Dense medium separation

The Ad Rem technology is based on 4 points:

1. Correct injection

At the critical moment of introducing solids into the drum, the floats of the typical DM drum are easily buried with sinks and cannot find their way to the surface of the bath. However in the Ad Rem bi-directional design, the medium together with solids is injected over a large separation zone, making it almost impossible to bury floats with sinks.

2. The stability of the medium

A typical dense medium bath is relatively deep, and this makes it difficult for the suspension particles to remain in suspension. If a medium is not stable, we find water at the top of the bath and a dense sludge at the bottom of the bath, and of course, in this stratified liquid, no separation takes place. Instead of a deep bath, Ad Rem chose a shallow bath, and the gentle action of the sinks scrolls pulling underneath the bath provides just the right amount of agitation to keep the suspension medium stable.

3. Correct floats dynamics

The typical dense medium drum is quite short (only 1.0 – 1.5m in length), and it happens quite often that before a particle can float or sink, it is already out of the bath. Therefore, in the Ad Rem design the length of the separation zone is greatly extended, increasing the residence time of a particle in the bath, therefore making it impossible to find sinks in floats.

4. Correct sinks dynamics

In the conventional dense medium drum, the curtains needed to prevent floats from crossing over with sinks are located in the separation zone and, due to turbulent fluid movement in the vicinity of these curtains, floats are easily sucked under these curtains and report with sinks.

In the new Ad Rem design, however, the curtain that prevents floats from crossing over with sinks is situated completely outside the separation zone, making it impossible to find floats in sinks.