Key Benefits

  • Improves your milling operation
  • Lowers your energy consumption
  • Protects your workers
  • Protects your equipment

A continuous ball charging solution for your mill

When charging a grinding mill, the standard practice is to dump tons of balls into the mill at once and replace them somewhere between once a shift and once a week. It’s an inefficient practice that wastes energy, impacts product particle size distribution and risks breakage of mill linings and grinding media. Fortunately, we can offer you a better option with our Mill Grinding Ball Charging System.

 

 

How does it work?

 

Our PERI AutoCharge Mill Grinding Ball Charging System is designed to provide a controlled continuous supply of balls to maintain consistent ball loading in the grinding mill. Continuously charging grinding balls will allow your mill to maintain a consistent power draft, charge volume, ore feed rate, or consumption average (kg/t). Our system effectively mitigates the number of variables in the control formula of your mill to optimise the performance of your operation.

 

 

A safer work environment

 

Worker safety is paramount for any business and our PERI AutoCharge Mill Grinding Ball Charging System will help protect your employers by minimising or eliminating the frequent movement of ball kibbles, drums or sacks by overhead crane. You’ll also be able to further improve the safety of your plant by mounting our ball feeding device over a feed conveyor or bucket elevator fed by gravity from ball storage. That way, you’ll be able to completely avoid the inconvenience and safety issues related to placing overhead crane access and intra-plant transport over equipment and personnel.

 


Making sure your mill is always correctly charged

 

Bulk charging will cause your mill to be either overcharged or undercharged with grinding balls, resulting in some combination of poor product sizing, reduced throughput. Our system will ensure your mill is always correctly charged by allowing the ball feed rate to be adjusted to account for changes in operating conditions. Additionally, our system provides you with alternative ball accounting choices to allow you to properly manage your grinding media. 

Boost your mill’s performance through better charging

Unlike bulk charging practices, our PERI™ AutoCharge Mill Grinding Ball Charging System will ensure your mill is always properly charged. That means your mill will be processing more while conserving energy. You’ll also be able to better protect your staff and extend the life of your equipment.

Helps your mill operate more efficiently and lowers your energy consumption
Our PERI system allows you to adjust the ball feed rate in response to changes in operating conditions like ore hardness, mill speed and lifter profile. Your mill will remain consistently at its optimum charge, which means it will always be working as efficiently as possible. You’ll be able to reduce energy use while improving throughput at consistent product size.
Protects your workers
Our system will allow you to reduce or eliminate the need to move ball kibbles, drums and sacks by overhead crane, removing a potential safety hazard from your workplace. And you’ll be able to further protect your workers’ safety by placing the ball feeding device over a gravity-fed feed conveyor or bucket elevator.
Protects your equipment
By making sure your mill is never overcharged or undercharged, you’ll ensure operating conditions inside remain optimum. That will reduce the wear due to breakage on your mill liner and grinding media and extend the life of your equipment.

Continuous charging, efficient grinding ball counting for your mill

Our PERI™ AutoCharge Mill Grinding Ball Charging System is designed to fit the needs of grinding mills across the globe

Feeder


The AutoCharge feeder continuously charges balls from the storage bin to the mill. The feed wheel picks up balls in each flight and when they pass the top-centre of the wheel, they roll off into either the counting chutes or the weighing module before dropping directly into the mill feed stream.



Standard counter

 

The AutoCharge system is primarily suitable for SAG mill balls (100–150 mm). As each ball rolls through the counting chute, an electro-mechanical limit switch is activated, signalling the counter. Each count is added to the last, allowing a continual increasing total count of balls to enter the mill over a set time period. The total ball count can be monitored on the control panel at any time. A controller is used to set the ball addition rate, assign ball weight, reset the ball counter, and reset after clearing a “ball jam” or “empty bin” alert. Each ball feeder/counter system is designed to accept a narrow range of ball diameters and should not be used to charge balls of mixed sizes.

 

 

Weight-based counter

 

The AutoCharge system’s weight-based counter is suitable for all ball diameters but is particularly applicable to smaller ball sizes (50–80 mm), including ball recharge practice involving multiple sizes. As the balls exit the feed wheel, they are collected in an articulating scoop. The loaded scoop is weighed by an array of load cells; the weight is recorded and summed to the previous total; and balls are discharged into the mill feed stream. 

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