BrainWave ball mill
The solution for stabilizing and improving ball mill operations
Control stabilization with BrainWave
ANDRITZ BrainWave is a patented advanced controller that outperforms traditional Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control because of its two main components: an adaptive model and a predictive controller. BrainWave builds its own live models during normal plant operations, a powerful feature not offered by traditional Model Predictive Control (MPC) systems.
BrainWave’s predictive controller accurately forecasts process responses and accounts for multiple objectives. It adapts to process conditions, such as changes in production rate, keeping the process on target. BrainWave can also accept measured disturbance inputs, like raw materials properties, and takes corrective action before the process is pushed off target (PID, by comparison, must wait for the error to occur, and then react).
BrainWave easily integrates with existing control systems and its patented Laguerre technology means an average implementation time of just a few weeks. Best of all, the plant’s own staff can support and deploy BrainWave.
Ball mill at a mineral processing plant
Control stabilization for ball mills
BrainWave stabilizes the operation of ball mills, resulting in improved particle size distribution and increased fines production. It is able to stabilize the particle size distribution by continuously adjusting the mill load, typically achieved by adjusting the secondary crusher mantle gap to regulate production rate for the crushing plant. Using its model-based predictive control algorithm, BrainWave can effectively account for the transportation and dead time inherently present in the milling process.
Controlling the particle size distribution at the ball mill will improve the operation and stability of the flotation cells so that chemical costs can be reduced. In addition, the mine operator can specify the coarse material content to meet tailings dam structural requirements.
Since BrainWave ball mill makes adjustments to the secondary crusher mantle gap, it works effectively in conjunction with BrainWave crushing to maintain smooth and stable operations. Stabilizing the operation at this point allows for improved processing capacity downstream.
