL: There are a series of alternative designs of vertical mills
available where the principle of operation is to grind the feed material
between a table and rotating rollers. The configuration of the rollers vary
from manufacturer to manufacturer and can be a hollow roller tyre or even
hollow balls up to 52 inches in diameter.

COMPONENTS OF TUBULAR MILL

Examining a typical cement clinker grinding mill, which can

be considered to be representative of all tube mills, the
components normally found as follows:-

EXAMPLE OF TUBE MILL

SHELL LINING PLATES

These plates are specially designed and incorporate contour features
which inject movement into the ball charge during rotation of the mill.
Properties required by the plates vary along the length of the mill. For
instance, at the inlet region of the mill there is likely to be less
protection of the plates by ground products and the balls will be of
largest size in use and therefore, toughness is of outmost importance.
However, along the length of the mill, in second and third chambers,
the ball size is considerably smaller and a protective layer of ground
material is available and here wear resistance must be at a maximum.

END WALL LINING PLATES

These plates are fitted at the inlet region of the mill and as such
are subjected to maximum impact by the large grinding media,
therefore, the need to be manufactured in as tough a material
as possible whilst at the same time obviously retaining a high
degree of wear resistance.

DIAPHRAGM PLATES
Similar comments apply to slotted diaphragm plates particularly those
separating first and second grinding chambers because in this region
there is frequently a lack of protective ground material as it passes
through the slotted plates. It is essential, however, to maintain a high
level of hardness in these plates to avoid peening over the slots, thereby
reducing mill throughput.

SECTION XX

GRINDING BALLS AND CYLPEBS

This item is self-explanatory. Grinding balls vary in size from 12 to 100mm in
diameter, the larger balls requiring increased resistance to repeated impact,
smaller balls requiring maximum wear resistance. In the case of fine grinding,
balls are occasionally replaced by cylpebs which cylindrical products with a
height/diameter ratio of unity, the theory being that they posses a higher
surface area/volume characteristic than the equivalent diameter grinding balls.
Cylpebs are normally produced in sizes ranging from 12x12 to 30x30 mm.

GRINDING PRACTICE
The ball mill can be operated in one of two ways, either with open or closed circuit
conditions. In open circuit grinding, the feed material passes through the mill just once and
all the particles are ground to the maximum required size. In closed circuit grinding the mill
operates in conjunction with the air separator which classifies the ground particles, over
size material being re-circulated as part of the feed. The feed to a closed circuit mill is
subsequently larger in quantity than to an open circuit mill and the re-circulating load is
fed to the mill at the rate of 200 to 300% feed.
One of the main principle of ball milling is to present the material being ground with the
correct size of ball for most efficient grinding. The larger the particle size and harder or
more tougher to grind the material, then the larger the ball required to crush that particle.
The smaller the particle size to be produced , then the smaller the grinding ball necessary
to generate the new surface area required. In conventional mill practice, this is achieved by
splitting the mill into at least three chambers, each one being separated by a diaphragm. It
is possible to automatically classify different sizes of balls along the length of the tube mill
by specially designed shell lining plates which are contoured axially as well as radially. This
classification is achieved by the rebound action and the differential momentum of different
size of balls. It is essential to obtain the correct cascading action within the charge for
classification to occur. For this reason, volume loading must be carefully controlled since if
the mill is too full , the correct action will not be generated with the charge and
classification will not occur.

A recent development in the field of grinding technology has

been the introduction of minipebs grinding systems which
enables the fine grinding of super rapid hardening cements in
open circuit. This system utilizes extremely small cylpebs
weighing only grams.