AFRICA NEWS
damaging both elements without
producing value. If the mill is over-filled
with mined material, on the other hand,
this results in grinding inefficiencies.
The SAGwise system uses four or
eight unidirectional or bidirectional
audio sensors located in close
proximity to the mill, which detect
the analogue sounds and convert
them into digital signals for analysis
by a processing unit. This unit uses
the sound patterns and other process
variables to determine the necessary
adjustment to the mill’s feed, speed
and pulp density. So direct are the
improvements that can be achieved
by this solution that customers can
pay back their investment in less
than six months, depending on the
commodity value and the specific mill
environment.
“The parameters that are monitored
by SAGwise include the mill’s power
consumption, load impacts, mill load
and pulp density,” he says. “The system
then responds to these parameters by
Winston Mokoena, FLSmidth key
account manager.
controlling the mill speed, the feed rate
and the water to achieve the ‘sweet
spot’ where the mill runs at optimum
efficiency.”
The SAGwise total process control
solution for semi-autogenous (SAG) mills
– developed by FLSmidth – promises
effective SAG mill optimisation with
lower energy consumption and wear
part costs.
Winston Mokoena, key account
manager at FLSmidth, highlights that the
solution reduces critical impacts inside
the mill by up to 45%. This adds life to
wear liners and grinding balls, helping to
prolong liner life between maintenance
and giving mills more uptime.
“SAGwise can improve mill
production by 6% and substantially
reduce process variability,” says
Mokoena. “This ensures that the mill
provides a constant and optimal feed
to the next stage of the process,
effectively facilitating better performance
of downstream operations.”
Among the challenges that mill
optimisation tries to address is too little
material in the mill, or too much. Too
little leads to critical impacts between
the grinding media and the mill liners,
Wising up on mill performance
The SAGwise system uses four or eight unidirectional or bidirectional audio sensors located in close proximity to the mill, which
detect the analogue sounds and convert them into digital signals for analysis by a processing unit.
4
JUNE 2019
www.plantonline.co.za