Title of Invention

A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING MICA CHIPS FROM MICA ORE OR MICA MINE SCRAP

Abstract

This invention relates to the method and apparatus for preparing mica chips from mica ore or mica mine scrap. Mica flakes and mica powders produced from mica mine ore/ scrap by conventional process have low end industrial applications in rubber, drilling mud, electrical insulation, agglomerated mica pigments, cosmetics etc. This invention aims at developing mica chips having good tensile strength and improved purity to adapt it suitable for high end industrial applications. The improved mica chips have been produced through the present developed process and apparatus comprising washing the washed material to remove the mice free flowing water by a centrifugal unit (10), drying the mica with blowing hot air at around 200° c by a drying unit, subjecting the dried mica to a splitter/ disintegrator (20) to convert the mica ore / scrap to mica chips of desired particle sizes and thickness having improved tensile strength, separating the chip material in vacuum by separating the thinner particles from the material by a separating unit (24,26), passing the mica particles through a horizontal sieve (40) having different pore sizes ranging between 5-75 mm, allowing the mica chips to spread over a flat conveyor belt evenly with the help of a vibrating arrangement (90,92,94,96), finally removing the balance impurities before collecting mica chips into bags.

Full Text

The invention relates to the development of a new product "Mica Chips" from Mica Mine Ore/Mica Mine Scrap Delete. The invention also relates to the method of preparing Mica Chips free from impurities so as to produce such Mica Chips suitable for high end industrial application in electrical insulating material, agglomerated Mica, pigments, cosmetics & fillers. The invention further relates to the development of new machines for the above process and product Mica Mine Ore/Mica Mine Scrap is obtained as a waste product, while mining is done to obtain/extract larger sizes of Mica Ore suitable for the production of Mica Sheet, Splittings, etc. The mining is done normally with conventional underground mining process. However, it is also extracted with open cast mining process, where the deposit is shallow and concentrates on the upper surface of the earth. Mine Scrap thus obtained from the mines has following appllcations:^ - 2 - 1 . The raw Mica Mine Ore/Mica Mine Scrap Delete extracted from the mines is directly fed into a Crusher without washing. The crusher would ordinarily break the mica ore into flakes having particle size ranging between 2-10 mesh and having thickness of 20-30 microns- Mica flakes thus obtained has low end industrial application in paint, rubber and in various other industrial fillers. 2. The mica ore being after extracted from the mines also known to have application in making mica powder between 60-300 mesh. Mica ore so derived from the mines is directly fed to the pulverizer without washing and is grinded into mica powder having mesh size from 60-300 mesh. Mica powder thus obtained has application in drilling mud and other low end applications. The product obtained by the known method as mentioned herein above do not have high end industrial application particularly in electrical insulating,agglomerated mica pigments, cosmetics, etc. The known process of making mica flakes and mica powder not only drastically reduces the size and the thickness of the ore, but also reduces the tensile strength and the electrical insulating - 3 - properties of mica. One of the object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages experienced in the prior art. Another object of the present invention is to obtain such a product, which should have high end industrial application. A further object of this present invention is to eliminate impurities from the raw material. A still further object of the present invention is to produce mica chips of the appropriate chip size without losing the tensile strength of the ore and thereby retaining electrical insulating properties and also free from undesirable impurities and contaminations. A still further object of the present invention is to develop a process for producing awehnmica chips. A still further object of the present invention is to fabricate the required apparatus and machines for carrying out the above process of mica chips from mica mine ore/mica mine scrap CDhibra). The invented new method for preparing mica chips from mica mine ore/mica mine scrap Delete derived from mica mine, comprises the following steps s " A - 1. Washing the material with water preferably by conventional hydro blasting washing. 2. Centrifuging the washed material to remove the mica free from flowing water, 3. Drying the mica with blowing hot air (at around 2,00°C); 4. Subjecting the dried mica to a splitter/disintegrator provided with a specially designed hammer to convert the mica chips of desired particle sizes (1 mm to 200 mm) and thickness; 5. Separating the chips material in vacuum to separate the thinner particles from the material; 6. Passing the mica particles through a horizontal sieve having different pore sizes ranging between 5-75 mm, 7. Allowing the mica chips to spread over a flat conveyor belt through hopper and vibrating arrangement for even spreading of the material on the material on the conveyor, 8. Removing the balance impurities, from the crushed material manually on convey ore before bagging it An apparatus for making the new product mica chips with newly developed process and apparatus from mica mine ore/mica mine scrap extracted from mine, which comprises; -5- 1. A washer which washes the mica ore by hydro-frictlonal washing; 2. Centrifuging unit which removes the free flowing water f ram mica; 3- A drying unit which allows hot air to blow over the o mica at a temperature of approximately 200 ; 4, A splitter/disintegrator having a specially designed hammer which converts the mica ore into mica chips of desired particle sizes; A separating unit which separates the chip material in vacuum from the thin particles of the mixture; A sieve through which mica particles are passed to segregate the particle size varying between 5 and 75 mm; 7. A vibrating arrangement for evenly spreading of mica chips on the conveyors for separating the mica chips from the impurities, g. A conveyor belt system to remove impurities from the chips. The conventional disintegrator having heavier hammers, which crushes the mica ore in fine thickness and in small sizes We have replaced the conventional heavy hamme rs by lighter hammers to prepare the mica chips of desired thickness and size suitable for higher end application - - 6 - The mica ore washed and cleaned before feeding to the splitter/disintegrator, according to the present invention has better properties for higher end industrial applications. It is further found that removal of the mud material exhaustively by this process, results in the yield of better quality material with less impurities- The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 shows washing cum centrifuging and drying unit, and Figure 2 shows the system used in carrying out the method of preparing mica chips from mica mrfine ore/mica mine scrap according to the present invention. Figure 3 shows the specially designed hammer located within the sp litter/disintegrator. In the drawings Washing cum centrifuging unit (10) A. 1lustrates a thin hollow cylinder (11^tapered at both sides for the easy access of the mica chips. The periphery of one end of said hollow cylinder is covered with a mesh of predetermined size for allowing the washing off the mud and other impurities from mica ore. A mobile water tank 7 - tank is with a housing (15)so as to prevent the spillage of water when said cylinder is dipped into the water tank - There is a water reservoir (16) from which the water is supplied to the mobile water tank (12). After the mica ores are washed inyo^teter and centrifuged to remove the excess water, it is dried with hot air at about 200 C and is discharged into a mobile hopper o 200 C is blown to dry the washed and centrifuged mica ore. The washing-cum centrifuging unit (10) is located adjacent to a splitter-disintegrator (20) which is provided with a hopper at its upper end thereof through which the dried mica ore is fed into the said splitter-disintegrated (20), said splitter disintegrator (20). The splitter (20) is to disintegrate the mica ore/mica mine scrap Delete into chips of different sizes. The splitter/disintegrator is run by an electric motor and has arrangement for variable speed drive with the help of changing of pulley size, to achieve different speed for disintegrating different size materials. The material is fed from the side of the splitter. A wire net is provided at the bottom of the splitter i.e. at the discharge opening. The wire nets are of different mesh sizes and are interchangeable. This is to control the size of the end product to the required range. The splitters/hammers are of different sizes and shapes for splitting and disintegration to the required size. - a - The said splitter-disintegrator (20) is provided with asquare body made of steal with a casing of cast iron. At the bottom of the splitter-disintegrator (20) i.e. at its discharge point a thin removal box is tkd which allows removal of flaky and thin material. The box allows the material to free fall at a distance of 1200 mm and with the help of blower while the material is falling, the flaky and thin particles arc moved from the material and with the! help of ducting, is sent to the cyclone where the thin and flaky pieces, hut heavier falls through this cyclone and are collected in a bad under it. The air together with dust with the help of ducting is further sent to a dust collector unit (26) fitted bags to A arrest the dust particles; which arc collected in the bags, and with the help of filter bags the fresh air Is released in the atmosphere. The system is run by an electric motor. The splitter is provided with a central rotor (not shown) having a series of hammers to split the mica ore into chips. The said hammer comprises three plates as shown in Figure 3 of (he drawings (40,42,45), said three plates are joined together aud bolted (47) to form one single piece hammer. The rotor is rotated by means of a motor (not shown) with an arrangement to variable sped drive. The discharge end of the splitter is provided with an interchangeable wire net depending on the size of the discharge material required. _9_ The splitter hammers generally comprises a set of four. The said hammersr , range in size from 12 mm to 60 mm in width and 80 mm to 200 in.length- The-splitter hammers are corrugated and the edges are sharpened for splitting the material effectively. The splitters are normally of three peices and are bolted together. The centre peices of hammers are straight and he other two pieces o located at the side are bent outside at an angle between 14-49 . Generally such sets are used at a time and also partly for achieving the desired results. The splitted mica chips are separated by suction to remove the dust therefrom and the heavier particles are taken out through an outlet (24) and collected 4n a collector (26). The mica chips are then lifted from the collector (26) by a bucket elevator (30) and discharged through a thin discharge box (32) . The bucket elevator (30) is required to carry the material from splitter-disintegrator (20) to a certain height ,so that it feeds the material to rotary screen. The bucket elevator is run through buckets, belts, dr.ive pulley, boot pulley, screw take up, motor, gear box, coupling ,etc. Pltform is required for maintaining the bucket elevator components at different fllor heights. Here again the dust particles are removed through suction before feeding the bigger sized particles through a rotary screen (40 - 10 - speed variation. This speed variation could be between 1 ft - 10 ft per minute. This speed variation is achieved with the help of different sizes of pulleys attached with the main motor drive through reduction gearbox. All conveyors are driven by a common line shaft so as to maintain the same speed of all the conveyors. The belt is preferably made out of 2 ply polyester of white colour. The white colour is used for the purpose to give a contrast effect against the material and impurities for the purpose of manual picking of impurities from the material and to reduce the risk of impurities going with the main product and also to increase the production efficiency. The width of belt is 1000 mm so that the spread of material takes place properly in the whole width of the belt to avoid overlapping of materials at the time of manual picking. The purpose of the hopper and vibrating tray is to store and discharge material to conveyor at a constant and regulated speed. The vibrating tray has a 2 way discharge run by a electromagnetic electromechanical vibrator and supported on si ings from hopper. With the help of these vibrators the flow of material on to conveyor is controlled. The tray is designed in such a way so as to spread the material in whole of the width of the conveyor belt- The speed of the belt could vary from 1 ft per minute to 10 ft per minute. 12 The system as described and illustrated herein is not restrictive as it will be appreciated that alterations and modifications thereof are possible and are within the knowledge of person having knowledge in the art. Therefore the feature as described herein does not limit the scope of the present invention. The mica chips obtained according the process of the present invention is used as raw material for manufacturing in sulating material, agglomerated mica, high grade of pigments and cosmetics. Product : Mica Chips Size Range : 7 mm to 75 mm Thickness : 0.1 to 2 ram Defects and Impurities : 1000-2000 p.p.m: Heat Resistance Range : 500 degree, 750 degree,. 1000 degrees & 1200 degree Celsius. -13- WE CLAM: 1. A method for preparing mica chips from mica ore or mica mine Bcrap comprising the following steps: i) washing the impure mica mine ore with water, preferably by conventional hydro blasting washing; it) centrifuging the washed mica ore to remove mica free from flowing water, iii) drying the washed mica by blowing hot air at around 200°C; iv) subjecting dried mica to a splitter / disintegrator to convert the mica ore into mica chips of desired particle sizes (1mm to 200mm) and thickness; v) separating the chips material in vaccum to separate the thinner particles from the material; vi) passing the mica particles through a horizontal sieve having different pore sizes ranging between 5-75 mm; vii) allowing the mica chips to spread over a flat conveyor belt; and viii) finally removing the balance impurities before collecting the mica chips into bags. 2. A method for preparing mica chips from mica ore or mica mine scrap substantially as herein described 14- 3. An apparatus to cany out the process as claimed in claim 1 for preparing mica chips from mica ore or mica mine scrap comprising - i) a washer (11) which washes the mica ore by hydro-blasting process; ii) a centrifugal unit (10) which removes the free flowing water from mica chips; iii) a drying unit which allows hot air to the blown over said mica at a temperature upto 200°C; iv) a splitter/disintegrator (20) which converts the mic a ore into mica of desired particle sizes; v) a separating unit (26) wtiich separates the chip material from the fine particles in vacuum; vi) a sieve (40) which separates mica particle size varying between 5 and 75 mm; vii) a vibrating arrangement (90,92,94,96) fixed at the bottom of the hopper (72,74,76,78) to evenly spread the material on the conveyor belt; and viii) a conveyor belt for separating mica chips from impurities. 4. An apparatus as claimed in claim S wherein the mica ore is crushed with a light hammer to prepare mica chips of desired thickness and suitable size. 5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 6 wherein hammer used is having a diametric ranging from 12 mm to 60 mm and 80mm and 80mm to 200 mm in length. 6. An apparatus as claimed in any of claims 6 to 8 having said hammers comprises a center piece and two end pieces which are located and are bent outside at an angle between 14-45 . 7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5 wherein said splitter/disintegrated is a square unit made of steel having a casing of cast iron. 15- 8. An apparatus for preparing mica, chips from mica ore or mica mine scrap substantially as herein described and illustrated in the drawings. This invention relates to the method and apparatus for preparing mica chips from mica ore or mica mine scrap. Mica flakes and mica powders produced from mica mine ore/ scrap by conventional process have low end industrial applications in rubber, drilling mud, electrical insulation, agglomerated mica pigments, cosmetics etc. This invention aims at developing mica chips having good tensile strength and improved purity to adapt it suitable for high end industrial applications. The improved mica chips have been produced through the present developed process and apparatus comprising washing the washed material to remove the mice free flowing water by a centrifugal unit (10), drying the mica with blowing hot air at around 200° c by a drying unit, subjecting the dried mica to a splitter/ disintegrator (20) to convert the mica ore / scrap to mica chips of desired particle sizes and thickness having improved tensile strength, separating the chip material in vacuum by separating the thinner particles from the material by a separating unit (24,26), passing the mica particles through a horizontal sieve (40) having different pore sizes ranging between 5-75 mm, allowing the mica chips to spread over a flat conveyor belt evenly with the help of a vibrating arrangement (90,92,94,96), finally removing the balance impurities before collecting mica chips into bags.

Documents:

00018-cal-2000 abstract.pdf

00018-cal-2000 claims.pdf

00018-cal-2000 correspondence.pdf

00018-cal-2000 description (complete).pdf

00018-cal-2000 description (provisonal).pdf

00018-cal-2000 drawings.pdf

00018-cal-2000 form-1.pdf

00018-cal-2000 form-18.pdf

00018-cal-2000 form-2.pdf

00018-cal-2000 form-3.pdf

00018-cal-2000 form-5.pdf

00018-cal-2000 letters patent.pdf

00018-cal-2000 p.a.pdf