I want to select material for part of a machine which operates in silicate and silica Abrasive environment. It is a magnetic separator that is used in iron ore processing and separate iron form other material existing in iron ore. Iron ore contain silica (quartz) and silicate which are very abrasive materials. I am considering tungsten. But I want to make sure it is the best choice in terms of resistance to abrasion and cost.
Does anyone have any suggestion?
Any suggestion would really be appreciated.
Iron ore does not contain silicon carbide. It does contain various types of gangue minerals, including silica (normally quartz) and silicates. As for the choice of material, this would depend on many factors, including the following:
What is the environment - wet (if wet, what pH?) or dry; temperature?
What are the wear conditions - e.g. sliding or impact?
What is the planned lifetime?
What is the ore particle size?
Thanks for your useful answer Dear P. Christiaan Pistorius.
Yes, you are absolutely right; Iron ore does not contain silicon carbide. I have heard once that because iron ore contain silicon dioxide it is abrasive and because of this abrasion property I confused it with silicon carbide which is used as an abrasive material in grinding wheels and emery wheels.
I will find aforementioned questions answers.
Hope to benefit much from your valuable advice.
Hi dear Bahram;
Normally amount of quartz (SiO2) in iron ore benefaction is negligible and there is not any so harsh anxiety for abrasiveness of silica. I am agree with Christiaan and there a lot of parameters which it should be considered such as (particle size distribution (PSD), waste minerals (Quartz, Clays (Alumino-silicate), Phosphate and so on), processing method (Wet or Dry), ambient temperature and pH and so on.
Sometimes if wearing is so high, you can use some coating such as rubber liner in order to cover surface of magnetic rolls or drums; but you should be careful about deduction of magnetic field intensity or gradient when you are using rubber liner or coating? Also type of iron mineral is important (Magnetite, Hematite or so on)?
Please describe more about your case
Thanks and regards
Hamed
Thanks dear Hamed;
I am going forward with finding parameters and working condition you and Christiaan mentioned. Afterward, I will share them here.
Thanks for your time.
All the best.
Bahram, quartz in iron ore is indeed very abrasive. Depending on the minerals present in the ore you will have different separators. If there is magnetite it will require a low intensity (1000-2000 Gauss) magnetic drum to prevent blocking in the next steps. Magnetic drums with medium intensity (7000 Gauss) should be used for martite. If you also have to recover hematite or goethite it will be necessary a WHIMS - wet high intensity magnetic separator. In this case the magnetic field can vary between 9000 to 15000 Gauss.
Low intensity magnetic drums can be lined with rubber. For higher magnetic fields lign is not used because it would reduce the intensity of the magnetic field.
WHIMS use plates of austenitc steel. The lifetime will depend on the quartz content and the particle size distribution. With a good quality steel, a plate operating with particles between 1 and 0.15 mm will last up to 28,000 hours. For particles smaller than 0.15 it can last up to 70,000 to 90,000 hours. If the quality of the steel is not so good the lifetime can be 3 times less.
Good luck! Kind regards,
Carlos Gontijo
The type of the iron ore is very important. I mean that in the case the raw ore is BIF, it includes high amount of silica (Up to 20%) but ironstone, for example, contains less amounts of silica
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