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Viscometer handles dense mineral ores

A Hydramotion product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jun 5, 2008

The Hydramotion XL7 on-line viscometer was easy and quick to install, required no on-site calibration or set-up and began delivering accurate viscosity measurement as soon as the power was connected.

An XL7 online viscometer from Hydramotion has proved capable of accurately monitoring the dense media used in the separation of mineral ores.

Viscosity is an important factor in the process of dense media separation (DMS), because if the medium is too viscous the particle settling rate will fall and the efficiency of the separation will be reduced.

In the process, crushed ore from the company's mines is wet screened to size it into different fractions then introduced into a conical or cylindrical separator in which the constituent minerals are separated in a "sink-float" process.

A vortex is created within the separator, causing denser particles to migrate to the bottom (the underflow) while less dense particles migrate to the top (the overflow).

Separation is more effective if a heavy fluid or "medium" is used rather than plain water, since material with densities up to 2.6g/cm3 can then be made to float.

Suitable artificial media can be made by suspending dense powders such as ferrosilicon or medium-grade magnetite (ferrous-ferric oxide) in water.

The mining company attempted to monitor viscosity offline using a rotational-type viscometer but found that, because the shear rate in their pipeline was significantly higher than that obtainable with the off-line instrument the results did not reflect the rheology of the material in practice.

Other viscometers also failed for a variety of other reasons, including calibration problems, plant vibration and high wear rates.

The Hydramotion XL7 on-line viscometer was easy and quick to install, required no on-site calibration or set-up and began delivering accurate viscosity measurement as soon as the power was connected.

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