MEASUREMENT OF THE WEAR RATE OF CAST GRINDING BALLS USING RADIOACTIVE TRACERS

Technical Report · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1960

OSTI ID:4115635

Keys, J D; Eichholz, G G

The wear rate of grinding balls is usually difficult to determine under operational conditions, and little is known about the factors determining ball life. Radioactive tracers have been used successfully to mark cast steel balls to obtain information on their life under various operating conditions in comparison with balls of different type or composition. A batch of marked steel balls was observed in a mill operation over a period of several weeks, and statistics on wear and loss of weight were obtained. In earlier test runs in which Fe/sup 59/ was used, techniques were established, and qualitative observations were made on wear rate. In the present experiments, Co/sup 60/, which was added to the molten metal prior to casting, was used as the tracer. Ths last balls were used in a mill at an iron mine. The radioactive batch was added to the ball mill, which had a normal charge of about 77.3 tons (metric). The charge was sampled at weekly intervals to pick out some of the radioactive balls. These balls were inspected and weighed, and the wear rate was calculated. This procedure proved to be a practical way of investigating grinding behavior under plant operating conditions. (auth)

• Research Organization: Canada. Dept. of Mines and Technical Surveys. Mines Branch
• NSA Number: NSA-15-002956
• OSTI ID: 4115635
• Report Number(s): NP-9426
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CASTING
COBALT 60
GRINDING
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF ISOTOPES AND RADIATIONS
IRON 59
MEASURED VALUES
MINING
STATISTICS
STEELS
TRACER TECHNIQUES
WEAR
WEIGHT