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VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill & Solutions

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Maximize material recovery with GK’s VIBRA-DRUM® technology for grinding, crushing, and leaching!

General Kinematics VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mills are proven in dozens of milling applications in the mining and mineral industries. Because of this flexibility, they are the perfect solution for your needs, no matter the grinding processes you use.

ADVANTAGES OF VIBRA-DRUM® GRINDING MILLS

Energy Savings

Each grinding mill is achieving impressive energy savings (35-50%), thanks to a unique rotational material motion that is more efficient than conventional ball or rotary grinding mills. New processes such as micron grinding and mechanochemical grinding give our customers a unique and effective competitive advantage.

Exceptional Performance

VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill units are also ideal for continuous processing of “difficult-to-fluidize” products such as large flake and stringy or tacky materials. Typical VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill applications include direct gas contact heating, drying, cooling, and coating. Need more information about the General Kinematics VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mills? Ask our experts!

Minimal Installation Costs

The capital cost of a VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill is significantly less than a rotary grinding mill containing a comparable media load. Some of the VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill features to keep installation costs low include:

No drive speed reducers, ancillary machinery, nor large support bearings.
Very few moving parts.
No massive concrete foundation required for a typical conventional rotary grinding mill unit.
Structural steel supports designed to simply bolt the grinding mill to a suitable load-bearing floor.

The grinding chamber in the VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill requires replaceable liners on only 60% of its circumference, representing considerable savings in initial installation and mill downtime.

Minimal Maintenance:

Minimal moving parts and innovative engineering combine to provide you with a grinding mill that requires little maintenance and downtime requirements. The maintenance of the VIBRA-DRUM® products is simple and consists of:

Periodic lubrication of motors.
The easy liner replacement system uses clamp bars for quick replacement.
Access doors allow easy inspection of media and liner.
Media changes simplified with removable end cap bolts.

One last advantage: Because the VIBRA-DRUM® is a tube shape, it has an extremely strong shell strength, and won’t often need repairs.

WHY OUR GRINDING MILLS ARE SO EFFECTIVE:

Exceptional grinding performance and energy savings are the result of the VIBRA-DRUM® natural frequency design. A sub-resonant, two mass drive and spring system alternately stores and releases grinding power. Once in motion, energy is only needed to move the grinding media as a fluid mass, and to overcome frictional losses.

The increased number of impacts in our VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mills result in a faster, more efficient grinding action. As the grinding mill vibrates, media particle migration is experienced in both axial and transverse directions. In fact, the media migrates through the VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill in a path similar to that of a rotary grinding mill without lifters, but each media particle imparts positive impact energy at each vibration.

The area where comminution takes place is larger and more efficient compared to a rotary grinding mill of similar size. There are no dead zones of inactive media inside the vibrating grinding mill. And, unlike stirred or tower grinding mills which grind by attrition, the VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill uses the principle of impact grinding which causes clean breaking and doesn’t coat the mineral/gangue with slimes.

OTHER USES

The VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill can be used for processes other than grinding. It has been used:

to process and agglomerate fiberglass
to mix product components
to clean castings
for hydrometallurgy
for minerals recovery
and other processes.

Features:

VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mills excel over conventional ball, stirred media, or vertical roller mills in both grinding and energy efficiency. The features listed below highlight why our mills are so effective and efficient.

Proven energy savings range from 35 to 50% reductions in kW hours per ton of processed material.
5 to 10 times longer media life.
No trunnions, wheels, gears, or drive reducers.
Few moving parts assure low maintenance.
Adjustable media action, from gentle to aggressive.
One half the liner requirements of typical rotating designs.
Easily installed. Low dynamic reaction force eliminates massive foundation requirements.
Recoveries of 93 – 97% can be achieved without the use of toxic chemicals such as arsenic due to the unique fracturing in the ore from our General Kinematics Mill as well as our leaching solution.
The Liberation of precious metals due to the non-compression nature of milling.
Fracture of ore saturated in zones of microcrystalline areas.
Heavy pulp density for maximum ore processed per gallon of liquid.
The System is fully automated.
In-situ leaching eliminates external leaching componentry and helps control chemistry.

Leaching Applications:

The VIBRA-DRUM® in a wet grind leaching application provides efficient chemo-mechanical processing of ore bodies for precious metal recovery.

Product Qualification:

The capabilities of the VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill are unmatched. Extensive in-house or on-site testing is available to qualify your product requirements. General Kinematics also offers wet or dry particle analysis as well as access to our on-staff material scientist for further material qualification.

The VIBRA-DRUM® Grinding Mill is proven to efficiently grind: