The Important Role of the Conical Refiner Plate
The conical refiner plate is mainly used in the fine grinding and fiber treatment stages in the conical refiner of the pulp line.
They are a key part of papermaking pulping, responsible for improving pulp beating degree, promoting fiber separation, and enhancing fiber fibrillation.
Therefore, the conical refiner plate can help improve pulp quality and ensure that paper achieves more stable strength and toughness.
Promote Fiber Separation
Optimizing the tooth profile of the conical refiner plate helps the pulp make more effective contact with the plates within the grinding zone, effectively dispersing and combing out fiber bundles, thereby creating favorable conditions for subsequent fiber surface treatment.
Reinforced Fiber Fibrillation
The reasonable strip and groove design on the surface of the conical refiner plate can help improve the stress mode of the fiber and increase the fibrillation degree of the fiber surface.
So the paper produced in the subsequent papermaking process exhibits higher strength and toughness.
If the tooth profile is not properly selected, problems such as insufficient fiber treatment, excessive cutting, or decreased pulp uniformity may occur.
Maintain Quality Stability
The precision casting, heat treatment, and strict dimensional tolerance control that the conical refiner plates undergo during the manufacturing process help reduce errors and maintain a relatively stable grinding effect during continuous operation.
In the pulping process, the refiner plate is not a standalone component. It, along with the pulp, equipment, and process parameters, constitutes the pulping system. Therefore, when selecting the conical refiner plate, the desired pulp output should be clearly defined first.
Wear of the Conical Refiner Plate Affects Pulping Quality
The Importance of Wear Resistance
The conical refiner plate operates in heavy-duty, highly abrasive recycled pulp environments for extended periods, enduring material scouring, continuous friction, and mechanical impact.
If the conical refiner plate has insufficient wear resistance, its grinding teeth and body will experience abnormal wear. This will increase the operational risk of the equipment and ultimately affect the quality of the generated slurry.
Reasons for Conical Refiner Plate Abnormal Wear
Wear of the conical refiner plate is a normal part of use, but if abnormal wear occurs on conical grinding discs, the machine must be stopped immediately for inspection.
The Impurity Content in Raw Materials
If the pulp you use in your pulp line is recycled pulp or low-quality pulp, it usually contains hard impurities such as sand and metal particles.
Under high-speed operation, these impurities will exert a strong impact on the conical refiner plate, causing rapid chipping and scratching of the refiner plate’s tooth surface.
The Conical Refiner Plates’ Tooth Profile Should Match the Slurry Type
Different types of slurries have different requirements for the tooth profile of the refiner plate, so the selection of conical refiner plate should follow this principle.
If the tooth shape of the conical refiner plate does not match the raw material, the fiber will be over-cut or ineffectively rubbed against the grinding disc during the refining process, thus accelerating the wear of the conical refiner plate.
Test Equipment Load and Clearance Control
If the gap between the conical refiner plates is too small or the load is too high, the refiner plates will be subjected to greater friction and higher temperatures during operation, eventually leading to abnormal wear or even ablation of the conical grinding discs.
Ensure the Refiner Plate Material Matches Operating Conditions
Different working conditions, production purposes, and environments place different requirements on the wear resistance of conical refiner plate. Ordinary alloys will have a significantly shortened lifespan under high-impurity or high-load environments.
How to Effectively Extend the Service Life of the Conical Refiner Plate
Optimize Raw Material Pretreatment
You can add a sand remover before pulp feeding into the conical refiner to reduce the entry of hard impurities into the grinding zone and prevent irreversible wear on the conical refiner plate.
Select the Appropriate Conical Refiner Plate Tooth Profile
The selection of the conical refiner plate should not be based solely on its external dimensions or the equipment brand.
To achieve more suitable pulping performance, you typically need to simultaneously confirm equipment parameters, pulp conditions, and pulping objectives.
Among these factors, the choice of tooth profile is crucial.
For long fiber slurries, choosing the conical refiner plate with deeper teeth and wider tooth spacing can extend the residence time of the fibers in the grinding zone, making the action more uniform and reducing the unit pressure.
For short fibers, they require a design with high tooth density and a shallow tooth shape, so that the fibers undergo more micro-actions per unit time, thereby achieving a more delicate processing effect.
Control Operating Parameters
Properly set the gap, load, and speed of the conical refiner plate to avoid long-term high-load operation of the grinding disc.
Choose Highly Wear-Resistant Materials
In cases of complex operating conditions or where economic conditions permit, you can choose conical refiner plate made of high-chromium alloys or other wear-resistant metal materials to ensure their stability and wear resistance under complex operating conditions.
Regularly Inspect and Maintain Conical Refiner Plate
Establish a wear monitoring mechanism for conical refiner plates, regularly check the usage of the grinding discs, and avoid systemic damage caused by “overuse”.