MECCHANICAL OPERATIONS – SCREENING

 SIEVING
- It is the method of separating particles based on size alone.
- The undersized particle – called fines – pass through the screen opening and the over‐
sized particles – called tails – do not pass through the screen.
 DRY SCREENING
- this refers to the treatment of a material containing a natural amount of moisture or a
material that has been dried before screening.
 WET SCREENING
- this refers to an operation where water is added to the material being treated for the
purpose of washing

• Materials through single screen:

- A single screen can make single separation – two fractions. Such a separation is
called the undersized fractions, because although either the upper or lower limit of the
particle sizes are known, the other limit is not known.

• Materials through series of screens

- Materials passed through a series of screens of different sizes is separated into sized
fractions, that is, fractions in which both the maximum and minimum particle size is
known.

SCREEN ANALYSES

• Testing sieves - these are used for particulate size control and analytical work. The screens
are constructed of wire mesh cloth, where the diameters of the wire and the spacing of the
wires are specified.

• Screen aperture - clear space between the individual wires of the screen.

• Mesh- number of apertures per linear inch.

TYPES OF SCREEN
- Tyler standard sieve screen
- United states sieve series
- International test sieves
IDEAL AND ACTUAL SCREENS
Objective of a screen – accept feed containing a mixture of particles of various sizes and
separate into two fractions.
1. Under flow – material that passes through the screen
2. Over flow – material that is rejected by the screen
• Ideal screens – sharply separate the feed mixture in such a way that the smallest particle in the
overflow would be just greater than the largest particle in the underflow.
For such an ideal separation, a cut diameter dpc is defined – this marks the point of
separation between two fractions. Usually dpc is chosen to be equal to the mesh opening of the
screen.
MECCHANICAL OPERATIONS – SCREENING

• Actual screens – do not give a perfect separation, however there is a cut diameter
associated with such screens as well.

• Closest separations are obtained with spherical particles on standard testing screens, but
even then there overlapping between the smallest particles in overflow and largest particles
in the underflow.
The overlap is pronounced for needle like or fibrous or when particles that tend to
aggregate into clusters.
Commercial screens usually give poorer separations than standard testing screens of the
same mesh opening operating on the same mixture.

• Capacity of a screen – is measured by the mass of material that can be fed per unit time
to a unit area of the screen

• Capacity and efficiency are opposing factors.

‐ For maximum efficiency – capacity must be small.

• Capacity – controlled by varying feed rate to the unit.

• Efficiency – for a given capacity, depends on nature of screening operation.

Overall chance of passage of a given under sized particle is a function many parameters.

1. Number of times the particle strikes the screen surface – which depends the
loading – if screen is overloaded – number of contacts is less.
2. fraction of the total surface represented by the opening.
3. ratio of particle diameter to the width of an opening in the screen.
Maximum efficiency of a given screen is roughly proportional to the
screen opening dpc.