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SLAG
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SLAG

GRINDING WITH
BY

LOESCHE
LOESCHE GMBH

VERTICAL ROLLER MILLS

DR. CAROLINE HACKLNDER-WOYWADT

Vertical roller mills by Loesche for grinding slag and cement have been in operation for more than 12 years. More than 90 mills with the 2+2/3+3 - technology have been sold worldwide by June 2006. Here Caroline Hacklnder-Woywadt shows the high energy efficiency and availabilty of vertical roller mills. 2+2/3+3-Technology
Loesche vertical roller mills are characterised by - a flat grinding table with a vertical axis; - 2, 3, 4 or 6 grinding rollers of conical shape equally spaced on the table; - individual fixed rollers; - modular design; - hydro pneumatic spring system; - air swept operation with integrated drying and classification process. As clinker and blastfurnace slag are ground to higher fineness than cement raw material a higher specific grinding pressure is necessary which is achieved by controlled formation of the grinding bed. Figure 1 shows a view inside an LM 56.3+3 installed in India mill with the principle of roller arrangement for grinding of cement and slag. The socalled 2+2 or 3+3 technology is characterised by pairwise arranged rollers which form a unit. Each pair of rollers is composed of a small support (S)roller and a large master (M)-roller. The S-roller de-aerates, compacts and prepares the feed material for the M-roller, where underneath the comminution takes place1. For over 10 years this principle has been applied successfully.

Process
Loesche slag and cement mills offer a very simple and compact layout. All the unit operations with drying, grinding and separation occur in the mill itself and therefore the number of auxiliaries are limited to a minimum. The feed is transported to the mill through a rotary star feeder to avoid false air in the mill which otherwise would load the fan and cause power loss. The wear parts in the star feeder

Figure 1: View inside an LM 56.3+3, Mroller and S-roller

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tial high moisture contents. The hydro-pneumatic spring system makes it easy to adjust the mill when the type of product is changed. Moisture contents of 15% or even more are acceptable with the excellent drying capacity. Changing from one type of cement to another or GGBS can be done within a very short period. The amount of intermediate products is very little. The heat required for the drying is supplied by a hot gas generator (Loesche LOMA furnace) if other process gases are not available. The use of different fuels is possible. If the grinding unit is near a blastfurnace, low calorific blastfurnace gas can also be used. In cement plants cooler gases or preheater gases can also be used. The design of the hot gas generator for slag grinding is made for a moisture of 12 to 15%. Most of the grinding heat remains in the system, the hot gas is recirculated after the product has been collected in the filter.

Wear rates
As granulated blastfurnace slag has very abrasive properties the grinding parts (M-rollers and table liners) have to be hardfaced. The wear occurs mainly at the outer diameter of the M-roller. The S-rollers usually do not wear. Extent of wear is influenced by the quality and type of grinding elements, the fineness of products and the moisture content of the feed materials. Hardfaced grinding elements with high carbide content have a lower wear rate than that of cast metals with a high chromium content and thus extend the service lives of the M-rollers and table liners. Table 12 compares the set up and hardfacing times of two mills. The specific wear rate for GGBS is below 5g/t in the case of produced Blaine figures from 3500 to 5400cm/g according to EN 196-6. The specific wear rate based on long-term-experience is between 4 to 7g/t of product. The number of welding heads influences the required welding time. The hardfacing in nearly all cases is carried out

Figure 2: Sectional view of grinding table / discharge hole.

can easily be changed. For dry and powdery materials like fly ash an individual feeding system will be installed. The components are dried, finish-ground and are finally passing through the classifier which is mounted on top of the mill. All mills are equipped with a reject transport system. Material falling down to the gas ducts through the nozzle ring after leaving the grinding table rim is withdrawn from the mill by scrapers. In the case of slag grinding the table has vertical holes for the recharge of the iron particles from the table because the main wear is caused by the pig iron. Figure 2 shows the principle of these recharge holes. In the case of slag, the reject mainly conProduct sists of iron particles Spec. surface area (Blaine) acc. which are present in to EN 196-6 the agglomerates of the Throughput, dry granulated slag and Set-up time (preparation for separated during the hardfacing) grinding process. Those Time for hardfacing iron particles present in Weld the reject are removed Master-Roller 1 by a magnetic separator to prevent its accumulaMaster-Roller 2 tion on the table. Grinding table The grinding systotal tem is less sensitive to Net wear rate, dry changes of feed materials with a wide range Table 1: Wear rates. of properties and par-

LM 35.2+2
GGBS 3500cm/g 60t/h 15h 36h

LM 46.2+2
GGBS 5400cm/g 75t/h 12h 36h

LM 46.2+2
GGBS, CEM I, CEM II/ -V 3000 - 4000cm/g avg.119t/h 40h 60h

231kg 231kg 270kg 480kg 4.97g/t 732kg 4.35g/t 517kg 3.16g/t

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sample preparation, and permeability test. The differences Standard sample are in the calculation of specific bS = 1.0 bS = 0.9 (114p, 114q) surface area. b = 0.9 The fineness of hydraulic b = 1.0 for hydraulic cement; Test sample for tested samples regardless cement is determined with the b has to be determined for materiof material Blaine air-permeability apparatus als other than Portland cement that measures the surface area Table 2: Constants for standard and test sample acc. to EN in square centimetres per gram, and ASTM. or square metres per kilogram. With this method relative rather than absolute fineness values are obtained. EN [cm/g] ASTM [cm/g] For determination of the fineness of other materials Sample 1 4080 4120 e.g. ground granulated blastfurnace slag, the method of resp. calculation has to be suited in case ASTM is Sample 2 3830 3950 applied.3 For calculation the following are taken into considTable 3: Results for specific surface area for two Portland cement samples. eration: - the surface area of a standard cement (SS) used for calibration (in general 114p or 114q) inside the mill (in-situ hardfacing, Figure 3). If carried out - the measured time interval for standard sample (TS) regularly the tyres can be hardfaced many times. There are tyres in operation which have been hardfaced more than and test sample (T), 20 times and have ground more than 2Mt of GGBS.2 - viscosity of air during test for standard (S) and test sample (), - density of standard (S) and test sample (), Specific surface area acc. to Blaine - porosity of prepared bed of standard sample (eS) and DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EN AND ASTM For comparison and discussion of properties of ground slag the specific test sample (e) as well as surface area acc. to Blaine is amongst others an important - constant for the standard sample (bS) and a constant figure. The standards EN 196-6 and ASTM C 204 for the specifically appropriate for the test sample (b). determination of the fineness are the same regarding the Table 2 shows the comparison for the values of the conuse of the Blaine air-permeability apparatus, calibration, stants acc. to EN and ASTM. According to EN 196-6 the

ASTM C 204

EN 196-6

Figure 3: View inside the mill during in-situ hardfacing

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Figure 4: Comparison of Blaine-figures for one GGBS sample acc. to EN 196-6 and ASTM C 204.

EN [cm/g]
Sample A Sample B 4860 7010

ASTM [cm/g]
4240 6150

Table 3 shows a comparison for a Portland cement sample (porosity e of test sample unequal 0.5) measured in Loesche test centre. The specific surface area was calculated in accordance to EN and ASTM. The discrepancy is modest. For ground granulated blastfurnace slag the discrepancy is higher. Table 4 shows results of Blaine-tests carried out at the Loesche test centre. The customer had confirmed these results for ASTM that differ not more than 60cm/g. Figure 4 shows the comparison of Blainefigures calculated acc. to EN 196-6 and ASTM C 204 for blastfurnace slag samples of different finenesses with a constant b determined to 0.9676. The Blaine figure of 6000cm/g calculated acc. to EN has an equivalent of appr. 5300cm/g calculated acc. to ASTM. For the determined range of 3500 to 6500cm/g a difference of 600 to 700cm/g between EN and ASTM results is noted.

Operating experience
Table 5 shows operating results for grinding blastfurnace slag in Loesche mills. These figures are different depending on the different grindabilities of the slag which can vary strongly with the provenance and age of slag. Intergrinding of slag and Portland cement clinker is easily possible with the properties of the mill for various feed materials but a lot of customers are grinding slag and OPC separately. With separate grinding a higher flexibility is given for mixing different products with targeted properties.

Table 4: Results for specific surface area for two GGBS samples.

value for the constant b is equal for both standard sample and tested samples regardless of materials.4

Final remarks
Equation 1.

Equation 1 shows the calculation for the specific surface area. For samples other than cement the constant b has to be specifically appropriate for the test sample. In accordance to ASTM C 204 the values of b are determined on no less than three samples of the material in question. Each sample should be tested at a minimum of four different porosities over a certain porosity range. For the correlation coefficients is also given a limit.3

The Loesche vertical roller mill has been in operation for more than 12 years for grinding blastfurnace slag and cement. By June 2006 more than 90 mills with the 2+2/ 3+3 - technology have been sold worldwide. By showing high availability and remarkable energy efficiency the vertical roller mill for grinding slag is a worldwide success.

56.2+2
Output [t/h] Blaine acc. EN 196 - 6 [cm/g] Spec. energy consumption mill Spec. energy consumption total* 136 4550 21.8 --

46.2+2
92 3800 -30.2

[1] Brundiek, H.: Die Loesche-Mhle fr die Zerkleinerung von Zementklinker und Zumahlstoffen in der Praxis. ZKG 47 (1994) Nr. 4. [2] Hacklnder-Woywadt, C.: Granulated blastfurnace slag grinding with Loesche mills. ZKG 58 (2005) Nr. 3, 44 - 51. 35.2+2 46.2+2 56.3+3 [3] ASTM C 204-05: Standard Test Methods 55 103 140 for Fineness of Hydraulic Cement by Air-Permeability 3520 4065 4500 Apparatus. [4] EN 196-6: Methods of testing cement; 20.2 24.2 -Determination of fineness. --41.0

References

* (mill, mill fan, classifier, aux. drive) Table 5: Operating results for different mills when grinding slag.

GS

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