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AIB 054
World famous tiles recycled in
world famous VSI
Clinker tile manufacturer, CC Höganäs, lies on top of a
200 million-year-old clay deposit in southern Sweden.
It is an area with a mining industry that dates back
to the 16th century, during which time many smaller
companies in this region began extracting coal from
the ground.
In 1886, CC Höganäs decided to start clinker tile
production from the clay that was originally viewed
as waste by the coal miners because it was situated
between the layers of coal. The company soon grew a
good reputation for the high quality of its clinker tiles.
Today, CC Höganäs is part of the Ricchetti group, a
world-leading supplier that manufactures tiles in five
countries.
Barmac is best
The modern production plant in Ekeby, Sweden has
found great use for a Barmac VSI crusher. The scrap
Below Ove Paulsson, Production Manager at CC Höganäs.
clinker that does not meet specification is crushed in
a Barmac B3000 VSI supplied by Svedala (now Metso
Minerals) in 1999.
“We were looking for a machine that could replace
our existing Rod Mill, which was very expensive to
operate. The new machine would help our existing
Jaw crusher and 30-inch cone crusher in crushing
our scrap tiles down to 0-1.5mm,” says Ove Paulsson,
Production Manager at CC Höganäs in Ekeby.
Following contact with the Svedala sales organisation
in Sweden, Höganäs’ attention fell on the Barmac
VSI. After the initial lab lest it was clear the Barmac
VSI, with its rock-on-rock crushing principle, would
achieve the result Höganäs was looking for.
“It was quite amazing really,” says Ove Paulsson. “I was
present at this lab test and I went out for a cigarette,
expecting the crushing to take several hours. When
I came back into the lab after a few minutes, the
Barmac was finished crushing the clinker we had
brought with us!”
AIB 054 - PAGE 2/4
Small is beautiful
The required capacity called for the smallest machine
model in the Barmac VSI range, the B3000. The
Barmac VSI was installed in the crushing plant in
closed circuit with Mogensen sizers. The feed material
is 0–20mm coming from the 30-inch cone, which can
now operate at a closed side setting far more suited
to its mechanics.
The final product of the circuit is 0-0.5mm and 0.51.5mm. The plant has a built-in flexibility, which
allows for re-crushing of 0.5-1.5mm in the Barmac.
The gradation is important when mixing the Barmac
product back into the virgin clay to make new clinker
tiles. Therefore it is important to be able to produce
the right mix of ‘flour’ (0-0.5mm) and ‘grains’ (0.5-1.5
mm)
The capacity for the B3000 is a moderate 8-10 tonnes
per hour. However, the same crushing result could
easily be scaled up in any of the bigger models.
“The Barmac has worked wonders for us and one
thing that came as a bonus was the fact that the
Barmac does not contaminate the product with any
metal from wear parts,” Ove Paulsson goes on to say.
“Metal contamination is unwanted both from an
aesthetic and functional point of view. The principle
of the Barmac is really quite beautiful in its simplicity.
The machine lets the material crush itself, so the
metal from the mill rods that we had to separate
before is no longer a problem.”
Ove Paulsson also adds: “By being able to recycle tiles,
we save on both raw materials and also on expensive
colouring pigments, like cobalt for our blue tiles.”
Wear Cost
When asked about the wear cost in the Barmac Ove
Paulsson comments: “The Barmac is much cheaper to
operate than the Rod Mill. But the key to optimising
the wear cost per ton in the Barmac is to carefully
study the interaction between the material being
crushed and the rotor body and parts. The Chamotte
clay is very abrasive when it is hurled around in
the crushing chamber of the Barmac and there is a
shotblasting effect on the rotor.
“In the seven years we have operated the Barmac
we have tried and tested different methods of hard
facing the 300 mm rotor. The method we are using
now has increased the lifetime of the rotor body from
150 hours to 450 hours.”
This method is a combination of hard facing with
extremely hard welding and then slow grinding into
a super smooth surface. Without the small grooves
normally found on a hard faced rotor, the material
cannot not find its way into any crevices and make
them deeper until the rotor must be hard faced again.
The hard and smooth surface just lasts longer, as has
been proven in Höganäs.
Left Cone crusher feed.
Bottom left Freshly made ‘Sydney’ tiles.
Below Finished tiles in the home.
AIB 054 - PAGE 3/4
300mm fine clinker
Jaw Crusher
30” Cone Crusher
Barmac B3000 VSI
Std rotor
Tip Speed: 45m/s
Mogensen
Sizer
Cut = 1.5mm
Cut = 0.5mm
0-0.5mm
0.5-1.5mm
The crushers in CC Höganäs’ circuit:
Top right The jaw crusher.
Middle right The 30” cone crusher.
Bottom right The Barmac B3000 VSI.
AIB 054 - PAGE 4/4
Grading Curves
100.0
90.0
Barmac Feed
Barmac Product
80.0
0-1.5mm undersize
Cum % Passing
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
Sieve Size (mm)
Sydney Opera House
When Danish architect Jörn Utzon designed the Sydney
Opera House in 1957, he did not have to go far to find
the building material he was looking for. He chose the
CC Höganäs clinker tile to cover the 16,000 square metre
surface of his unique design.
Since then, the Sydney Opera House has become one of the
world’s most famous buildings and the tiles from Höganäs
still contribute to its beauty after 40 years in place.
Ove Paulsson offers up a scrapped tile from the ‘Sydney’
range that is just about to be crushed in the Barmac circuit.
Naturally, CC Höganäs takes great pride in the fact that their
tiles, sitting on the roof of a world famous building on the
opposite side of the planet, are still in great shape.
An inquiry has recently come in from Sydney for new tiles
for the Opera House. This means material produced in the
Barmac VSI will soon be covering the roof of the Opera
House.
Ove Paulsson finishes by telling us that the Sydney tile is still
available today, should you be thinking of redecorating your
bathroom at home...
Barmac VSI crushers are used in the industrial minerals, mining, recycling and general quarrying industries. A wide
range of materials are processed through Barmac VSI crushers worldwide. For more information on this or any other
application, please contact your nearest Metso Minerals representative.
Metso Minerals (Matamata) Limited
Mangawhero Road, Private Bag 4071,
Matamata, New Zealand
Tel. +64 7 881 9060, fax +64 7 888 5244
[email protected]
AIB 054 - 08/06