Análise quantitativa de desgaste em um moinho vertical de rolos: um estudo de caso

Abstract

Wear mechanisms are directly related to high costs in various industry segments. In the cement industry, the vertical roller mill has been increasingly used at the expense of the ball mill because of its excellent specific energy consumption and high productivity. However, this equipment undergoes heavy wear and it is constantly necessary to stop production for recovery of its rollers and table. The present study aimed to analyse quantitatively the wear in a vertical roller mill, whose rolls and table were recovered through the flux-cored wire welding process. For this, the loss of mass in its rolls and table was verified during two productive periods of approximately three months after the recovery by welding that was carried out by two different companies. The loss of specific mass, in grams of material worn by tons of ground material, and the rolls and table wear patterns, were also evaluated. It is concluded that although the alloys used by the two companies had the same specifications, they presented different resistances, causing that in one of the periods analysed the wear was more aggressive. Besides, that there is a pattern for the wear along the roller, so, there is a region where the control of the lost mass should be more intense. It is suggested the use of covers in the rolls with ceramic inserts, material that presents good results in environments with the combination of impact and abrasive wear to seek to increase the life time of the equipment between one stop and another for maintenance