As an important equipment for mineral separation, cyclones were first introduced by brands such as Krebs from the United States and Multotel from South Africa. They have been widely used in coal and non-coal mines, and after decades of development, they have now shown a diversified brand pattern.

Industry Differentiation

The separation of minerals in a cyclone mainly utilizes the centrifugal force field to separate minerals with different densities and particle sizes. Due to the different separation effects achieved by different minerals, there are also certain differences in the separation of coal and non-coal minerals. There are two main scenarios in the selection of coal. One is a heavy medium cyclone, which relies on a mixed medium of magnetite powder and water to separate minerals with different densities in coal, namely, dividing them into heavy products and light products; Another type is the classification of coal slime, which is divided into products of different particle sizes through a cyclone, namely coarse-grained and fine-grained products. For non-coal minerals, the classification is similar to that of coal slurry, mainly by dividing the minerals into products with different particle sizes.

In the field of coal, the cyclones used in different separation processes are different. According to the different types of products, they can be divided into two product dense medium cyclones and three product dense medium cyclones, which usually separate clean coal, middling coal and gangue; According to different feeding methods, it can be divided into pressurized feeding and non-pressurized feeding. Different types of cyclones are applied in coal preparation plants, and the diameter of the heavy medium cyclone is relatively larger. For coal slurry classification cyclones, the diameter is relatively small, and in many cases, multiple cyclones form a group of cyclones.

In the field of non-coal mines, minerals usually need to be crushed and ground before entering a classification cyclone for classification. The cyclone mainly forms a closed circuit grinding and classification cycle with a ball mill.

Due to the different specific gravity and corrosiveness of different minerals, the requirements for the lining of the cyclone are also different. For different minerals, it is necessary to choose appropriate wear-resistant materials to better ensure the sorting effect and the service life of the cyclone.

Brand Development

The Krebs and Multotel cyclones, which were first introduced by China, gradually lost their market share in China after 2010 due to various issues with the agency and after-sales service of Multotel cyclones. For Krebs, its technical strength, product quality, after-sales service, and other aspects have always maintained good adaptability, and its evaluation in the coal and non-coal mining fields is relatively high. In recent years, due to the rise of Chinese brand cyclones, Krebs' market share has been greatly affected, but its technology is still relatively advanced. Currently, Krebs has been acquired by FLSmidth.

For Chinese brand cyclones, there is a diversified development trend.

In the field of coal, the use of equipment is closely related to the process design of design institutes. For example, Beijing Guohua has successfully applied the three-product heavy medium cyclone with and without pressure to many coal preparation plants, and the use effect is also relatively good; Some design institutes prefer to use the separation process of a two-stage two product dense medium cyclone. Like Beijing Guohua, the design institute has relevant equipment, and if there are any problems with the cyclone, adjustments and improvements are also relatively timely; Some design institutes do not have the production capacity of supporting cyclones and can only purchase them externally. In the past decade, the only factory that has produced relatively fast and focused on producing cyclones may be Weihai Haiwang, whose cyclone products are basically applicable to all mines.

Due to the relatively low intervention threshold of heavy medium cyclones and graded cyclones, many factories have also begun to produce different types of cyclones in recent years, and their use effects are gradually gaining recognition from end users.

The progress of equipment requires a profound understanding of the basic theory of the equipment itself, and based on this, feedback based on on-site needs can make breakthroughs. In the field of non-coal mines, after decades of development, the materials and processes of different classification cyclones for mining have become mature; In the field of coal, there has been no good breakthrough in the wear resistance of the inner lining of the two products of the heavy medium cyclone. In 2022, John Finley JOHN FINLAYENG independently developed a silicified steel integrated lining cyclone, which has been tested in practice and successfully solved the problem of wear and detachment of the inner lining of the cyclone in the mine coal preparation plant.

The production site requirements of mines are quite diverse, and different minerals may also encounter some problems in actual selection. We hope that the production enterprises of cyclones can listen to user needs more, conduct solid theoretical research, instead of blindly copying, and can achieve more brands in the future development path.

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