Sandvik Mining has released its new Vibrocone crusher concept, combining both crushing and grinding capabilities – and offering up to 30% energy savings compared with traditional crushing/grinding systems. Traditionally, the crushing and grinding process (technically known as comminution) has required different machines and technology to carry out the initial crushing, followed by the grinding and milling phase. Sandvik’s Vibrocone crusher produces a much finer mill feed, allowing it to handle the first stages of grinding in a dry process. The Vibrocone crushes particles not only between the liner surfaces in the crushing chamber, but they also crush each other in a high pressure inter-particle crushing action, giving the ability to produce a P50=3mm (1/8″) mill feed. “Crushers are typically 10 times more energy efficient than mills,” said Marcus Benn, Sandvik Mining Australia’s regional product line manager for mining crushers and screens.

“The Vibrocone’s ability to offload work from the downstream milling process offers energy savings of up to 30%,” he said. “It is the next generation of crushing technology, combining the best of conventional crushing and grinding principles to produce an unprecedented amount of finely crushed product. “Product from the Vibrocone crusher opens the possibility for new eco-efficient comminution alternatives,” Benn said. “For example, in existing comminution circuits with rod and/or ball milling stages, the Vibrocone crushers can replace the rod mills or act as pre-grinding units for the ball mills. “Using a Vibrocone as part of the comminution process will considerably improve the efficiency and cost of downstream grinding.” Before being released at Minexpo in Las Vegas in September 2012, Vibrocone crushers carried out over 10,000 hours of round-the-clock commercial operations in copper, gold and iron ore mine sites to prove the technical and operational reliability of this new comminution technology.
“A greenfield case study of a 10 mtpa copper operation in South America carried out by Ausenco, has shown that the Vibrocone solution is the lowest cost option, with energy savings in the range of 20% relative to the SAG mill alternative,” said Benn. The first Vibrocone to be released is the 400 kW CO865, with a capacity of 200-300 tonnes/hour.
Its top feed size is 150 mm (and it is less sensitive to fines than conventional crushers), with product sizes of 80% passing 6-8 mm and 50% passing 2-4 mm.