INTEGRATED SEPARATOR

Abstract

The invention relates to an integrated separator (1) for separating coarse and fine particles in a cement making process, said integrated separator (1) comprising a static separator (2) and dynamic separator (3), said dynamic separator (3) being arranged in an uppermost position relative to said static separator (2) and said static separator (2) comprising an outer housing (11); a de-agglomeration cone (5) and a first inverted frustum cone (6), said de-agglomeration cone [5] arranged adjacent to said first inverted frustum cone (6) by holding rods (18), said holding rods (18) are connected to said inverted first frustum of cone (6).

Claims

1. An integrated separator (1) for separating coarse and fine particles in a cement making process, said integrated separator (1) comprising a static separator (2); a dynamic separator (3), said dynamic separator (3) being arranged in an uppermost position relative to said static separator (2), and said static separator (2) comprising an outer housing (11), a de-agglomeration cone (5) and a first inverted frustum cone (6), said de-agglomeration cone (5) arranged adjacent to said first inverted frustum cone (6) by holding rods (18), said holding rods (18) are connected to said inverted first frustum of cone (6).

2. An integrated separator (1) according to claim 1, further comprising a reject chute (12) configured for extracting coarse particles from said static separator (2) and a main air supply duct (16) configured for supplying external air to said static separator.

3. An integrated separator (1) according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising feeding chutes (4, 4a) arranged on said static separator (2) and two or more inverted frustum cones (6, 7, 8, 9, 10), said inverted frustum cone (7) having a diameter larger than diameter of inverted frustum cone (8), said inverted frustum cone (8) having a diameter larger than diameter of inverted frustum cone (9), said inverted frustum cone (9) having a diameter larger than diameter of inverted frustum cone (10).

4. An integrated separator (1) according to claims 1-3, wherein said outer housing (11) is connected to said inverted frustum of cones (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) by means of rods (18) across a cross section, said outer housing (11) proximal to the position of said de-agglomeration cone (5) having a smaller diameter than the diameter of the outer housing (11) distal to the position of the de-agglomeration cone (5).

5. An integrated separator (1) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said inverted frustum cones (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) are arranged in a position by rods (18) which are attached to said outer housing (11).

6. An integrated separator (1) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said dynamic separator (3) further comprises a static vane (13) configured for “both in-line and parallel arrangement”, a rotor (14) configured for both in-line and parallel arrangement, a reject cone (15) configured for both in-line and parallel arrangement, a reject chute (12) configured for both in-line and parallel arrangement and an output chute (17) configured for both in-line and parallel arrangement.

7. An integrated separator (1) according to claim 6, wherein said inverted frustum cones (6, 7, 8, 9, 10), said reject chute (12), and said deagglomeration cone (5) are arranged concentrically one above the other at a specific interval, said interval being in the range of 10% to 55% of height of larger diameter frustum of cone in each set of cones.

8. An integrated separator (1) according to claims 3-7, wherein said feed chutes (4, 4a) are arranged at an upper most position relative to the deagglomeration cone (5) through which coarse and fine particles enters a static separator zone, “for both in-line and parallel arrangement”, said air goes through said main air supply duct (16), said main air supply duct being attached to said outer housing (11) at bottom “for In-line arrangement”, said main air supply duct (xx) being attached to said outer housing (xx) at top “for parallel arrangement”.

9. An integrated separator (1) according to any claim 8, wherein during separation of said particles in said static separation zone, said fine particles are passed away by air supplied through said main air supply duct (16), and wherein said inverted frustums of cones (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) are arranged concentrically so an annular gap acts as a fine particle carrying passage.

10. A cement plant, comprising an integrated separator (1) according to any of the preceding claims.

11. A method for separating coarse and fine particles in a cement making process, the method utilizing an integrated separator according to any of the claims 1-10.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0027] The figures show one way of implementing the present invention and is not to be construed as being limiting to other possible embodiments falling within the scope of the attached claim set.

[0028] Embodiments of the invention, by way of example only, will be described with reference to the accompanying figures in which:

[0029] FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an integrated separator according to the present invention, from a top view.

[0030] FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an integrated separator according to the present invention.

[0031] FIG. 3 schematically illustrates an integrated separator according to the present invention, from a side view.

[0032] FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an integrated separator according to the present invention, with a reject chute arranged on the dynamic separator.

[0033] FIG. 5 schematically illustrates an alternative setup for the integrated separator, according to the present invention (configuration 2-parallel arrangement).

[0034] FIG. 6 schematically illustrates yet another alternative setup for the integrated separator, according to the present invention (configuration 2-parallel arrangement).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0035] FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an integrated separator according to present invention from a top view, which illustrates the feed chute, reject chute and outer housing with holding rods used to hold the frustum of cones.

[0036] FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the frustum of cone according to the present invention from a top view, and how the frustum of cones are being held at their position by holding rods.

[0037] FIG. 3 schematically illustrates an integrated separator 1 for separating coarse and fine particles in a cement making process. The integrated separator 1 comprises: [0038] a static separator 2 [0039] a dynamic separator 3, the dynamic separator 3 being arranged in an uppermost position relative to the static separator 2, and

[0040] the static separator 2 comprises an outer housing 11, a de-agglomeration cone 5 and a first inverted frustum cone 6. The de-agglomeration cone 5 is arranged adjacent to the first inverted frustum cone 6 by holding rods 18. The holding rods 18 are connected to the inverted first frustum of cone 6.

[0041] The integrated separator 1 further comprises a reject chute 12, as illustrated in FIG. 3. The reject chute 12 is configured for extracting coarse particles from the static separator 2. The integrated separator 1 further comprises a main air supply duct 16 configured for supplying external air to the static separator.

[0042] As shown in FIG. 3, the integrated separator 1 further comprises feeding chutes 4, 4a arranged on the static separator 2 and two or more inverted frustum cones 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. The inverted frustum cone 6 has a diameter larger than diameter of inverted frustum cone 7, the inverted frustum cone 7 has a diameter larger than diameter of inverted frustum cone 8 and the inverted frustum cone 8 has a diameter larger than diameter of inverted frustum cone 9 and the inverted frustum cone 9 has a diameter larger than diameter of inverted frustum cone 10. This configuration of the frustum cones, with a larger diameter kept at the top to provide a passage for fine particles to escape through the annular gap.

[0043] The outer housing 11 is connected to the inverted frustum of cones 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 by means of holding rods 18 across a cross section. The outer housing 11 proximal to the position of the de-agglomeration cone 5 has a smaller diameter than the diameter of the outer housing 11 distal to the position of the de-agglomeration cone 5. This configuration ensures enough annular space given for fine particles to escape from static separator to dynamic separator.

[0044] As illustrated in FIG. 3, the inverted frustum cones 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 are arranged in a position by holding rods 18 which are attached to the outer housing 11.

[0045] The de-agglomeration cone 5 helps to break all the lumps/big size cake in to smaller pieces before it enters the separating zone, hence the static separator will no longer struggle with larger size feed materials.

[0046] The dynamic separator 3 further comprises a static vane 13 configured for “both in-line and parallel arrangement”, a rotor 14 configured for both in-line and parallel arrangement, a reject cone 15 configured for both in-line and parallel arrangement, a reject chute 12 configured for both in-line and parallel arrangement and an output chute 17 configured for both in-line and parallel arrangement.

[0047] FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the integrated separator according to present invention. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the integrated separator comprises a reject chute 15a. FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 show the differences in cross-section of the integrated separator (in-line arrangement) which is 90 degrees to each other.

[0048] Common to the embodiments of the integrated separate disclosed in FIGS. 3 and 4, is that they are disclosing an embodiment of the integrated separator from now on referred to as configuration_1.

[0049] FIG. 5 schematically illustrated another embodiment of the integrated separator according to the present invention, from now on referred to as configuration_2.

[0050] Unlike configuration-1 (In-line arrangement), configuration-2 (Parallel arrangement) has static and dynamic separator in different axis but in both configurations dynamic separator kept above the static separator height

[0051] For the two configurations, In-line (also referred to as configuration_1) and parallel arrangement (also referred to as configuration_2), air enters through the air inlet duct 16 (in the case of both configurations 1 & 2) and in configuration_1, feed material from HRP and ball mill enter through feed chutes 4 and 4a respectively. In configuration_2, feed material enters through air inlet duct 16 along with air after that in both configurations 1 & 2, as the feed material hits the de-agglomeration cone 5 de-agglomeration takes place. After de-agglomeration, material continues to fall. At the same time, air gets diverted by the inclined faces of concentrically arranged frustum of cones 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. In configuration_1, as the air enters the centre of each cone after passing through the annular gap, separation process takes place and rejected material continues to fall through the reject chute 12 and in the case of configuration_2 the air gets diverted by the inclined faces of frustum of cones and fine particles are being carried away by the air which passes through the gap between each set of frustum of cones. In case of Configuration_1 fine particles are being carried away by the air which passes through the annular gap between an outer casing 11 and the first frustum of cone 6; further these fine particles are being carried up to dynamic separator 3 through connecting chute 19 which is being kept straight in configuration_1 and inclined at an angle of θ3 in the configuration_2 and there in dynamic separator 3 these fine particles gets separated further (in both configurations 1 & 2). In both configurations 1 & 2, as the fine particles from static separator 2 enters in to the dynamic separator 3, air pushes the particles through the static vanes 13 after that finer particles passes through the rotor 14 and gets collected from fine chute 17, coarse particles get rejected and fall into the reject cone 15 and collected from reject chute 15a (in configuration_2 angle θ2 may be 180 or less).

[0052] Referring back to FIG. 3, the inverted frustum cones 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, the reject chute 12, and the deagglomeration cone 5 are arranged concentrically one above the other at a specific interval. The interval is in the range of 10% to 55% of height of the upper frustum of cone of each set of cones

[0053] The feed chutes 4, 4a are arranged at an upper most position relative to the deagglomeration cone 5 through which coarse and fine particles enters a static separator zone, “for both in-line and parallel arrangement”. The air goes through the main air supply duct 16. The main air supply duct is attached to the outer housing 11 at bottom “for In-line arrangement”. The main air supply duct is attached to said outer housing 11 at top “for parallel arrangement”

[0054] During separation of the particles in the static separation zone, the fine particles are passed away by air supplied through the main air supply duct 16, and the inverted frustums of cones 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 are arranged concentrically so an annular gap acts as a fine particle carrying passage.

[0055] FIG. 5 schematically illustrates the configuration_2 embodiment of the integrated separator according to the present invention.

[0056] The integrated separator according to the present invention is a combination of a static and a dynamic separator. The integrated separator is preferably arranged after the HRP presser in a cement plant, and more preferably between the HRP and the ball mill.

[0057] Feed material from the HRP enters the feed chute 4 and the rejected feed from the ball mill enters via feed chute 4a. The air is supplied trough the main air supply duct 16 from fans. Coarse particles fall down through the reject chute 12 and go to HRP for regrinding. The finer particles pass through the rotor 14 and gets collected from fine chute 17.

[0058] FIG. 6 schematically illustrates another alternative setup for the integrated separator, according to the present invention (configuration 2-parallel arrangement). On FIG. 6 the outer housing 11 is kept either concentrically or non-concentrically. The distance “X” is measured in between the center of the inverted frustum of cones 6-10 and center of the outer housing 11 as depicted in the FIG. 4. The connecting chute 19 protruding from static separator 2 is kept at a distance of “Y” as shown in FIG. 1; the distance “Y’ can be zero as well.

[0059] A cement plant comprises an integrated separator according to any of the embodiments mentioned above.

[0060] A method for separating coarse and fine particles in a cement making process, the method utilizing an integrated separator according to any of the embodiments mentioned above.

[0061] Although the present invention has been described in connection with the specified embodiments, it should not be construed as being in any way limited to the presented examples. It should also be understood that the form of this invention as shown is merely a preferred embodiment. Various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of parts; equivalent means may be substituted for those illustrated and described; and certain features may be used independently from others without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.

LIST OF REFERENCES

[0062] 1: Integrated Separator

[0063] 2: Static separator

[0064] 3: Dynamic separator

[0065] 4: Feed chute_1

[0066] 4a: Feed chute_2

[0067] 5: De-agglomeration cone

[0068] 6: 1st Frustum of cone

[0069] 7: 2nd Frustum of cone

[0070] 8: 3rd Frustum of cone

[0071] 9: 4th Frustum of cone

[0072] 10: 5th Frustum of cone

[0073] 11: Outer housing

[0074] 12: Reject chute

[0075] 13: Static vanes

[0076] 14: Rotor

[0077] 15: Reject cone

[0078] 15a: Reject chute

[0079] 16: Air inlet duct

[0080] 17: Output chute

[0081] 18: Holding rod

[0082] 19: Connecting chute

[0083] θ1: Angle between feed chute 4 & 4a

[0084] θ2: Angle between reject cone 15 & reject chute 15a

[0085] θ3: Angle between connecting chute 19 & horizontal plane