What happens inside the machine?
The VeRoLiberator® has the potential to replace ball mills and SAG mills, which are robust but also known for their breakage inefficiency and very high energy consumption. A comparison between the breakage principle of ball and SAG mills and the VeRoLiberator® is therefore only logical. This mechanism is also shown as part of the VeRoLiberator® Video.
Inside a traditional ball mill
Step-by-step schematic view of what happens inside a traditional ball mill of SAG mill.
In traditional ball mills …
… the ore is crushed either between two steel balls, a steel ball and the casing, or between ore particles.
The fracture typically develops parallel to the direction of the strongest compression, i.e. along a theoretical line between two steel balls.
This may sometimes be along grain boundaries but will more often cut across grain boundaries.
The fracture will commonly run across particle boundaries and thus result in incomplete particle liberation.
Inside the VeRoLiberator®
Schematic view of what happens inside the VeRoLiberator®
The VeRoLiberator®, in contrast, makes use of the specific individual physical properties of the different minerals, e.g. of ore minerals and barren rock minerals.
The high-velocity impacts result in numerous high-frequency shock waves that let the different materials react in their own manner according to their specific elasticity and compressibility moduli.
This differential behavior results either in an extensional separation of the particles or …
… a separation by shearing along the grain boundaries. The result is inter-granular fracturing due to high-frequency impacts that are faster than the natural relaxation capacity of the minerals.
This leads to almost complete particle liberation after just one pass comminution through the VeRoLiberator®.
Inside a traditional ball mill
Step-by-step schematic view of what happens inside a traditional ball mill of SAG mill.
Inside the VeRoLiberator®
Schematic view of what happens inside the VeRoLiberator®
In traditional ball mills …
The VeRoLiberator®, in contrast, makes use of the specific individual physical properties of the different minerals, e.g. of ore minerals and barren rock minerals.
… the ore is crushed either between two steel balls, a steel ball and the casing, or between ore particles.
The high-velocity impacts result in numerous high-frequency shock waves that let the different materials react in their own manner according to their specific elasticity and compressibility moduli.
The fracture typically develops parallel to the direction of the strongest compression, i.e. along a theoretical line between two steel balls.
This differential behavior results either in an extensional separation of the particles or …
This may sometimes be along grain boundaries but will more often cut across grain boundaries.
… a separation by shearing along the grain boundaries. The result is inter-granular fracturing due to high-frequency impacts that are faster than the natural relaxation capacity of the minerals.
The fracture will commonly run across particle boundaries and thus result in incomplete particle liberation.
This leads to almost complete particle liberation after just one pass comminution through the VeRoLiberator®.