Matters need to Pay Attention to during the Operation of Gravity Thickener

Check the thickener feed concentration, concentrated product concentration and the quality of the spillway flood flow to meet the requirement of production. In practice, the concentration of the concentrated product can be adjusted by controlling discharging speed, but there is must attention be paid to prevent the increase of the overflow of solid loss when adjusting the discharging concentration so that to guarantee the quality of the overflow water.

Thickener has great significance for an ore-dressing plant, so there must be a deeper understanding of factors which influence thickener capacity. The unit capacity of thickener means the tons of material that each unit concentrated area of thickener deals with in every day and night. The main influencing factors are:

First, the concentration of ore feeding and rowing; second, the composition of the feed; third, the viscosity of slurry bubble; fourth, the existence of medicament and electrolyte; fifth, the temperature of the slurry; sixth, the value of the condensed material.

In addition to the above factors, the most important factor that influences the thickener precipitation efficiency is the most difficult settling slurry. There are two kinds of sources of the slurry: one is a primary slurry that formed in the process of ore mining, and another one is a second slurry that produced in the process of grinding. Because slurry’s fineness is very thin, there is more moisture. The water content depends on the wettability and capillary phenomenon. For a particle size of 0.1-0.1 micron colloid particles, due to the intermolecular force and electrostatic repulsion of charged particles with the same effect, its own settlement tends to be balanced. In fact, no precipitation. Therefore, in the thickener precipitation process, the most difficult settlement is a fine slurry. In the ore-dressing plant, usually by adding electrolyte and colloidal surfactant (usually water glass and soda) adjust the ratio of liquid and solid in the slurry or heating method, and make dispersed particulate fineness flocculation and accelerated subsidence.

In recent years, along with the influence of national policy, launching tailings discharging dryly become more and more, and the demand on thickener also begins to increase, so it is necessary to have some understanding of the above contents.