A hydrocyclone is a cone-shaped device that separates particles in a liquid stream by size, density, or both. It takes water as medium to classify and separate mineral particles in the centrifugal force field with tens to hundreds of times acceleration of gravity. According to its different application, it can be divided into grinding classification hydrocyclone, ultrafine classification hydrocyclone, desliming hydrocyclone, concentrated hydrocyclone and so on.
There are four main types of hydrocyclones: tangential, axial, helical, and spiral. They are simple but highly effective separation devices because they benefit from low manufacturing cost, no moving parts, and simpler operation and maintenance when compared to other centrifugal devices.
According to different working conditions, there are many kinds of materials can be chosen, like cast steel, high chrome cast iron, rubber, polyurethane and other materials.
Product is fed into the hydrocyclone tangentially under a certain pressure. This creates a centrifugal movement, pushing the heavier phase outward and downward alongside the wall of the conical part. The decreasing diameter in the conical part increases the speed and so enhances the separation. Finally, the concentrated solids are discharged through the apex. The vortex finder in the overflow part creates a fast rotating upward spiral movement of the fluid in the centre of the conically shaped housing. The fluid is discharged through the overflow outlet.
The hydrocyclone is now an established simple, practical tool, it is extensively used in closed-circuit grinding operations. Nerison series hydrocyclones are applied in ferrous and non-ferrous metal and non-metal grinding classification working, raw ore de-sliming working, fine classification working, concentration working etc.
