The
Copperbel
Chemical t
Engineeri University
ng
Departme
nt
Crushing in mineral
processing
Presented by
Evans Chomba
The Copperbelt University
Comminution and Sizes
Effective Range of 80% passing sizes by Process
Process F80 P80
1) Explosive shattering infinite 1m
2) Primary crushing: 1m 100mm
3) Secondary crushing: 100 mm 10 mm
The 80% passing size is used
4) Coarse grinding: 10 mm 1 mm because it can be measured.
5) Fine grinding: 1mm 100 μm
6) Very fine grinding: 100 μm 10 μm
7) Superfine grinding: 10 μm 1 μm
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Knowledge & Service.
Crushers
Crushing is the first mechanical stage in the process of
comminution in which the main objective is the
liberation of the valuable minerals from the gangue.
It is generally a dry operation and is usually performed
in two or three stages.
Lumps of run of mine ore can be as large as 1.5 m
across and these are reduced in the primary crushing
stage to 10-20 cm in heavy-duty machines.
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Knowledge & Service.
Primary crushers
Primary crushers are heavy-duty machines, used to
reduce the run-of-mine ore down to a size suitable for
transport and for feeding the secondary crushers or
AG/SAG mills.
They are always operated in open circuit, with or
without heavy-duty scalping screens (grizzlies).
There are two main types of primary crusher in
metalliferous operations-jaw and gyratory crushers.
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Knowledge & Service.
Jaw crushers
The distinctive feature of this class of crusher is the two
plates which open and shut like animal jaws
The jaws are set at an acute angle to each other, and one
jaw is pivoted so that it swings relative to the other fixed
jaw
Material fed into the jaws is alternately nipped and released
to fall further into the crushing chamber
Eventually it falls from the discharge aperture
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Knowledge & Service.
Jaw crushers
The mechanism of crushing is
either by applying impact force,
pressure or a combination of
both.
The jaw crusher is primarily a
compression crusher while the
others operate primarily by the
application of impact.
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Knowledge & Service.
Jaw Crusher Type
All jaw crushers are rated according to their receiving areas,
i.e. the width of the plates and the gape, which is the
distance between the jaws at the feed opening.
For example, an 1830* 1220mm crusher has a width of
1830 mm and a gape of 1220 mm.
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Knowledge & Service.
Installed jaw crusher
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Knowledge & Service.
Jaw crushers
Jaw crushers range in size up to 1680 mm gape by 2130 mm
width
This size machine will handle ore with a maximum size of 1.22
m at a crushing rate of approximately 725t/h with a 203mm
set
However, at crushing rates above 545t/h the economic
advantage of the jaw crusher over the gyratory diminishes;
and above 725t/h jaw crushers cannot compete with gyratory
crushers
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Knowledge & Service.
Gyratory Crushers
Gyratory crushers are principally used in surface crushing
plants, although a few currently operate underground
The gyratory crusher consists essentially of a long spindle,
carrying a hard steel conical grinding element, the head, seated
in an eccentric sleeve
The spindle is suspended from a "spider" and, as it rotates,
normally between 85 and 150 rev/min, it sweeps out a conical
path within the fixed crushing chamber, or shell, due to the
gyratory action of the eccentric.
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Gyratory Crushers
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Knowledge & Service. 1
Gyratory crushers
In mines with crushing rates above 900 t/h, gyratory crushers are
always selected
Crushers range in size up to gapes of 1830 mm and can crush ores with
top size of 1370 mm at a rate of up to 5000 t/h with a 200 mm set
Power consumption is as high as 750 kW on such crushers
A useful relationship, which is often used in plant design, is: If t/h <
161.7 (gape in metres)2, use a jaw crusher
Conversely, if the tonnage is greater than this value, use a gyratory
crusher
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Knowledge & Service. 2
Crushing
Crushing capacity depends on many factors, such as the
angle of nip (i.e. the angle between the crushing members),
stroke, speed, and the liner material, as well as on the feed
material, and its initial particle size.
Capacity problems do not usually occur in the upper and
middle sections of the crushing cavity, providing the angle of
nip is not too great.
It is normally the discharge zone, the narrowest section of the
crushing chamber, which determines the crushing capacity.
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Knowledge & Service. 3
Crushing
The type of material being crushed may also determine
the crusher used
Jaw crushers perform better than gyratory Crushers on
clayey, plastic material, due to their greater throw
Gyratory Crushers have been found to be particularly
suitable for hard, abrasive material, and they tend to
give a more cubic product than jaw crushers if the feed
is laminated or "slabby"
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Knowledge & Service. 4
Secondary Crushers
Secondary crushers are much lighter than the heavy-duty, rugged
primary machines
Since they take the primary crushed ore as feed, the maximum feed size
will normally be less than 15 cm in diameter and, because most of the
harmful constituents in the ore, such as tramp metal, wood, clays, and
slimes have already been removed, it is much easier to handle
Similarly, the transportation and feeding arrangements serving the
crushers do not need to be as rugged as in the primary stage
Secondary crushers also operate with dry feeds, and their purpose is to
reduce the ore to a size suitable for grinding
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Knowledge & Service. 5
Tertiary crushing
In those cases where size reduction can be more efficiently
carried out by crushing, there may be a tertiary stage before the
material is passed to the grinding mills
Tertiary crushers are, to all intents and purposes, of the same
design as secondaries, except that they have a closer set.
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Knowledge & Service. 6
The Cone Crusher
The cone crusher is a modified gyratory crusher.
The essential difference is that the shorter spindle of
the cone crusher is not suspended, as in the
gyratory, but is supported in a curved, universal
beating below the gyratory head or cone.
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Knowledge & Service. 7
Cone crushers
The high-speed action allows
particles to flow freely through the
crusher, and the wide travel of the
head creates a large opening
between it and the bowl when in
the fully open position.
This permits the crushed fines to
be rapidly discharged, making
room for additional feed.
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Knowledge & Service. 8
Cone crushers
The throw of cone crushers can be up to five times that
of primary crushers, which must withstand heavier
working stresses.
They are also operated at much higher speeds.
The material passing through the crusher is subjected
to a series of hammer-like blows rather than being
gradually compressed as by the slowly moving head of
the gyratory.
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Knowledge & Service. 9
Impact Crushers
In this class of crusher, comminution is by impact rather
than compression, by sharp blows applied at high speed to
free-falling rock.
The moving parts are beaters, which transfer some of their
kinetic energy to the ore particles on contacting them.
The internal stresses created in the particles are often
large enough to cause them to shatter.
These forces are increased by causing the particles to
impact upon an anvil or breaker plate.
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Knowledge & Service. 0
Impact crusher
Used in small-scale operations
Coarse liberation sizes
Hammer velocities (50mps)
Screen hole size controls
product size
High wear rates of hammers
and screen
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Knowledge & Service. 1
Roll crushers
Roll crushers, or crushing rolls, are still used in some mills,
although they have been replaced in most installations by
cone crushers.
They still have a useful application in handling friable, sticky,
frozen, and less abrasive feeds, such as limestone, coal,
chalk, gypsum, phosphate, and soft iron ores.
Jaw and gyratory crushers have a tendency to choke near the
discharge when crushing friable rock with a large proportion
of maximum size pieces in the feed.
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Knowledge & Service. 2
Roll crushers
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Knowledge & Service. 3
Roll crushers
The coefficient of friction between steel and most ore
particles is in the range 0.2-0.3, so that the value of
the angle of nip should never exceed about 30°, or the
particle will slip.
It should also be noted that the value of the coefficient
of friction decreases with speed, so that the speed of
the rolls depends on the angle of nip, and the type of
material being crushed.
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High pressure grinding rolls (HPGR)
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HPGR - Brief History of Development
While studying the specific energy of breakage due to
impact and by compressive forces, Schoenert
observed that the utilization of specific energy of
breakage as a result of impact was much less than
with compressive forces.
Thus during high pressure grinding where large
compressive forces were applied to the bed of ore, the
total energy required would be relatively less
compared to comminution systems where impact
forces predominate. 2
Knowledge & Service. 6
Roll Crusher vs HPGR
In a roll crusher comminution primarily involves individual particles
nipped between converging roller surfaces. The forces of
compression and friction between the rolls and particles are
responsible for size reduction provided the combined forces
exceed the compressive strength of particles.
When a large quantity of rock is held between the rolls and
subjected to high pressure then comminution could take place by
compressive forces as well as by inter-particle breakage, provided
again that the total applied pressure was greater than the crushing
strength of the rock pieces.
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Knowledge & Service. 7
HPGR
Schoenert also observed that with decreasing particle size the
energy utilization increased. These observations resulted into the
development of high pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) and are being
used with considerable success in the cement, iron ore and
diamond industries.
Due to the fact that fine product sizes can be obtained, the HPGR
has been used both for crushing and grinding. In a crushing circuit
it can replace tertiary crushing and installed before a ball mill.
In some cases it is installed after the ball mill, as in Kudramukh in
India in an iron ore circuit where the product from the HPGR is fed
directly to a pelletizing plant.
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Knowledge & Service. 8
Crusher Selection
There is an important difference between the states of
materials crushed by pressure and by impact.
There are internal stresses in material broken by
pressure which can later cause cracking. Impact
causes immediate fracture with no residual stresses.
This stress-free condition is particularly valuable in
stone used for brick-making, building, and road
making, in which binding agents, such as bitumen, are
subsequently added to the surface.
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Knowledge & Service. 9
Crusher Selection
Impact crushers, therefore, have a wider use in the
quarrying industry than in the metal-mining industry.
They may give trouble-free crushing on ores that tend
to be plastic and pack when the crushing forces are
applied slowly, as is the case in jaw and gyratory
crushers.
These types of ore tend to be brittle when the
crushing force is applied instantaneously by impact
crushers.
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Knowledge & Service. 0
Crusher Selection
Impact crushers are also favoured in the quarry
industry because of the improved product shape.
Cone crushers tend to produce more elongated
particles because of their high reduction ratios and
ability of such particles to pass through the chamber
unbroken.
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Knowledge & Service. 1
Crushing - Calculation of Reduction Ratio
All crushers have a limited reduction ratio meaning
that size reduction will take place in stages. The
number of stages is guided by the size of the feed and
the requested product, example see below.
Feed Material Size: F80 = 400 mm
Product Size: P80 = 16 mm
Total reduction ratio (R) F80/P80 400/16 = 25
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Knowledge & Service. 2
Crushing - Calculation of Reduction Ratio
Reduction ratio in the primary crushing stage: R1 = 3
Reduction ratio in the secondary crushing stage: R2 =
3
Total in 2 crushing stages gives: R1xR2 = 3x3 = 9
This is not sufficient. We need a third crushing stage
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Knowledge & Service. 3
Crushing Reduction Ratio
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Knowledge & Service. 4
Crushing circuit
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Knowledge & Service. 5
Thank You
The
Copperbel
t
University
www.cbu.ac.zm
