In the field of mineral processing and coal washing, efficient sorting technology is essential to improve the utilisation of resources, reduce production costs and reduce environmental pollution.Teetered Bed Separator (TBS), as a kind of advanced gravity sorting equipment, is mainly used to deal with a specific range of particle size of the material, and can be based on the difference in the density of the material particles to achieve high efficiency, and occupies an important position in the minerals processing and coal washing industries. It occupies an important position in mineral processing and coal washing industries. With its unique working principle and significant advantages, it plays a key role in coarse coal slurry sorting, mineral sand processing and many other fields.
一.Working Principle
Feed and water flow to form a disturbance layer: slurry tangentially fed into the feed well of the equipment, according to the predetermined pressure and flow rate by the pump will be pumped into the distributor at the bottom of the separator, through the turbulent plate evenly distributed to the bottom of the disturbance bed separator, forming upward disturbing water flow. The falling material meets with the rising water flow and forms the disturbance layer or called boiling bed layer.
Particles according to the density difference settlement: the particles in the feed in the sorting machine for the interference settlement movement, due to the different density between the particles, so that the interference settlement speed difference. When it reaches a stable state, the particles in the feed whose density is higher than the average density of the disturbed bed will pass through the bed to enter the sedimentation stream and be discharged through the discharge port at the bottom; while the particles whose density is lower than the average density of the disturbed bed will float upward with the rising water flow and enter the overflow product as the refined coal.
Density sensor control discharge: the discharge valve is controlled by the signal from the density sensor in the disturbed bed. The density sensor monitors the bed density in real time and feeds the signal back to the control system, which controls the degree of opening and closing of the discharge valve according to the result of comparing the actual density with the set density value, thus regulating the discharge of materials in the bed and keeping the bed density within the predetermined range. For example, if the actual density is too high, then increase the opening degree of the discharge gate to exclude the high-density materials in the bed; on the contrary, reduce the discharge of materials in the bed.
二.Uses
1.Coal washing field
Coarse coal slurry sorting: TBS is mainly used for coarse coal slurry sorting in coal washing plant. In actual production, a certain amount of coarse coal slurry will be generated from the raw coal after crushing, screening and other pre-processing. If these coarse sludges are not sorted efficiently and enter the subsequent process directly, the quality and yield of fine coal will be affected. By sorting the coarse slurry through TBS, the fine coal and impurities such as gangue can be effectively separated. Optimisation of washing process: The application of TBS helps to optimise the whole coal washing process. In the traditional coal washing process, a large amount of coal slurry will enter the heavy media system, TBS can pre-sort the coarse coal slurry before the heavy media system, which greatly reduces the amount of coal slurry entering the subsequent heavy media system, and generally improves the handling capacity of the heavy media system by 20% and reduces the media consumption by 40%. At the same time, the sorting effect of TBS can also reduce the flotation throughput, because after TBS sorting, the nature of the materials entering the flotation process is more single, which is conducive to the stability of the flotation process and improve the efficiency of flotation. (ii)
2.Mineral Processing
Mineral Sand Processing: In typical mineral sand applications, TBS is often used in conjunction with a spiral separator. In some beach sand processing, TBS can be used at the front end of the plant for desliming and removing light and heavy vein minerals. As beach sand ores often contain large amounts of muddy impurities and pulsed minerals that can interfere with the subsequent extraction of useful minerals, the TBS, through its unique sorting action, is able to remove the mud and some of the pulsed minerals, reducing the processing pressure on the subsequent plant, and helping to smooth out fluctuations in the flow of material into the plant to ensure stability of the production process. Other Minerals Sorting: TBS can also play an important role in the processing of other minerals. In the beneficiation of some non-ferrous ores, such as lead and zinc ores, the TBS can sort the milled product to separate lead and zinc minerals with different densities from the vein minerals and increase the enrichment of useful minerals. In the beneficiation of iron ore, TBS can sort the fine-grained iron ore, remove the vein impurities, improve the grade of iron ore concentrate, and provide better raw materials for the subsequent smelting process.
三.Advantageous features
1.Simple structure
The overall structure of TBS is relatively simple, mainly composed of several key components mentioned above, without complex mechanical transmission devices and excessive wearing parts. Compared with some traditional sorting equipment, such as complex re-election shaking table, TBS reduces a large number of mechanical parts, which makes the manufacturing and installation process of the equipment easier and reduces the initial investment cost of the equipment. At the same time, the simple structure also means that the failure rate of the equipment in the operation process is low, reducing the workload and cost of equipment repair and maintenance, improving the reliability and stability of the equipment, providing a strong guarantee for the continuous production of enterprises.
2.Precise control
TBS is equipped with advanced density detection device and automatic control system. The density sensor in the interference bed can monitor the density change of materials in the bed in real time and accurately. Once the density fluctuates, the control system will immediately adjust the opening of the discharge valve and key operating parameters such as the flow rate and pressure of the rising water stream according to the preset parameters. For example, when the density of the bed rises due to a sudden increase in the content of high-density material in the feed, the control system will quickly increase the opening of the discharge valve to increase the amount of material discharged, and at the same time, adjust the speed of the rising water flow appropriately, so as to bring the density of the bed back to the normal set value. This precise control ability can ensure that TBS always maintains efficient and stable sorting effect under different feeding conditions, and improve the consistency and stability of product quality.
3.Excellent sorting effect
Accurate sorting based on density: TBS is based on the principle of particle density difference for sorting, which enables it to accurately separate particles of different densities in complex material systems. In the process of coal washing and mineral processing, it can effectively separate the concentrate and impurities, and improve the purity and quality of the products. Wide range of processing size: TBS has a wide range of sorting size, generally 0 – 5.0mm, the best sorting size is 2.0mm – 0.25mm, which makes it able to adapt to a variety of different particle size composition of the material sorting needs. In some coal washing plants, the coarse coal slurry produced after crushing has a wide range of particle size, TBS can effectively sort the coarse coal slurry within this range, without the need to classify the material too finely, which simplifies the process and improves the production efficiency. High processing capacity and low fine coal ash content: TBS has high processing capacity per unit area, which can meet the demand of large-scale production. At the same time, the ash content of the refined coal product obtained by its sorting is low, for example, in coal washing application, the ash content of the refined coal can be reduced by less than 10% through TBS sorting, which greatly improves the market competitiveness of the product and creates higher economic benefits for the enterprise.
4.Green and environmental protection
One of the biggest characteristics of TBS is that it does not use any medium and chemicals, and only uses circulating water to sort materials effectively. Compared with some sorting equipment that requires the use of a large number of chemicals or heavy media, TBS avoids the environmental pollution caused by the use of these media and agents. The circulating water used in TBS can be reused after simple treatment, which greatly reduces the waste of water resources and the negative impact on the environment, and meets the requirements of environmentally friendly production.
四.Application fields
1.Coal industry
In modern large-scale coal washing plant, TBS has become one of the key equipments. TBS’s high efficiency sorting capacity, large processing capacity and optimisation of the washing process can quickly and accurately sort large quantities of coarse coal slurry, improve the yield and quality of fine coal, and reduce the production cost, bringing significant economic benefits to the enterprise. It can quickly and accurately sort a large amount of coarse coal slurry, improve the yield and quality of fine coal, reduce the production cost, and bring significant economic benefits for the enterprise.
2.Mining industry
In the beneficiation process of copper, lead, zinc, tin and other non-ferrous metal ores, TBS can be used to sort the products after grinding. As non-ferrous minerals are usually closely co-occurring with chalcopyrite minerals, after grinding, the density difference of different mineral particles becomes an important basis for sorting, TBS can effectively separate non-ferrous minerals from chalcopyrite minerals according to this density difference, improve the enrichment of non-ferrous minerals, and provide high-quality concentrates for subsequent smelting process. In some large-scale copper ore processing plants, TBS is used in conjunction with other processing equipment, greatly improving the grade and recovery of copper concentrate.
3.Other areas
Construction materials industry: In the construction materials industry, such as the production of sand and gravel, TBS can be used to remove mud and other impurities from sand and gravel and improve the quality of sand and gravel. Sand and gravel for construction have higher requirements on purity and particle grade, through the sorting effect of TBS, it can effectively remove mud, mica and other low-density impurities in sand and gravel, make sand and gravel particles more uniform and pure, meet the demand for high-quality sand and gravel in construction projects, and improve the performance and quality of construction materials. Environmental protection field: TBS can also play a role in some environmental protection projects. In the sludge treatment process of municipal sewage treatment plants, TBS can be used to separate different components in the sludge. Sludge contains a variety of organic substances, heavy metals and gravel and other particles, TBS through the density difference can be separated from the gravel and other heavy particles, to facilitate the subsequent further treatment and disposal of sludge, reduce the difficulty and cost of sludge treatment, but also help to achieve the recycling of resources.
As an advanced gravity separation equipment, Teetered Bed Separator (TBS), with its unique working principle, wide range of applications, significant advantages and features, and successful applications in many fields, provides powerful technical support for the development of mineral processing, coal washing and other industries. With the continuous progress of science and technology and the increasing requirements for the efficient use of resources and environmental protection, TBS is expected to be further optimised and innovated on the basis of the existing ones, expanding its application scope, improving the sorting efficiency and precision, and making greater contributions to the sustainable development of the related industries.
