Milling Process Solutions - Comminution Circuits

Continuous wet and dry milling plants face similar comminution challenges in achieving high throughput, consistent milling particle size and efficiency of operation. Wet milling produces finer particle sizes than dry grinding, but dry grinding can eliminate the drying steps needed by wet milling. Malvern Process Systems real-time particle sizing helps:

Improve batch to batch consistency during comminution
Reduce comminution circuit start-up and shutdown times
Accelerate comminution circuit set-up for new product specifications

In this section

	Comminution overview Comminution is used in a diverse range of industries from pharmaceutical drug size reduction to cement manufacture. There are a number of locations in the comminution circuit where the installation of an on-line particle size analyzer will enable tighter control of milled particle size.
	Comminution concerns Achieving high specification product in the most efficient and consistent manner is a major concern in comminution operations.
	Malvern Analyzers for comminution applications Complete online and atline particle characterization systems appropriate to comminution in the context of different industries.
	Comminution case studies:
	Milling overloading reduced by process understanding. A pharmaceutical company's milling overload problems were reduced by getting a better understanding of their comminution process.
	Optimizing milling for pilot drug trials A pharmaceutical manufacturer experienced difficulties in optimizing their comminution systems for pilot drug trials. The challenges arose from dealing with changes in particle size specifications and differences between products.
	Reducing the milling process start-up times See the start-up benefits that on-line particle size analysis has over off-line analysis in comminution circuits.
	Mineral milling optimization Many plants have to re-specify their comminution parameters for new product specifications. For example, a minerals manufacturer in Canada receives three or four requests each year to change the product.
	On-Line Sizing During Milling Reduces Loss of In-Spec Product During Product-Changeover A cement mill needed to minimize the amount of 'in-spec' product sent to'off-spec'collection bins. Using Insitec systems they were able to better determine when the comminution product changed from a transitionary state to the final specification.
	Predicting screen failure in a screen milling environment A Japanese manufacturer of agrochemicals was able to detect when the milling screen would break during comminution. The company is now working on ways of predicting screen failure with the aim of replacing the screens only when absolutely necessary.