:: Bateman gets KHD Roller-press Agency

Bateman has been appointed as an agent to market KHD Humboldt Wedag's roller presses for the minerals industry in Southern Africa.

This grinding technology was originally introduced to the market in 1984 and used widely to process cement and limestone. More recently it has been successful around the world in a variety of mineral-processing applications where its uses ranged from coarse grinding of pebbles in excess of 65 mm down to fine grinding of <100 µm.

A total of about 200 units have been installed worldwide.

The Bateman-KHD roller press (also known as high-pressure grinding rolls) offers low-energy consumptions, in the range 0,8 to 3,0 kWh/t for most ores, and up to 40 % less than that for other grinding technologies. Roller presses also have the ability to process ores with up to 10 % moisture, often eliminating the need for costly drying processes. Overall plant throughput is significantly increased by installing roller presses and the grade of product is improved.

The capacities of roller presses start at about 50 t/h for the pilot-plant models to 1 500 t/h for the largest installed units. The power consumption range is 100 kW to about 3 000 kW with rollers ranging from diameters of 0,8 m and widths of 0,25 m to diameters of 2,1 m and widths of 1,8 m. The specific throughput of an industrial-scale roller press may be determined by the more-or-less direct scale-up of laboratory or pilot-plant testing.

The installations have low maintenance and space requirements, low vibration and noise, availabilities in excess of 95 % and long-term reliability.