Sampling solutions

FLSmidth has a wide range of sampling equipment for the cement and minerals industries, including all product lines formerly known as Pfaff and Autec. This equipment is designed with emphasis on representative sample collection, and covers a wide range of sampler types.

Sample Transport
Sampling Solutions

Quality in sample transport

A typical sample transport solution employs pneumatic tube systems in which sample cartridges (or shuttles) carry 200-550 cc dry powder/granulate sample portions from the sampling location to the laboratory. For steel/metals samples ("lollipops" or similar) a special cartridge type with a clamping device is employed. One or more rotary blowers integrated in the tube network generates a slight over- or under-pressure, which allows the cartridges to move at transport speeds, typically between 8 and 20 metres per second. The systems often service several sampling points from several relevant process departments. The equipment solutions available ranges from manually-serviced dispatch stations located at the process and the lab end to fully-automated and integrated solutions. In the latter case, sample portions are automatically transferred from the sampling equipment or the "in-process" sample preparation equipment and filled into the sample cartridges at the process end. At the lab end, powder/granulate type sample portions are automatically dosed into one or more sample cups for further onwards preparation and analysis, while steel/metals type samples are released from the clamping device and transferred to the relevant piece of preparation equipment. In the steel and metals industry the requirements for very rapid sample analysis are met by so-called "point-to-point" tube connections allowing multiple parallel sample transport. In other industries, e.g. a cement application one tube line with a number of tube diverters often services several sampling points.

The widest range in sampling solutions

FLSmidth has a wide range of sampling equipment for the cement and minerals industries, including all product lines formerly known as Pfaff and Autec. This equipment is designed with emphasis on representative sample collection, and covers a wide range of sampler types:

• screw samplers

• air slide samplers

• spoon & bucket samplers

• cutters in many variations

• rotary type samplers

• cross belt hammer samplers

Each of these sampler types can be delivered for spot sampling and/or for composite sampling over a time period. In the latter case a composite mixing tank is fed from the sampling device in a continuous way or by discrete sample increments.

For sampling installations for lumpy materials (such as clinker, limestone, iron ore, iron pellets, bauxite etc.) the procedures often involve sample preparation stages such as crushing, splitting, drying and grinding at the plant side before transporting the sample portion to the laboratory.

The below illustrations outline some of the standard solutions for automatic powder sampling and sample transport equipment available from FLSmidth Automation and Pfaff AQS. The sampling solutions shown here are suited for powder products, such as cement raw mix, cement, fine ground coal/lignite, mineral sand, alumina etc.

The illustration below shows an installation for sampling of lumpy materials (cement clinker) and the applicable "in-process" sample preparation. Important to mention here is that although built up from standard components such as crushers and splitters, then a complete lumpy product sampling installation is not an off-the-shelve delivery. Due to the industry and plant specific sampling and preparation requirements and the often limited space available for fitting the equipment into the process lay-out, each lumpy product sampling installation becomes a small unique project in itself.

Quality Control