A COMPARISON OF HIGH PRESSURE ROLLER MILL
AND CONVENTIONAL GRINDING
P. MORSKY, M. KLEMETI, AND T. KNUUTINEN
V l T TECHNICAL RESEARCH CENTRE OF FINLANDMINERAL PROCESSING, OUTOKUMPU, FINLAND
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a comparison study done at VlT's new pi-
lot plant facilities in Outokumpu, Finland, for chromite ore. The ore
was ground in a rod mill -,a ball mill - and high pressure roller mill -
-
ball mill circuit in the capacity range of 0.5 3.0 t / h.
The main grinding characteristics are discussed and the qual-
ity of the products are compared from the mineralogical point of
view.
The benefits of high pressure roller mill comminution for further
mineral processing of chromite is also discussed.
INTRODUCTION
The high pressure roller mill is one of the few new comminution
devices that offer substantial savings and benefits when compared
with tradional crushing and grinding circuits.The idea is well ac-
cepted in the cement industry, but mining companies have been
more cautious in adopting this technology.
The idea of high pressure roller mill was invented by Prof.
Schonert in Clausthal, Germany, in 1979.
The main advantages of this new comminution method are de-
scribed by Battersby et al (1993)as follows:
- energy savings up to 50%
- better liberation of minerals ( diamonds )
- prefential comminution where induced micro fissures
follow grain boundaries
- higher reactivity of the produst due to micro fissures
To find out in practice the operational differences in grinding
characteristics of different comminution methods it was decided to
conduct a comparison study in pilot scale.
Chromite ore from Kemi, the biggest European chromite mine,
was chosen as test material. The ore type is talc-carbonate where
the ganque minerals are relatively soft compared to the chromite
mineral. The present beneficiation method is the gravity separation
in coarse (100°/~ - 500 pm) grain size. The grinding prior the pro-
cessing is done in rod mill - ball mill circuit, where some 10 to 20
percent of the cromite is losed to slimes, especially when the feed
of the plant is of this ore type according to Bergstrom (1994).
In the pilot trial the compared comminution methods were rod
mill, ball mill and high pressure roller mill as a primary milling stage.
The feed for tests was pre-crushed to 100% - 10 mm and homog-
enized.
PILOT PLANT TEST FACILITIESAT VTT
The testwork was done at the VTT's pilot plant, which facilities
and previous testwork is earlier described by Morsky et al (1993,
1994).
The facilities for high pressure roller mill were installed in 1991.
The planned feed capacity of the circuit is 1 - 3 tlh. The plans of the
roller mill were supervised by Prof. Schonert. Figure 1 shows the
circuit around the roller mill.
Figure 1.High pressure roller mill circuit at VTT, Mineral Process-
ing, Outokumpu
The circuit is connected to the other pilot plant facilities so that
several types of so-called hybrid comminution flowsheets - for ex-
-
ample with a roller mill and a ball mill can be realised. The roller
mill may, for instance, act as a fine crushing stage or a pre-grinding
stage. The instrumentation and process control systems of the cir-
cuit are also connected to the main process computer system of the
pilot plant. A separate datalogger is available for special measure-
ments.
In the circuit, see Figure 1, the material is fed from the feed bin
(I),which is weighed by load cells. The belt feeder (2)is
inverter-controlled and the feed rate level is kept desired by a
Sankyo-type scale being in a control loop with the feeder.
The roller has a level-controlled feed chute (3)to maintain the
desired material bed. The material is fed between the two rolls (0
350 mm, 100 mm) of the roller (4).Both rolls have their own
inverter-controlleddrives, 1 1 kW. The nominal speed of the drive is
1500 rpm which gives a speed of 58,5rpm for the rolls.
One of the rolls is fixed and the other is movable. The grinding
force is applied by a hydraulic system with four cylinders and
nitrogen-filledbladders, and may be adjusted up to 500 kN.
56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE XIX IMPC
The product is split with the cutters below the rollers into two
fractions. The coarse fraction is circulated back to the roller by a
bucket elevator (5), and the fine one is fed to the subsequent pro-
cess stage by another bucket elevator (6) as a product of the roller
mill.
The parameters which can be controlled are: the speed and the
power draw of the rolls, the grinding pressure, the roll opening, the
fresh feed level and the circulating load.
For rod and ball mill grinding the feeding arrangements were
similar as aforementioned arrangements with high pressure roller
mill.
In rod mill tests the SALA SRR RP-DR mill with a diameter of
1000 mm and a length of 1800 mm was used. 'The installed power
of the mill is 15 kW and the speed 71 O/O of the critical speed. Figure
2 shows the arrangement for rod mill tests.
m manually point counted in optical microscope because those
Figure 2. Rod mill circuit at W, Mineral Processing, Outokumpu
In ball mill tests the SALA SRR AG-WR mill with a diameter of
1800 mm and a length of 1600 mm was used. The installed power
of the mill is 45 kW and the speed 72,5 % of the critical speed. Fig-
ure 3 shows the arrangement for ball mill tests.
Figure 3. Ball mill circuit at W,Mineral Processing, Outokumpu
The parameters which can be controlled in the mills are: the
feed rates of ore and water, the speed and the power draw of the
mill, volumetric load of the mill and the mill weight.
TESTS
All grinding tests were performed on a feed capacity range of
0.5 to 2.0 t/h. The net energy was measured on specific capacity
tests. In each test the trial was started with the set value of feed, and
the sampling took place when the balance in the circuit was
reached. In each trial the feed, possible intermediate product and
the final product were sampled.
Samples were weighed wet, filtered, dried and weighed again
on dry basis. Each sample was then divided and the sub-sample
was repulped and dispersed by ultrasonic method. After the ultra-
sonic treatment the sub-sample was wetscreened with 32 pm
screen. Fractions were filtered and dried and the +32 pm fraction
was screened dry with Ro-Tap screening machine. Particle size dis-
tribution was calculated based on those fractions which were also
sent to mineralogical examination.
Every chromite sample was sieved to 6 different grain size frac-
tions (-32 pm, 32/75 pm, 751125 Fm, 1251250Fm, 2501500 pm and
+500 Fm). -32 Fm fractions were not analysed because chromite
was totally liberated. 2501500 Fm and +500 Fm fractions were
chromite particles were too big to measure in scanning electron
microscope. 32/75 pm, 751125 pm and 1251250 pm fractions were
analysed by an eMAX line analysis method in scanning electron
microscope. The eMAX software is written for SEM 515 and EDAX
PV 9900 environment. Laukkanen and Leppinen 1994) have de-
scribed earlier the method.
For the high pressure roller mill the roll speed was fixed to 1.1
mls (60 llmin), the gap between rolls was adjusted to 6 mm and the
cutter blades under the rolls 40 mm.
Rod and ball mills were operated at 50 O h slurry density. The rod
charge was 600 kg (66 % 0 75 mm, 34 O h 0 45 mm) and the ball
charge 400 kg (50 O/O 0 25 mm, 50 O h 0 50-60 mm).
The other tested parameters are described in test results and
discussion.
RESULTS AND DiSCUSSlON
Main Grinding Characteristics
The relationship between feed rate and net energy is shown
in Fiaure 4.
--
t HPRM 12 bar
HPRM 20 bar
oI
0 1 2 3
~ e e dRate ( ~ h )
Figure 4. Feed rate versus net grinding energy.
The curves for rod (RM) and ball mill (BM) are of typical shape.
The start points of the curves for the high pressure roller mill
(HPRM) are significantly lower than those of conventional mills and
the net energy level remains lower until the capacity range of 1.3 t/
h. After that the curves for roller mill are supposed to have the same
 COMPARISON OF HIGH PRESSURE ROLLER MILL AND CONVENTIONAL GRINDING 57
shape as those of conventional mills. Figure 7 shows the regression curves for the passing of three
different mill product fractions ( - 3 2 p , -250 pand -500 p ) as a
The set values of hydraulic pressure used in roller mill tests function of net energy for different grinding methods.
were 5, 12 and 20 bar.
100, I 4- RM-32pm
The equipment tested are originally designed for nominal feed
capacity of 1 tlh fresh feed. At this level it seems, that in these tests
the energy needed for the high pressure roller mill was about 50
percent of that of rod and ball mills.

In Figure 5 the product fineness described in terms of d50 is

plotted against the net energy consumption in grinding with differ-
ent methods.

4- RM
-0- BM Figure 7. Fractional passing percentages versus net grinding en-
t HPRM 12 bar ergy.
-e HPRM 20 bar
When comparing the curves of the rod mill and the high pres-
+ HPRM 5 bar sure roller mill it can be seen that the curves of the roller mill rise
faster than those of rod mill and from the net energy level 3 kWhn
" the product of the roller mill contains more finer fractions (-32 pm
0 200 400 600 and -250 pm) than the rod mill product.
dm of the Roduct (pm)
Figure 5. Product fineness (d50) versus net grinding energy. For the ball mill the phenomena is similar in -32 l m fraction but
for 250 and 500 micron fractions the intercept point energy level
From Figure 5 it can be seen that with the conventional mills, increases to 5 kWh/t and 8.5 kWhn, respectively.
especially in the fine end, used more energy to achieve the same
fineness than the roller mill. However, the curve of ball mill is quite Mineralogical Examination
close to the roller mill curves.
The samples for mineralogical examination were the feed and
In Figure 6 the particle size distributions of the ground products the product samples at the net energy level of 4 kWh/t, so the
and the feed are plotted with different grinding methods. The curves samples were the same, whose particle size distributions were de-
in the Figure 6 are chosen so that the net grinding energy in each scribed in Figure 6.
test was about 4 kWhA.
Each sample was divided into five size classes whose chromite
content and the degree of chromite liberation were determined.
From the results the cumulative amount of the liberated chromite
was then plotted against each size fraction. Figure 8 shows the re-
tFeed
sults for the feed and for the products ground with different meth-
t R M ods.

--
t EM
HPRM
+ HPRM
4- Feed
t RM
t BM
I0 I00 I000 10000 +- HPRM
Screen Sue (pm)
Figure 6. The particle size distributions of the milling products and
feed with the net energy input of 4 kWh/t. 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 4 0 0 5 0 0
Sue Claa @m)
In the size range of -250 bm the high pressure roller mill pro-
duced more fines than rod and ball mills and in +250 w fraction the Figure 8. Cumulative recovery of liberated chromite.
conventional mills were producing less coarse fraction.

The difference in -32 w fraction is about 15 percent between Figure 8 shows that in the observed size range the chromite in
rod mill and roller mil. The intercept point of different curves lies the product of the high pressure roller mill was significantly more lib-
somewhere in 250 microns. In the coarse end (1000 l m ) of the erated than that of the rod mill. The difference in size classes is
products the difference is only few percents. about 10 percent.
58 PROCEEDINGS OF THE XIX IMPC
However the liberations of chromite in the products of the high
pressure roller mill and the ball mill were quite close to each other.
Liberation was better in the roller mill product in fine size range up
to 125 pm, while in the coarse size range (125 - 500 pi)the ball mill
product was slightly more liberated.
CONCLUSIONS
The research work done until now indicates that from the point
of view of the main grinding characteristics, the high pressure roller
mill was slightly more energy efficient grinding method compared to
the rod mill primary stage grinding of chromite ore.
Also the mineralogical examination revealed differences in the
liberation grade, so that the roller mill product was better way liber-
ated than the rod mill product.
REFERENCES
Schonert, K.,1979,. "Verfahren zur Fein- und
Feinstzerkleinerungvon Materialien sproden Stoffverhaltens,"Ger-
man Patent 2 708 053.
Battersby, M.J., Kellerwessel, H. and Oberhauser,G., 1993, "
High Pressure Particle Bed Comminution of Ores and Minerals - A
Challenge," Proceedirlg~,XVlll International Mineral Processing
-
Congress, Sydney, Australia, 23 - 28 May, 1994, pp. 1403 1407.
Bergstrom, R., 1994, Private communication.
Morsky, P., Klemetti, M. and Knuutinen, T., " High Pressure
Roller Mill Research Work at VTT, Outokumpu, Finland," Proceed-
ings,Conference in Mineral Processing Technology, " Mineralteknik
i Lulea - 20 Ar ",Lulea, Sweden, February 8 - 9, 1994, pp. 93 - 100.
Morsky, P., Klemetti, M. and Knuutinen, T., " The New Pilot
Plant Facilitiesat VTT, Outokumpu, Finland, "Proceed.@s, Confer-
ence in Mineral Processing Technology, LuleA, Sweden, February
2 - 4 , 1993,pp.59-71.
Laukkanen, J. M. and Leppinen, J. O., " Application of eMAX
Image Analysis to Pressure Oxidation of Refractory Gold Ores, "
m n e e r i r l g , Vol. 7, Nos 213, 1994, pp. 239 - 249.
Laukkanen, J. M., " eMAX, a New SEM-EDX Line Analysis Pro-
cedure in Quantitative Process Mineralogy, " Proceediw, Confer-
ence in Mineral ProcessingTechnology, " Mineralteknik i Lulea - 20
Ar ", Lulea, Sweden, February 8 - 9, 1994, pp. 73 -84.