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Powtech World Magazine Advertorial


CONTROL


NETZSCH Ecutec has designed a complete programmable logic controller (PLC) loss-in-weight system for both materials. The stearic acid is melted gently in a tank above load cells. These load cells, together with the pump and PLC, form a system where the massflow is constantly monitored and controlled. For CaCO3, the hopper for the calcium carbonate powder also sits on load cells, forming, with metering systems and the PLC, another loss-in-weight system. These two systems are combined in the PLC and certain ‘recipes’ can be created whereby the operator selects one desired end-product, and the plant automatically adjusts itself to the necessary feed rates of CaCO3 and stearic acid. This technology ensures that there will not be any over-coating or waste of stearic acid, or under- coating and a loss of product quality.


AIMING TO ACHIEVE A PERFECT SINGLE LAYER OF COATING To successfully complete this objective of the process, the particle size of the product to be coated, will stay the same and only a thin layer of stearic acid needs to be applied. NETZSCH Ecutec’s preferred solution for achieving this is to directly inject the acid into a high speed pin mill. The injection is performed by means of an atomizing nozzle, where hot pressurized air separates


the melted liquid stearic acid stream into millions of small droplets. These droplets are a minimum size of 10µm, which is still too big to achieve perfect coating of some of the ultrafine particles. Injecting the liquid into a zone with high shear forces can reduce the size of the droplets, meaning that small particles will not get ‘glued’ to other particles by oversized droplets. Stearic acid should flow around each particle and build- up a thin layer on the surface, so as not to increase the particle size - it is crucial to de-agglomerate the particles and apply the coating agent in a hot environment. The important thing is to avoid increasing the size of the particles by coating them with too much stearic acid.


AVOID CREATING AGGLOMERATES AFTER THE COATING PROCESS In order to reach the final product stage, the particles must be cooled down so that the stearic acid solidifies. In some coating systems, the full coating cannot take place in the mill and following conveying lines are kept hot to allow for some further coating activity to take place during the transport, but this comes with a high risk of agglomeration. By using NETZSCH Ecutec’s new coating technology, all the necessary coating can be achieved inside the mill, meaning that the particles can be transported to the silo at low temperatures, and are not at risk of agglomerating.


COMPANY INFORMATION


Ecutec was founded in 1996 in Germany. It relocated to Barcelona in 1999, but maintained production in Germany to ensure high manufacturing standards. Since November 2017, it has been part of the minerals and mining sector which belongs to the grinding and dispersion business unit of the NETZSCH Group. netzsch-grinding.com/en/minerals-mining


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