Pretreatment Of Raw Materials For Pelletizing: Damp Grinding And Kneading Process

Conventionally, a combined system consist- ing of a dry or wet pulverizer and kneading mac- hine is applied to the pretreatment of fine mat- erials for agglomeration, especially for pellet- izing. However, treatment cannot be expected to be satisfactory owing to the complexities of the process. A new process was developed to over- come the defects inherent in the conventional process. This new process treats certain fine materials having a moisture content somewhat lower than that suitable for pelletizing in a ball or rod mill. The mill is of special de- sign in which grinding and strong kneading are performed to give an extremely homogeneous ball- ing material with appropriate size distribution and pelletizing characteristics. The most serious problem in this process is the choking of sticky materials in the mill. A specially designed rubber lining was installed in the mill to overcome this trouble. This paper presents actual results from our iron ore pelletizing plant relating to the pelletization of other fine materials.