TECHNICAL FIELD

The subject matter described herein generally relates to a cyclone separator for mineral feed chambers and particularly relates to enhancing the efficiency of separation in a cyclone separator, especially for wet applications.

BACKGROUND

A cyclone separator is used to separate ash from wet slurry of coal in dense media (magnetite and water), ore benefication, chrome ore, cement making process etc. Generally, a conventional cyclone separator includes a feed inlet and an outlet. The outlet of the cyclone separator is branched into two sections from the chamber. The mixture of fluid with ore enters into the feed inlet and tends to swirl down towards the outlet by pushing the heavy particles towards the bottom. The light particles remain at the centre of the cyclone separator and are sucked from the top.

Typically, a cyclone separator includes a feed chamber, a vortex finder provided inside the feed chamber, and a conical separator. The feed chamber is configured as a unitary member and has a double curvature. The inlet of the feed chamber has a circular cross section through which the mixture of fluid with ore enters the cyclone separator. However, in the absence of any guiding medium, some portion of the mixture entering into the feed chamber of the cyclone separator gets obstructed by the inlet walls, thereby affecting the flow path of the mixture entering into the cyclone separator. The involute section of the feed chamber spirals downwards towards the cylindrical vortex finder. From the vortex finder, the mixture l enters the conical separator, which is provided at the bottom of the feed chamber and provides the pressure drop in the cyclone.

However, the efficiency of a conventional cyclone separator needs to be improved in order to ensure better performance, reliability and enhanced life cycle of a cyclone separator. Further, when there is a need to access the vortex finder of the involute cyclone separator, the feed chamber of a conventional involute cyclone separator is required to be dismantled.

Therefore, there is a need for a cyclone separator that overcomes the above and other related drawbacks.

SUMMARY

The present subject matter is directed towards an involute cyclone separator having an involute feed chamber with a tangential inlet and an outlet. The tangential inlet has a substantially circular cross section at the beginning portion and a substantially square cross section at the remaining portion. A cylindrical vortex finder is provided at the outlet of the feed chamber and a conical separator having a pre-determined cone angle is provided below the feed chamber.

In one embodiment, the transition of involute shape of the feed chamber to the cylindrical shape of the vortex finder is gradual in the downward direction.

In another embodiment, the tangential inlet of the involute feed chamber is provided with a guide blade for guiding the particles in the tangential inlet, thereby improving the flow efficiency. In yet another embodiment, the involute feed chamber is a split chamber having a top portion and a bottom portion wherein the bottom portion of the split involute feed chamber corresponds to about 80% of the feed chamber and the top portion of the split involute feed chamber corresponds to about 20% of the feed chamber.

In yet another embodiment, the cylindrical vortex finder is fixed inside the involute feed chamber by press fitting. In yet another embodiment, the inner side of the feed chamber is configured as a single curvature.

In yet another embodiment, the internal surface of the vortex finder, and optionally the outer surface of the vortex finder, is covered with ceramic linings.

In yet another embodiment, the length of the vortex finder matches with the length of the involute feed chamber.

In yet another embodiment, the length to inner hole diameter ratio of the vortex finder is about 1.53.

In yet another embodiment, the conical separator has a half cone angle of about 10°.

In yet another embodiment, the ceramic tiles are provided for lining the entire involute cyclone separator. In yet another embodiment, the ceramic tiles are configured to suit the internal involute section of the feed chamber.

In yet another embodiment, the ceramic tiles are fixed to the involute section of the feed chamber by welding.

In yet another embodiment, the involute section of the feed chamber is lined internally with anchoring system, thereby holding the ceramic tiles to the base firmly.

In yet another embodiment, the gap in the joints between the ceramic tiles is filled with abrasion resistant sealants, thereby ensuring a quasi cylindrical surface

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Figure la illustrates an isometric view of a feed chamber 100 with a vortex finder 102 of an involute cyclone separator in accordance with the present subject matter.

Figure lb illustrates a side view of the feed chamber 100 with the vortex finder 102 of the involute cyclone separator in accordance with the present subject matter.

Figures 2a and 2b illustrate a side view and an isometric view of the vortex finder 102 of the involute cyclone separator in accordance with the present subject matter respectively. Figure 3 illustrates an isometric view of the feed chamber 100 of Figure 1 depicting the split configuration of the feed chamber 100 in accordance with the present subject matter.

Figure 4 illustrates an isometric view of the feed chamber 100 depicting the bottom portion 104 with transition inlet in accordance with the present subject matter.

Figure 5 illustrates an isometric view of the feed chamber 100 depicting the flow guide blade 108 in accordance with the present subject matter. Figure 6 illustrates an isometric view of the conical separator 110 depicting the half cone angle of about 10° in accordance with the present subject matter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present subject matter relates to a fabricated Involute configuration of the feed chamber 100 of an involute cyclone separator with gradual downward spirally transition of involute shape to cylinder shape for better Ore beneficiation, separation of mineral from the waste, with reduced pressure drop in cyclone method of separating application for any two phase flow. The configuration of shell enables lining the inside surface with ceramic tiles some of which are welded using a bush through a hole in the ceramic tiles. Some ceramic tiles are fixed using adhesives and sealants. The fabricated shell design has single curvature to enable single curvature tiles. A cast shell of any material with double curvature can replace fabricated shell to use double curvature tiles.

In case the joints at the tiles have gaps, these gaps are filled with sealants, thereby ensuring a quasi cylindrical surface for better performance of the involute cyclone separator. However, sharp corners, if any, of the tiles joined to make the quasi cylindrical surface get smoothened over a period of time due to abrasive nature of slurry.

The present subject matter can also be used to produce smaller sizes of the involute cyclone separators with the configuration being adapted with different material of construction to make smaller scaled down models.

For the purpose of present description, the involute cyclone separator of present subject matter is described for employing in a wet slurry Hydrocyclone application. However, it is understood that the same application can also be used for other purposes as obvious to a person skilled in the art.

The subject matter also finds its application in separating ash from wet slurry of coal in dense media (magnetite and water), iron ore beneficiation, chrome ore, Cement making process etc.

The vortex finder 102 of the present subject matter has distinct feature for easy operation in quick change over during operation time. The vortex finder 102 is lined with engineered tiles on the inside and outside for better life.

This Transition inlet is configured to suit Ceramic Engineered tiles.

The cone angle of the conical separator 110 is specially configured to treat the most difficult coal available The specially configured Involute feed chamber 100 is a split chamber, thereby ensuring easy maintenance and accessibility to vortex finder 102.

The specially configured top portion 106 of the feed chamber 100 has provision to hold Vortex finder 102 just by free press fit design for faster and easy maintenance.

The ceramic tiles of the present subject matter are anchored with weld on method wherein tiles are individually independent as each tile is welded to metal shell. The specially formed guide blade 108 ensures the inlet flow to the exact involute path for better swirling action.

The preferred embodiments of the subject matter are herewith described in detail. The feed design of the cyclone is such that the particles enter tangentially and all the feed particles moves spirally inside the cyclone body. The fluid entering Cyclone is guided to involute shape feed chamber 100. At the inlet there is guide blade 108 positioned to improve the flow. The circular inlet bends horizontally constructed with square inlet traveling towards the guide point, thereby ensuring enhanced flow efficiency. The transition of the involute shape to the cylindrical shape is such that it does not happen suddenly in one plane as in the conventional involute cyclone separator. Also, the transition is given gradually in a flow path which is spiraling down as in the conventional involute cyclone separator. But the spiral has a straight step which enables single curvature tiles to be used. The conventional involute cyclone separator has double curvature in which tiling cannot be done and only casting of material is to be used for the shell and also for any lining. The sharp corners in the spiral are rounded using ceramic sealants which are abrasion resistant.

The Feed chamber 100 is configured as a split chamber and includes a bottom portion 104 and a top portion 106. The top portion 106 can be removed and the Vortex finder 102 can be accessed or replaced to suit different applications or different capacities or primary Ore slurry feed variation in the application.

The vortex finder 102 is a removable cylindrical tube, which is provided in the feed chamber 100 and is configured for easy accessibility. The vortex finder 102 is covered with ceramics lining internally and if necessary, on the external surface also. In one embodiment, the length to inner hole diameter ratio of the vortex finder 102 of the present subject matter is around 1.53, which is ideally suited for Coal washery application. In one preferred embodiment, the conical separator 110 of the cyclone separator below the feed chamber 100 is designed with reduced half cone angle of around 10° which is found to be suitable for coal washery application. The entire involute cyclone separator is lined internally with unique anchoring system, which holds the ceramic tiles to the base metal firmly. The anchoring system enhances the life span of the involute cyclone separator.

The cyclone entering tangentially with transition and all major forces of the feed particles moves radically and spiral inside the cyclone body. Cyclone entering with guide to involute chamber at the inlet passes through the guide blade 108, thereby improving the flow efficiency. Circular inlet bends horizontally and is constructed with square inlet traveling towards the guide point, thereby ensuring excellent flow efficiency, The top portion 106 of the feed chamber 100 has a provision to fix the vortex finder 102 by just press fitting. The vortex finder 102 is configured for easy change over and is covered with ceramics lining both internally and externally and its length is matched to the feed chamber 100 length.

The other parts of the Cyclone separator may also be configured with reduced angle <10° and increased efficiency. The entire cyclone may be lined internally with the anchoring system, which holds the base metal firmly. The Engineered ceramics are designed and produced to suit the internal involute sections and fixed to the same by Weld on tiles.

Example 1 For the Vortex finder 102, the length to inner hole diameter ratio is around 1.53 which is ideally suited for Coal washery application. The conical separator 110 of the cyclone separator below the feed chamber 100 are designed with reduced half cone angle of around 10° which is found to be suitable for coal washery application. The configuration of the shell of the feed chamber 100 has a single curvature which enables lining the inside surface with ceramic tiles. Ceramic tiles are fixed by welding a tapered bush through a hole in the ceramic tiles.

As the mixture of fluid enters the cyclone tangentially, it obstructs the flow and all major forces on the particles tend to acquire the force and moves spirally. Feed entering the involute chamber of cyclone is guided around the inlet with a special guide vane profile which is also positioned in such a way so as to improve the benefication by properly guiding the flow at the inlet.

Circular inlet bending horizontally constructed with square inlet traveling towards the guide point which enables the better ore beneficiation efficiency.

Example 2

The features of example one except that instead of the feed chamber 100 of single curvature it is use in a cast shell of any material with double curvature and use double curvature ceramic tiles with a through bush welded to shell.

Although the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternate embodiments of the invention, will become apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to the description of the invention. It is therefore contemplated that such modifications can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention as defined.