Abstract:
Study had been carried out to identify beach sand minerals available
locally. Principles, cost, and design feasibilities of industrially used magnetic
separators were reviewed. As the best suit for requirements permanent drum
magnetic separator was chosen. Software aided separator design was prepared
based on reversed engineering concept, in the purpose of building fully
functional prototype. Material selection was carried out. According to basic
CAD drawing, prototype was built with necessary design adjustments.
Magnetic drum is 20 cm (0) x 40 cm, which yields a magnetic force field nearly
0.1 T. Prototype proven to separate ferromagnetic minerals in beach sand. Flow
rate is nearly 15 kg/hour. Recovery of magnetite in silica-magnetite mixture is
about 50-60% in single batch process. Using drum direction of rotation opposite
to flow direction, highly magnetic susceptible material was removed with a
higher recovery.
Citation:
Boralugoda, B.P.D., Udowita, U.G.K.P.B., Sayanthan, K., & Rohitha, L.P.S. (2013). Design of a low cost magnetic separator for local beach sand separation. In P.V.A. Hemalal (Ed.), Proceedings of the 7th National Conference on Earth Resources Management (pp. 1-5). Department of Earth Resources Engineering, University of Moratuwa.