New in the minerals preparation
Totally new potentials are opening up for the future of industrial minerals, ores and precious stones. BT-Wolfgang Binder have developed the REDWAVE mineral sorter (Fig. 1), which has – for the first time ever in the field of minerals preparation – an effective working width of 2000 mm. This greater working width increases throughput significantly, with beneficial effects for preparation costs. The new mineral sorter, which is to be put into operation by a European company in the near future, functions as standard using high-resolution camera technology, with the appurtenant innovative direct and background LED illumination. The fact that the feed material is also scanned from two viewing angles also has positive benefits for sorting efficiency.
This sensor-assisted sorting process makes it possible to recognize and eliminate material which could not be separated using conventional methods. The REDWAVE mineral sorter recognizes and sorts the feed material on the basis both of colour and material properties in a single operation. It is, in addition, of low-maintenance design and is insensitive to fouling and other disruptive effects. Limestones (Fig. 2) containing two different fractions of +25 mm/–60 mm and +60 mm/–150 mm are sorted to high purities and at high throughput rates. Extraneous and disruptive components which can be differentiated by colour are removed from the limestone product. The new machine system is in use in the primary processing stage, as a sorting method employing high-resolution colour technology with simultaneous scanning from two viewing angles.
This REDWAVE machine technology, with an effective working width of 2000 mm, has been designed for particle diameters of up to 150 mm and throughputs of up to 150 t/h (Fig. 3). The sorting system is in use, in various sorting widths, for sorting of a range of industrial minerals (limestone, quartz, magnesite, talc, etc.).
In comparison to conventional plants the greater working width makes it possible to virtually double throughput, significantly reducing preparation costs. This new generation of sorting machines is increasingly coming into use in minerals preparation, in order to reduce operating costs and permit production of new product grades (Fig. 4).
The sorting system is based on X-ray fluorescence technology, which is ideally suitable for real-time analysis of moving flows of minerals and ores. It offers high-speed, non-contact sorting, and can in most cases also be used without loss of sorting performance for moist, fouled and coated materials. Scanning of the chemical composition of the feed material has already been successfully tested in various sectors, including manganese ore, colemanite, willemite, lead and iron ore.
Machines linked to various sensors in order to enable customers to define grades more precisely and enhance added value are already in use and under development today. This industry achieves the targeted purity levels only to a limited degree using conventional preparation methods. A future innovation will be the REDWAVE sorter for fine particles from +3 mm in diameter, which has been developed and successfully tested for use in the limestone and talc industries, in particular.
REDWAVE Sortiertechnik, of Gleisdorf, will naturally continue to supply the entire range of process and plant engineering, plus production, from a single source; sorting systems both in compact container form, and integrated into existing process configurations. Furthermore customers also have the possibility to test their minerals in the test laboratory at REDWAVE: office@redwave.at.
REDWAVE, a brand of BT-Wolfgang Binder GmbH, Gleisdorf (A), Tel.: +43 3112 8377-0, www.redwave.at
