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Esr`s Bi-Directional Barrel
Twenty years ago all dense medium (DM) separators on the market were mono-directional, with floats and sinks reporting on the same side of a relatively short horizontal drum. This concept fails for four basic reasons.
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 this new ESR bi-directional design, the medium together with solids is injected over a broad three dimensional plane, making it almost impossible to bury floats with sinks.
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, ESR 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.
Correct Floats Dynamic
The typical dense medium drum is quite short (only 4 to 5 feet in length), and it happens quite often that before a particle can float or sink, it is already out of the bath. Therefore, ESR extended the length of the separation zone, greatly increasing the residence time of a particle in the bath, thereby making it impossible to find sinks in floats. The rule that ESR follows in this regard: the length of the separation zone must be at least 2.2 times the diameter of the drum.
Correct Sinks Dynamic
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.
