Cement Technology 5.

1 Fineness Development

Cement Manufacturing Technology

Module 5:
Cement milling – releasing the hydraulic potential of the cement clinker.
5.1 Developing fineness

At the close of module 4 our cement raw materials had been converted into cement
clinker in the cement kiln.

The desired combination into the clinker minerals, C3S, C2S,

C3A and C4AF had been achieved, but these clinker minerals are
agglomerated in nodules of cement clinker.

The hydraulic potential of the clinker must be released by once

again grinding the clinker into a fine powder.

Grinding the clinker to a fine powder breaks the nodules of

clinker, and increases the surface area of the clinker particles
available for the hydraulic reaction with water that delivers the
stiffening, setting and strength development of cement.

Grinding the cement clinker, together with gypsum in the finish

mill is the final processing stage in the manufacture of cement
before delivery to the customer.

It is the final opportunity to influence the quality and hydraulic

properties of the cement.

As we saw in session 1.1. cement quality depends on its

hydraulic performance in concrete applications.
• Compressive strength.
• Setting characteristics.
• Workability.
• Durability.
• Variability.

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Cement Technology 5.1 Fineness Development

Aside from variability there is no technology available which will allow these hydraulic
properties to be monitored while the cement is being ground. This means that the quality
of the cement, in particular the strength development, has to be inferred from the fineness
of grinding of the cement. Realising the desired strength growth properties is reliant on
the fineness and particle size distribution (psd) which is achieved in cement grinding.

Traditionally the finish grinding of cement was achieved in ball mills, and this remains
the dominant technology used in the world cement industry today.

Again essentially a rotating steel tube filled to ~30%

with steel balls.

The cascading effect of the steel balls caused by the

rotation of the mill shell crushes and finely grinds the
material passing through the mill.

The inside the of the mill shell is lined with steel

plates to protect the shell and lift the grinding media.

The power required to turn the mill and the grinding

media balls is a function of the mill diameter, weight
of the grinding media and the rotational speed of the
mill.

Net kW = 0.2846.D.A.W.N
Where:
D = effective diameter inside the liners.
A = 1.073 – V/100
(V =% volume loading).
W = media weight
N = rotational speed in rpm.

The critical speed of the mill is the rotational speed at

which the centrifugal force on a grinding ball would
cause it to fly-wheel around the inside of the rotating
mill shell.

Critical speed, N, is a function of the diameter of the

mill…
N = 42.5/√Diameter
Mill speed is set to 70~76% of critical to induce the tumbling of the media.

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Cement Technology 5.1 Fineness Development

As with the raw grinding of the raw materials there is a trend

towards the use of compression forces in cement grinding via
roll presses and vertical mills.

Again this is principally driven by the desire to reduce the

power costs per tonne of cement ground.

Ball mills for cement grinding are divided into a number of chambers…
… by slotted diaphramns through which the finely
ground cement powder can pass.

Larger grinding balls, or media, are loaded into the first chamber of the mill and intended
to initially crush the clinker.

Smaller grinding balls, or media, are loaded into the subsequent chambers of the mill to
accomplish the finer grinding of the cement.

Crushing large particles of clinker requires big, heavy grinding media, progressively finer
grinding of cement requires progressively smaller grinding media.

The objective is to achieve a progression of fineness along the axis or grinding path in the
mill, such that the desired fineness is achieved at the mill outlet, and not before the outlet
of the mill.

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Cement Technology 5.1 Fineness Development

If the desired fineness is achieved too early along the grinding path the electrical energy
absorbed to tumble the grinding media beyond that point in the mill is effectively wasted,
there is also a danger of overgrinding and reagglomeration of ground particles.

The progression of fineness along the axis or grinding path in the mill needs to be
regularly checked by axial sampling along the grinding path of the mill, going into the
mill after crash stopping, digging into the media and sampling the material at 1m
intervals along the grinding path, then measuring the surface area and particle size
distribution of the samples in the laboratory. If the desired progression of fineness along
the axis or grinding path in the mill is not being achieved then the media size grading in
the mill needs to be adjusted, by recharging the chambers with appropriate media sizes,
or in the worst cases tipping, media screening and recharging the mill.

Aside from axial sampling and testing to check the progression of

fineness along the grinding path the internal condition of the mill
needs to be regularly inspected.

The condition of the media, liners and diaphramns all need to be

inspected and maintained.

Photographic methods can also be used for estimating the ball size
grading.

Cement clinker is a highly abrasive material and wear of the

grinding media, liner plates and diaphramns in inevitable.

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Cement Technology 5.1 Fineness Development

Material at the diaphramn in the first chamber needs to be less than 5% retained on a
1mm mesh.

Length

Diameter

Volume loading needs to be 28~30% of the internal volume of the first chamber.

Historically open circuit ball mills were used for cement grinding and might have 3 or
4 chambers to physically separate grinding media of progressively smaller sizes.

These open circuit cement mills might have a length to diameter ratio of 5 to 1, or
greater.

All the required fineness development must be achieved in a single pass through the mill.

The first major technological development in cement finish grinding was to introduce a
separator into closed circuit with the mill.

The material exiting the mill is

transported to a classifier which
separates that which is fine is enough to
become finish product from that which
must be sent back to the mill for further
grinding.

All the fineness development does not

need to take place in a single pass
through the mill.

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Cement Technology 5.1 Fineness Development

Typical length to diameter ratio of these closed circuit cement mills is 3.5 to 1.

Length

Diameter

The number of chambers is reduced to 2.

Liners with special shapes to classify the media and provide a media grading from coarse
to fine are used in the second chamber.

The first major technological development in cement finish grinding was to introduce a
separator into closed circuit with the mill. Introducing the separator into the milling
circuit allowed mill outputs to be increased and electrical energy consumption per unit of
cement produced, kWh/t, to be reduced. Separation and separators and the ongoing
technological development of cement milling technology will be the subject of session
5.2 of the course. However, before closing this session we must consider the effects
which introducing a separator into the circuit had on the fineness of the cement product.

Open circuit mills produced cements with a wide particle size distribution as a
consequence of having to achieve the required surface area by a single pass through the
mill.

A high proportion of coarse particles were balanced by a high proportion of fine particles.

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Cement Technology 5.1 Fineness Development

With a separator in the circuit the coarse particles are sent back to the mill for regrinding,
and are therefore not present in the finished product,

Separator cut point.

Surface Area.

but this is balanced by less fines at the same surface area of the product, resulting in a
much narrower particle size distribution of the cement from closed circuit mills compared
with open circuit mills.

The first stage of a process of changing particle size distribution in cement as the
technology of grinding cement has developed.

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