Size reduction properties

This specific resistance to grinding can be expressed as specific energy requirement and can provide a criterion for directly comparing the size reduction properties of different materials with one another. 

The raw ROM (run of mine) ore is reduced in size from boulders of up to 100 cm in diameter to about 0.5 cm using jaw cmshers as weU as cone, gyratory, or roU-type equipment. The cmshed product is further pulverized using rod mills and ball mills, bringing particle sizes to finer than about 65 mesh (230 p.m). These size reduction (qv) procedures are collectively known as comminution processes. Their primary objective is to generate mineral grains that are discrete and Hberated from one another (11). Liberation is essential for the exploitation of individual mineral properties in the separation process. At the same time, particles at such fine sizes can be more readily buoyed to the top of the flotation ceU by air bubbles that adhere to them. 

In sohd—sohd separation, the soHds are separated iato fractions according to size, density, shape, or other particle property (see Size reduction). Sedimentation is also used for size separation, ie, classification of soHds (see Separation, size separation). One of the simplest ways to remove the coarse or dense soHds from a feed suspension is by sedimentation. Successive decantation ia a batch system produces closely controUed size fractions of the product. Generally, however, particle classification by sedimentation does not give sharp separation (see Size MEASUREMENT OF PARTICLES). 

The largest class of processes appHed to farm commodities are separations, which are usually based on some physical property such as density, particle size, or solubiHty. For example, the milling process for cereal grains involves size reduction (qv) foUowed by screening to yield products that have varied concentrations of starch, fiber, and protein. Milling of water slurries is practiced to obtain finer separation of starch, fiber, protein, and oil. 

Stankiewicz and Moulijn extend the definition of process intensification from size reduction of apparatus to dramatic improvements in key features of chemical processing [25]. Substantial decreases in the following process-engineering properties are listed ... 

Size reduction of metal particles results in several changes of the physico-chemical properties. The primary change is observed in the electronic properties of the metal particles which can be characterized by ultraviolet and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS and XPS, respectively) as well as Auger-electron spectroscopy (AES) measurements. Furthermore, morphology of the metal nanoparticles is highly sensitive to the environment, such as ion-metal interaction (e.g. metal-support interaction)... 

IAEA/AL/095 1996). Both methods were suitable, but needed to be repeated several times to produce the small particle size that was required. The particle size reduction, e.g. of IAEA-395 from a median size of 30 pm to 3.5 pm, improved the homogeneity of elements. Sampling constants (the minimum mass that can be used to achieve a random error of i % at the 65 % confidence level) improved from a factor of 1.2 for Sc, up to a factor of 800 for Au. The average improvement was about a factor of 2-10. (Ni Bangfa et al. 1996). From these initial experiences, it is dear that preparation of reference materials is critical with respect to the final particle size distribution, which should exhibit a low maximum (<50 pm) and a narrow range in particle sizes. Milling techniques to meet such criteria are available today, and materials that show intrinsic uniformity are particularly suitable to achieve the desired properties. 

Separation processes, as could be seen from Figure 2.1, position themselves at the back end of the sequence in operations in the mineral processing flowsheet. The front-end operations has been found virtually to terminate with the liberation or the size-reduction processes involving crushing and grinding. It is important to limit the amount of size reduction to that at which adequate liberation is accomplished. The term adequacy is related to the cost involved in comminution and to performance of the concentration methods that follows. The concentration is obtained by separation processes which rely on differences in the properties of the particles, the physical and physico-chemical characteristics of minerals. In this context, it will only be relevant to refer to Table 2.5 which presents a summary of the processes along with the properties of the minerals that are exploited. 

Electrically conductive rubber, 20 247 Electrically conductive resins, 7 7 840 Electrically stimulated drug delivery systems, 9 59-61, 81 Electrical mineral size reduction, 76 613 Electrical Patents Index (EPI), 18 222 Electrical properties... 

In this level, the fundamental tasks required to convert the raw materials into the final product are identified. All tasks are related to property differences. Siirola (1996) has presented the following hierarchy of property differences molecular identity, amount, composition, phase, temperature/pressure, form. This list of tasks is not very well suited for food properties. Common tasks for food processes are decontamination (e.g. pasteurization and sterilization) and structure formation (e.g. emulsification, size reduction of dispersed phase in an emulsion, crystallization, interfacial adsorption/desorption). 

There are a number of other reasons for carrying out size reduction. It may, for example, be necessary to break a material into very small particles in order to separate two constituents, especially where one is dispersed in small isolated pockets. In addition, the properties of a material may be considerably influenced by the particle size and, for example, the chemical reactivity of fine particles is greater than that of coarse particles, and the colour and covering power of a pigment is considerably affected by the size of the particles. In addition, far more intimate mixing of solids can be achieved if the particle size is small. 

DSC experiments were conducted up to 500 and 600°C for the ball-milled mixtures of NaBH with 12, 55, 73 and 92 wt%Mg (DSC traces not shown here). The temperatures of melting and decomposition peaks of NaBH are plotted in Fig. 3.46a. It is seen that the data points for the equivalent content of 12, 55 and 73 wt%Mg follow quite closely the data points for MgH. Only data points for the equivalent content of 92 wt%Mg show slightly higher decomposition temperature than their MgH counterpart and lie slightly above the ROM line for MgH. This behavior is probably related to different mechanical properties of Mg and MgH which results in different abilities to particle and grain size reduction during the milling process as can be seen in Fig. 3.47. The particle size reduction of ductile... 

As a result, the positive effect of the particle size reduction on the tensile properties seems to be counteracted by the negative effect of the rubber connectivity. 

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