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Size Reduction Equipments

Size Reduction Equipments

For commercial reduction of size of solid:
 from 1 ft or more in dia to 200-mesh size
 usually at least three stages or steps are followed

1. Coarse size reduction: feeds from 2 to 96-inch or more

2. Intermediate size reduction: feeds from 1 to 3-inch

3. Fine size-reduction: feeds from 0.25 to 0.5-inch

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The principal types of size-reduction machines are as follows:

A. Crushers (coarse and fine)
1. Jaw crushers (such as: Blake crusher; Dodge Crusher; Universal crusher,
etc.)
2. Gyratory crushers
3. Crushing rolls (Smooth-roll crusher; Toothed-roll crusher)

B. Grinders (intermediate and fine)

1. Hammer mills & Impactors
2. Rolling-compression mills (Rolling-ring pulverizers; Bowl mills; Roller mills)
3. Attrition mills
4. Tumbling mills (Rod mills; Ball / Pebble mills; Tube / Compartment mills)

C. Ultrafine grinders
1. Hammer mills with internal classification
2. Fluid-energy mills
3. Colloid Mills
4. Agitated mills

D. Cutting machines
– Knife cutters; dicers; slitters

• Crusher: ① Heavy work of breaking large pieces of solid material into small
lumps
② Compression is the characteristic action
Primary crusher: operates on run-of-mine material accepting anything that
comes from mine face & breaking it into 150 to 250 mm
lumps
Secondary crusher: further reduces these lumps into small particles

• Grinders: ① Reduce crushed-feed to powder

② Employ impact & attrition, sometimes combined with compression
Product from an intermediate grinder  pass a 40-mesh screen
Most of the product from a fine grinder  pass a 200-mesh screen

• Ultrafine grinder: ① Accepts feed particles no larger than 6mm and the product
size is typically 1 to 5mm
② Operates principally by attrition
• Cutters: ① Give particles of definite size and shape, 2 to 10mm in length

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A1. Jaw Crushers

• Feed is admitted b/w two jaws, set to form a V-open at the top
• One jaw fixed (anvil jaw) & nearly vertical and the other is swinging one
(reciprocates in a horizontal plane)
• Swinging jaw makes 200 to 300 with anvil jaw
• Applies great compressive force to lumps caught b/w the jaws
• Large lumps b/w the upper parts of the jaws are broken  drop into the
narrower space below  then are recrushed the next time the jaws close.
• After sufficient reduction product drop out the bottom of the machine

Blake crusher Dodge crusher

Blake crusher Dodge crusher

Movable / swinging jaw pivoted at Movable jaw pivoted at the bottom
the top
Jaw operated by the eccentric, No toggles, jaw operated through
pitman, & toggles the pitman by the eccentric
Uneven stresses inherent in its
design. So made only in small sizes.
Greatest amount of motion at the Width of the discharge opening
bottom of V, so little tendency of remains practically constant which
crusher to choke gives tendency of choking
The most common type of crusher Yield a more closely sized product,
i.e., if only one size-reducing
machine is being employed then the
uniformity in size may be of
advantage, otherwise the machine is
of limited use.
Other type of crusher: Some combines shear with compression
Universal jaw crusher combines the principle of Blake & Dodge crushers

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A2. Gyratory Crushers

• Looked upon as a jaw crusher with circular jaws,
b/w which material is being crushed at some point
all times
• A conical crushing head gyrates inside funnel-
shaped casing, open at the top
• Bottom of the crushing head approaches to and
recedes from the fixed crushing plate
• Solid caught in V-shaped space b/w head and
casing are broken and rebroken until they pass out
the bottom
• Discharge is continuous instead of intermittent as
in a jaw crusher
• Less maintenance than a jaw crusher
• Power requirements for Jaw & Gyratory crushers
are about the same, but the gyratory load on
motor is nearly uniform since it is crushing
continuously
• Selection: Capacity is the criterion.
Small capacity: Jaw crusher
Gyratory crusher
Large capacity: Gyratory crusher to keep operation
continuous

A3. Crushing Rolls

• For relatively soft materials
• Feed caught b/w the rolls are broken and drop out below
• Smooth-crusher: Two heavy smooth-faced metal roll
Toothed-crusher: may contain two-rolls or only one-roll work against a
stationary curved breaker plate.
• Toothed-crushers are more versatile than smooth-crushers

Smooth roll crusher Toothed roll crusher

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Smooth-roll crusher
Two heavy smooth-faced metal rolls
Rolls turn toward each other at the same
speed (ranges from 50 – 300 rpm)
Operate by compression
Relatively narrow faces and are large in
diameter  they can “nip” moderately
large lumps
Secondary crushers with feeds 0.5 – 3-
inch & products 0.5-inch – 1 mm
Few fines and virtually no oversize in
product
Operate efficiently: Reduction ratio 3 or 4 Reduction ratio can be high
to 1
Smooth-roll crusher
14-Sep-15
Toothed-roll crusher
May contain two-rolls or only one-roll
work against a stationary curved breaker
plate.
Machine known as disintegrators contain
two corrugated rolls turning at different
speed, which tear the feed apart
Operate by compression, impact, &
attrition
Many designs. Not limited by the “nip”
and can therefore reduce much larger
particles. Within the limitation they
cannot handle very hard solids
Can used for primary crushing (heavy
duty two-roll crushers). Feed as big as 20-
inch
Excessive production of fines prevented
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B1. Hammer mills & Impactors

Hammer Mill

Impactor

B1. Hammer mills and Impactors……(continued)

• These mills contain high-speed rotor turning inside a cylindrical casing.
• Feed dropped into the top is broken and falls out through a bottom opening.
• In a Hammer mill
 particles are broken by sets of swinging hammers pinned to a rotor disk.
 Particles are shattered into pieces, which fly against a stationary anvil plate
inside casing & further break into smaller fragments.
 These in turn are rubbed into powder by the hammers and pushed through a
grate or screen that covers the discharge opening
 Grinds almost anything – tough fibrous solids like leather, sticky clay, hard rock.
• Impactors
 Resembles a heavy-duty hammer mill EXCEPT that it contains no grate or
screen
 Particles broken by impact alone, without rubbing action (a characteristic of a
hammer mill)
 Often used as primary-reduction machine for ores.
 Products are nearly equi-dimensional (more cubical) than the slab-shaped
particles from jaw crusher or gyratory crusher

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B2. Rolling-Compression Mill

 Solid materials are crushed b/w a rolling member and face of a ring or
casing.
 In this type, crushing pressure generated due to compression is high

Roller-Mills
• Roller mills are similar to roller crushers
• But they have smooth or finely fluted
rolls, and rotate at differential speeds
• In the figure, roller press outward with great
great force against a stationary anvil ring.

Roller-mill

B3. Attrition Mills

• Particles of soft solids are rubbed b/w flat faces of rotating disks
• Axis of disc is usually horizontal, but sometimes vertical
• Single-runner mill: one disk is stationary and one rotates
Double-runner: both disks rotates at high speed in opposite direction.
• Double-runner grind to finer products than single-runner mill, but process softer
feeds
• Feed enters through an opening in the hub of one of the disks
 discharges from the periphery
• Width of the gap, within limits, is adjustable
• Mills with different pattern of grooves, corrugations, or teeth on the discs
 means perform a variety of operations including grinding, granulating,
cracking, and shredding

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B4. Tumbling Mills

• A cylindrical shell turning about a horizontal axis and filled with a
solid grinding medium
• Shell made up of usually steel, lined with high-carbon steel plate,
silica rock, or rubber.
• Grinding elements are carried up the side of the shell nearly top
and from whence they fall on the particles underneath.
• May be continuous or batch process
• Types: Rod-mills; Ball / Pebble mills; Tube / Compartment Mills

Ball-mill

B4. Tumbling Mills ……. (continued)

Mills Grinding Medium Method of Use
Reduction
Rod Mills Metal rods Rolling- Intermediate grinders
compression (20-mm feed to
& attrition perhaps 10-mesh)
Ball Mills Balls of metal, rubber, or Impact Fine grinding (Product
wood from crusher for final
reduction)
Pebble Mills Flint pebble or ---- do ---- ---- do ----
porcelain/zircon spheres
Tube Mills Like ball-mill BUT with a very ---- do ---- Excellent for very fine
long cylindrical shell such powders in a single
that material can be ground pass, where energy
for 2-to-5 times compared to consumption is not of
a shorter ball-mill primary importance
Compartment Tube-mill with slotted ---- do ---- Avoid wasted work
Mills transverse partitions (several (heavy ball break large
compartments with different particles, small light
size of balls/pebbles) ball break small ones)

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C1. Hammer Mills with Classification

Mikro-Atomizer

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C2. Fluid Energy Mills

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C3. Colloids Mills

D. Cutting Machines
• Feed-stocks are
 too difficult to broken by compression, impact, or attrition
 to be reduced to fixed dimensions
• Requirements met by equipments that cut, chop, or tear the feed
• Equipments: Sawtoothed crushers; Rotary knife cutter;
Granulators; etc.
• Examples of Size-reduction Operations by Cutting machines
-- Size-reduction in rubber & plastic manufacturing
-- Applications in recycling papers and plastic materials

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