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By Z. F. Oszter

This paper discusses the materials handling problems encountered in cement plants in the areas of raw and finished product grinding and cement storage. It illustrates by examples taken from actual installations, how optimum feed rate is maintained in grinding circuits with properly applied bin dischargers (vibrating hoppers, Mexican feed boxes and aerated bin bottoms) for materials with high moisture content and/or difficult handling characteristics. Initial operating problems with the equipment will be discussed and maintenance requirements will be indicated for comparison purposes. In a modern cement plant, properly functioning bins and feeders are as essential as process control, for no process control system, however sophisticated, can perform efficiently if raw materials do not flow into the plant processing facilities at the required time and rate. Most materials used in the manufacture of portland cement - such as silica sand, iron ore fines, crushed limestone, gypsum, clinker or cement itself-have difficult handling characteristics under specific conditions. High moisture content or even dampness due to condensation may create bin hang-ups, arching and ratholing, all of which result in improper functioning of the feeders or proportioning equipment. The occurrence of these problems in existing cement plants spurred a search for the corrective devices discussed in this article. The equipment investigated included bin dischargers in the form of vibrating hoppers for moist raw materials, Mexican feed boxes for clinker and aerated bin bottoms for cement. Operating experience with different types of bin dischargers showed that the actual performance of some did not come up to the expected level under prevailing operating conditions. The aim of this paper is to record the results of this experience and there- by aid designers and/or operators in selecting the most suitable equipment for their requirements. BIN DISCHARGERS (GENERAL) A discharger is a device that causes stored solids to flow out of a hopper without metering the rate of flow as a feeder does. The investigation discussed here encompasses the following types of bin dischargers used in a cement plant: (1) vibrating hoppers (horizontal motion), (2) whirlpool hoppers (horizontal and vertical motion), (3) aerated bin bottoms (air fluidization), and (4) Mexican feed boxes. Most of the bins used in the cement industry are of the plug flow type. Raw materials with difficult handling characteristics such as high moisture content may cause flow problems when fed through small openings (12 x 18 in.), even if two walls of the bin are vertical.' The most appropriate solution to these flow problems would be the installation of separate mass flow bins for the different materials such as silica sand, iron ore fines, crushed limestone and gypsum, with each bin correctly designed from test data obtained by measuring the flow properties of representative samples. However, limited storage capacity and plant space usually preclude this approach. Quantitative design of bins for flow based on measured flow properties of representative samples of the bulk solid to be handled is no longer an "engineering art," thanks to the basic research done on the flow of bulk solids in bins during the last decade.2, Where space limitations exist, however, or where improvements are being sought for equipment already installed, bin dischargers offer a satisfactory solution to flow problems. They can be applied effectively under flat-bottom bins or mounted to existing plug-flow bins with very little modification to these facilities. In both the foregoing cases, plug flow will be maintained, but the flow channel will be considerably increased so that it is larger than the discharger's bin-side diameter, and material flow can be sustained if the discharger is correctly selected. The main purpose of a bin discharger is to draw the bulk solids across the whole area of the bin outlet, to make the opening fully effective. As long as the bin-side opening of the discharger is large enough

Jan 1, 1969

By C. E. Taylor, L. V. Fegan

With on-stream electrical-resistance measurement as a basis, Bethlehem Steel developed a system for the completely automatic control of moisture in the feed to pelletizing. This system was later successfully adapted to the sintering process, with automatic control of moisture serving to maintain the air permeability required for effective burnthrough. Control of moisture content is an important factor in the agglomeration processes by which iron ores are converted into either pellets or sinter for use in blast furnace burdens. In both pelletizing and sintering the iron ore feed must be mixed with the proper amount of water so that capillary attraction and surface tension forces can be utilized to cause the ore particles to coalesce and form larger agglomerates. The success or failure of the entire pelletizing or sintering process depends on maintaining the proper moisture. Therefore, continuous automatic control of moisture is one of the conditions for the automation and optimum use of both pelletizing and sintering processes. In pelletizing, variation in moisture can cause ball size to change and is a common cause of cycling which results in a fluctuating feed to induration. Excessive moisture can cause lumps to form at the cutter bar and contributes to the formation of buildup on the green pellet screens. Green pellets with excess moisture deform and reduce bed permeability. In sintering, accurate control of moisture is also important because moisture must be within the limits that give the bed the required permeability for good burnthrough. In response to these problems, a moisture meter, based on the principle of electrical resistance measurement, was developed. This moisture meter has been a key factor in the development of systems for providing uniform feed of concentrates in most of Bethlehem's pelletizing and sintering plants. The automatic moisture control system for pelletizing was successfully plant-tested and resulted in the following: (1) Control of moisture in the green pellets to +0.2%. (2) Up to 50% reduction of bentonite consumption. (3) Control of unscreened green pellets so that 85% of the furnace product at Cornwall was within the size range of -5/8 +3/8 in. (4) Improved quality of product with a tumble test of 94 and a "Q" index of 90 as the result of feeding a consistently uniform feed to a shaft furnace. In sintering, where sinter-mix temperature change and variable feed could cause errors in moisture measurement, the system was designed to maintain the correct moisture under virtually all plant operating conditions. It was successfully plant-tested and is now in use in most of Bethlehem's sintering plants. The system achieves: (1) Control of moisture within the desired limits for optimum production. (2) Continuous measurement and control of moisture even with intermittent feeding of mix, so that attention by the operator is seldom required. The two automatic control systems provide smoother startup, minimize upsets and contribute to the consistent control of process variables in pelletizing and sintering. MOISTURE-CONTROL SYSTEM FOR PELLETIZING Fig. 1 shows the general arrangement of the system for automatic control of moisture in pelletizing.1 In this system a bin level controller, using a single probe which regulates filter speed, maintains a uniform low concentrate level in the bin.' The moisture meter, comprised of an analyzer and control components, continuously measures the moisture in the bed and adds water to adjust to the desired level. The meter is placed in an open-loop (feed-forward) control, i.e., water addition occurs downstream from the probes. Filter vacuum must be set so as to produce a filtercake moisture which is below the optimum for pelletizing. Bentonite is added after the

Jan 1, 1969

By O. D. Gonzalez, H. A. Wriedt

Alloys ranging from pure iron to pure nickel were saturated with nitrogen gas at 918°, 999°, and 1217°C and analyzed. The solubility of nitrogen at 1-atm pressure was obtained as a function of nickel content for the whole range of iron-nickel alloys and the temperature dependence of solubility is shown for the experimental alloy compositions. The heat of solution and the entropy of solution of nitrogen in the alloys as func-tiom of composition up to 41 pct Ni are given. 1 HE acquisition of more exact thermodynamic information for systems composed of iron with various alloying elements continues to interest ferrous metallurgists. The interstitial alloying elements, especially carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, comprise a field of particularly intense study. A recent investigation of carbon solubility in Fe-Ni alloys held at 1000°C in gases of fixed carbon activity showed an unpredicted minimum in the solubility near 72 pct Ni.1 The present investigation was undertaken to see if a similar anomaly in solubility existed for nitrogen in Fe-Ni alloys. The solubility of nitrogen in ? iron at known nitrogen activities has been measured several times.&apos;-&apos; Corresponding information for the solubility of nitrogen in solid Ni and Fe-Ni alloys is not available. Juza and sachsze9 reported that metallic nickel dissolved 0.07 pct N in equilibrium with Ni3N at 445°C. This result was regarded as dubious by Turkdogan and Ignatowicz10 who found less than 0.0004 pct N in nickel specimens equilibrated at 600°C with ammonia-hydrogen mixtures having fugacities of N2 gas up to 35,000 atm. Such fragmentary reports indicate only that nitrogen gas has a very much lower solubility in nickel than in iron. MATERIALS A purified iron from Battelle Memorial Institute was used for solubility measurements. This grade contained more than 99.95 pct Fe, the highest content of any measured individual impurity being 50 ppm for each of As, C, Cu, and Pb. The nickel and iron-nickel alloys, supplied by the International Nickel Co., contained 0.02 to 0.04 pct C, 0.17 to 0.19 pct Mn, 0.04 to 0.08 pct Si, < 0.01 pct P, <0.03 pct S, and <0.20 pct Co as principal impurities. The Fe-0.59 pct Mn alloy was of zone-melted quality, the highest concentration of any individual impurity being 15 ppm Al. The "prepurified" grade of nitrogen gas from Matheson Co. had a nominal nitrogen content of 99.996 pct. An "electrolytic" grade of hydrogen gas from National Cylinder Gas. CO. in which the principal impurity is water vapor was admixed with the nitrogen to prevent oxidation of these specimens. This grade was preferred to a purer grade because the presence of some oxygen helps in suppressing contamination of the specimens, for instance, by silicon from the porcelain furnace tube. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The specimens were equilibrated in vertical tube furnaces through which a 99 pct N2-1 pct H2 gas was passed at ambient pressure. For the 915", 918", and 999°C runs, a wound-resistance furnace was used, and for the 1217°C runs, a furnace with a tubular silicon carbide element was used. The temperature control system on both furnaces was similar: a Weston "Celectray" controller with a modulator, responding to the electromotive force of a thermocouple with its hot junction in the furnace, switched the furnace current between high and low settings. The temperature distributions in the working zones of the furnaces were determined with calibrated Pt/Pt-10 pct Rh thermocouples. The overall uncertainty in temperature was estimated to be ±3° at 915° to 999°C and ±5° at 1217°C . Consideration of the small temperature coefficients of the equilibria studied, together with the error limits in the method of analyzing for nitrogen, showed that further refinement in temperature uniformity would give no improvement in resultant accuracy. The reactive gas was generated by mixing together "prepurified" nitrogen and "electrolytic" hydrogen directly from cylinders commercially supplied. The flow rates of nitrogen and of hydrogen were fixed by setting with bleeders the pressure drops across the individual calibrated flow meters of constant resistance. For any given alloy, the solubility of nitrogen at 1-atm pressure (% N) was obtained from the analyzed nitrogen content of equilibrated specimens (% Na)according to Sieverts&apos; law, thus

Jan 1, 1962

By W. P. Sykes

Seven years ago, Dr. S. L. Hoytl presented a masterful discussion of the hard metal carbides and cemented tungsten carbide. His lecture summarized most of the data then available in the field; many of the details relating to the production, properties and structure of cemented tungsten carbide had never been previously published, for, in fact, this information was only then being acquired. During the intervening years, the cemented carbides have assumed a place of real importance in the commercial field, with an ever widening variety of applications due to constant improvement in the control of production technique and the unremitting search for new compositions that might better the performance of the alloys in one or another type of service. The most recent summary of production methods, properties and guides for the successful application of the cemented carbides appears in the 1936 edition of the Metals Handbook. Of necessity, much detailed information relating to structures and physical properties is not included in such a summary, and it is with such details that the present discussion is concerned. Steps in Preparation While the past 25 years have contributed a valuable store of working knowledge in the field of powder metallurgy, many of the process controls are derived entirely from experience and are not as yet finally explained by a specific physical or chemical phenomenon. For most of the cemented carbides such difficulties are aggravated by our lack of knowledge not only of the complex alloy systems involved, but also by the possible changes in structure and even in composition which may accompany variations in temperature, heating time, and furnace atmospheres. The principal steps in the preparation of these cemented carbide alloys are fairly well known, but to supply a foundation for discussion these steps are briefly outlined as follows : 1. Formation of the metal carbide in the form of powder by heating a mixture of carbon and the metal powder or oxide for several

Jan 1, 1938

By W. P. Sykes

Seven years ago, Dr. S. L. Hoytl presented a masterful discussion of the hard metal carbides and cemented tungsten carbide. His lecture summarized most of the data then available in the field; many of the details relating to the production, properties and structure of cemented tungsten carbide had never been previously published, for, in fact, this information was only then being acquired. During the intervening years, the cemented carbides have assumed a place of real importance in the commercial field, with an ever widening variety of applications due to constant improvement in the control of production technique and the unremitting search for new compositions that might better the performance of the alloys in one or another type of service. The most recent summary of production methods, properties and guides for the successful application of the cemented carbides appears in the 1936 edition of the Metals Handbook. Of necessity, much detailed information relating to structures and physical properties is not included in such a summary, and it is with such details that the present discussion is concerned. Steps in Preparation While the past 25 years have contributed a valuable store of working knowledge in the field of powder metallurgy, many of the process controls are derived entirely from experience and are not as yet finally explained by a specific physical or chemical phenomenon. For most of the cemented carbides such difficulties are aggravated by our lack of knowledge not only of the complex alloy systems involved, but also by the possible changes in structure and even in composition which may accompany variations in temperature, heating time, and furnace atmospheres. The principal steps in the preparation of these cemented carbide alloys are fairly well known, but to supply a foundation for discussion these steps are briefly outlined as follows : 1. Formation of the metal carbide in the form of powder by heating a mixture of carbon and the metal powder or oxide for several

Jan 1, 1938

By W. P. Sykes

SEVEN years ago, Dr. S. L. Hoyt1 presented a masterful discussion of the hard metal carbides and cemented tungsten carbide. His lecture summarized most of the data then available in the field; many of the details relating to the production, properties and structure of cemented tungsten carbide had never been previously published, for, in fact, this information was only then being acquired. During the intervening years, the cemented carbides have assumed a place of real importance in the commercial field, with an ever widening variety of applications due to constant improvement in the control of production technique and the unremitting search for new compositions that might better the performance of the alloys in one or another type of service. The most recent summary of production methods, properties and guides for the successful application of the cemented carbides appears in the 1936 edition of the Metals Handbook. Of necessity, much detailed information relating to structures and physical properties is not included in such a summary, and it is with such details that the present discussion is concerned. STEPS IN PREPARATION While the past 25 years have contributed a valuable store of working knowledge in the field of powder metallurgy, many of the process controls are derived entirely from experience and are not as yet finally explained by a specific physical or chemical phenomenon. For most of the cemented carbides such difficulties are aggravated by our lack of knowledge not only of the complex alloy systems involved, but also by the possible changes in structure and even in composition which may accompany variations in temperature, heating time, and furnace atmospheres. The principal steps in the preparation of these cemented carbide alloys are fairly well known, but to supply a foundation for discussion these steps are briefly outlined as follows: 1. Formation of the metal carbide in the form of powder by heating a mixture of carbon and the metal powder or oxide for several

Jan 1, 1938

By Thomas J. Menner

Jan 1, 1983

By R. A. Wagstaff

SINCE the time of the early Egyptians, the use of copper has been a boon to the life of most of the civilized world. Its use has been varied; in many connections, the art by which it attained its greatest usefulness has been lost. In this paper an endeavor will be made to take into consideration some of the many changes that have occurred during the last 40 years of copper-smelting operations. During that period the copper blast furnace has been almost forced out of existence by new methods of ore concentration-first, gravity concentration, and then flotation. These new methods of concentration introduced many new factors into the metallurgy of copper. The product was wet, it was fine and it was high grade. To overcome all these factors many changes have been necessary throughout the smelting agenda. New equipment has been necessary for transportation, unloading, sampling, bedding and moisturing in all smelting plants, especially the custom smelter. During the early days of "flotation," little was known about filtering or the use of an alkaline circuit; often the concentrate going to the smelter contained 20 to 25 per cent moisture. It is easy to imagine the difficulty arising with a product of this nature when it had to be shoveled by hand labor. To meet these conditions, mechanical unloading and sampling devices were soon developed. In many instances such good progress was made that actual costs for handling this unfavorable product were lower than those formerly incurred on the old product. Today most sampling of copper ores and concentrates is being done by mechanical sampling, pipe or augur sampling, or shovel sampling. Where concentrates are uniform in metal content, a great many of the plants now use pipe or augur sampling. For spotty ores, the old shovel sample with cone and quartering during the final stages is still in use. Where big tonnages are handled, mechanical sampling of concentrates is being done, with satisfactory results. To curtail slow and tedious cutting and mixing procedure, mechanical mixing boxes, splitters and cutters are used to cut down labor costs. MILLING As crude ores become scarcer, the use of milling operations increases. The few crude ores that are still smelted are used as fluxing types. To use these ores finer grinding has been found advantageous. This has made for better bedding and fluxing conditions, which in turn makes for faster smelting, lower fuel consumption and better metal recovery. The degree of fineness is more or less determined by the nature of the product. Most plants have set a standard of through ¾ -in. mesh screen for roaster- reverberatory smelting and through ¾ in. mesh screen for converter fluxes. For some refractory ores; even finer grinding has been found to be advantageous for good reverberatory smelting.

Jan 1, 1944

By H. C., Simpson

MANY metals by virtue of their place of occurrence as ore, and their uses are travelers! Iron and steel, for instance, is one of the greatest of travelers in the form of ships and the romance of iron in this respect is only just beginning to be superseded by the stories which can be told of the travels of aluminum and its alloys, used in the building of airplanes. Tin is a traveler from the Straits Settlements to this country and Europe, for use in the canning industry; afterward traveling all over the civilized world as a part of the container for preserved foods. Silver is somewhat of an aristocrat, when its uses are measured against those of the baser metals. From earliest times it has been used for adornment (first perhaps o4 the person and later for the embellishment of weapons and&apos; buildings), for the making of fine ar¬ticles used in the household, and as money. While its uses have been widened by the discoveries in chemistry, electricity and other sciences, its early uses are still much in evidence in our modern life.

Jan 1, 1928

By Dudley L. Davis, E. C. Peterson

INTRODUCTION THE Darwin District is 30 miles east of Olancha which is 220 miles north from Los Angeles via U. S. Highway No. 6. The ore deposits occur in the Darwin hills that have been elevated above the Darwin Plateau by typical basin and range-type faults. Some of these faults have been active quite recently as shown by the displacement of Quaternary (?) basalt flows and the rejuvenation of erosion in Darwin wash. The ore bodies occur as fissure fillings and replacement of favorable beddings in a thick series of Paleozoic limestones, dolomites, shales and quartzites. Rich oxidized lead-silver ores were discovered in the early seventies. By 1875, Darwin had a population of about 5000, and by 1880 several small mills and smelters had been built. Early exhaustion of surface ores, the isolated location of the district, and fluctuation of metal prices caused intermittent operations until World War II. The district production is estimated at about $3,000,000 prior to 1900 and perhaps $4,000,000 between 1900 and 1945 when Anaconda purchased the major producing mines. For the past two years, daily production has averaged 75 tons of direct shipping and 150 tons of milling-grade ore. At present, 300 tons of mixed oxide and sulphide ore are treated by flotation, the oxidized lead minerals being activated by addition of sodium sulphide after galena and sphalerite have been recovered from the circuit. Extraction averages 85 pct of the lead, 80 pct of the silver, and about 33 pct of the zinc in a bulk concentrate. The mill is designed so that minor changes permit selective flotation of pyritic lead-zinc ores encountered at depth. GENERAL GEOLOGY The oldest rocks in the Darwin hills are a series of Paleozoic limestones, dolomites, shales and quartzites probably Pennsylvanian in age. These rocks have been intruded on the west by the Coso granite batholith and on the east by a granodiorite stock. Numerous sills and dikes grading from orthoclase granite to gabbro are exposed in the underground workings. The sedimentary rocks have been considerably folded and faulted, the most prominent structure being a northwest pitching anticlinal fold, the crest of which lies just west of the ridge line of the Darwin hills. The east limb of this fold has been intruded by the granodiorite stock and east of the stock the sediments show several closely spaced anticlines and synclines. The minor flexures on the west flank of the major fold are structurally important in localizing the ore in the Defiance and Essex mines of the Darwin group. There are three principal systems of faulting and fissuring, most of which are post-intrusive and premineral in age, with minor amounts of postmineral movement. The Darwin tear fault is the largest, most persistent fault in the district. It strikes N 60 to 95°W, dips steeply south and is traceable for about 1o miles. It is a normal

Jan 1, 1947

By Gordon C. Hicks

Prior to 1950 most fertilizer manufactured in the United States was produced in a nongranular form. In such form, the material caked when stored and was extremely dusty when applied in the field. About this time a wide interest developed in the fertilizer industry for the manufacture of a granular, high-analysis fertilizer of improved physical properties. Thus, TVA began work on fertilizer granulation about 1950 using both a pugmill (double-shaft paddle mixer) for a thick slurry of nitric phosphate and a continuous ammoniator-granulator drum for superphosphate-base mixed fertilizer. Granulation in these units was mainly by agglomeration. The liquid phase generated by the moisture and by the heat of reaction of ammonia with acidic materials, such as superphosphate and sulfuric or phosphoric acids, resulted in agglomeration of the solid ingredients. About 1956, TVA began studies of the use of a pan or disk granulator for production of ammonium nitrate or other fertilizers containing a large proportion of ammonium nitrate, such as 30-10-0 ammonium phosphate nitrate. This is the layering method of granulation. More recently, TVA has demonstrated pan granulation of urea from a highly concentrated solution and granulation of ammonium polyphosphate melts in a pugmill. The bulk of TVA studies throughout the years has related to use of the drum granulator. About 200 granulation plants in the United States have been licensed and built to use the TVA continuous ammoniator-granulator; it is estimated that more than half of the 20 million tons of mixed fertilizer used in the United States in 1974/1975 was produced in these plants. Some other granulation processes developed for use in the drum granulator include diammonium phosphate, monoammonium phosphate, urea- ammonium phosphate, ammoniated superphosphate, and most recently, NPK fertilizers by melt granulation using a pipe reactor.

Jan 1, 1977

By L. H. Cadoff, L. M. Adelsberg

The layer growth method has been used to investigate the reaction kinetics of liquid titanium and hafnium with carbon and the [liq] - [liq + TiC] and [liq] - [liq + HfC] phase boundaries at temperatures above 1800°C. The equipment and experimental procedures used in this investigation are basically identical to those described in an earlier paper&apos; on the Zr-C reaction. Temperature control, however, was improved significantly by connecting a Latronics Colo-Ratio automatic pyrometer and a controller to the power source. The subsequent temperature variations were ±10°C; previously ±20°C was obtained using manual controls. The absolute accuracy of the pyrometer, however, must be considered to be only ±40°C.* The spectrographic analyses of the materials used in this study are listed in Table I. The isothermal reactions of titanium (1800° to 2700°C) and hafnium (2300" to 3000°C) with carbon (graphite crucibles) resulted in the formation of carbon-saturated liquid metal and layers of Tic and HfC, respectively. The thicknesses of the carbide layers, determined from metallographic measurements at 100 times, as a function of carburization time and temperature are given in Figs. 1 and 2. At each temperature, parabolic growth behavior for these reactions was observed and could be expressed as x2 =Kpt, where X is scale thickness (corrected for heating and coolingL), Kp the parabolic growth constant, and t the isothermal carburization time. Values of Kp as a function of temperature for the carbides are shown in Fig. 3 and listed in Table 11. The growth constants are expressible as: kpTiC = 0.2 exp(-61,800/RT) sq cm per sec for Tic and Kp HfC = 2.62 exp(-95,300/RT) sq cm per sec for HfC. The liquidus phase boundaries were determined from metal samples treated in graphite crucibles for different times ranging from 4 to 100 min at each of the temperatures indicated in Table 11. Metallographic examination revealed that the carbide precipitates were distributed uniformly throughout the frozen metal matrices. This is attributed to the rapid cooling rates (800°C per min) and the small difference in density between the precipitated carbide and the liquid metal.

Jan 1, 1968

By F. F. McINTOSH

STEEL is a general name applied to the alloys of iron and carbon. These alloys always contain , other elements such as manganese, silicon, sulfur, and phosphorus. Manganese and silicon are usually considered to be alloying elements. Sulfur and phosphorus are regarded as impurities. Tradition has damned them both and, in addition to classifying them as impurities, has established the general impression that many of the ills of steels are the result of the presence of one or both of these elements. Metallurgists are inclined to question the soundness of this tradition. The fact that one blast-furnace plant is devoted entirely to the production of ferro-phosphorus which is used to rephosphorize basic open-hearth steel, and that sulfur is added to many heats of steel, indicates that these so- called impurities might also be classed as alloying elements, and that the tradition which damns them may not be altogether fair and well founded. A critical search through the technical literature on the effect of phosphorus on steel will disclose many references to its harmful effect. Most of these are general in character, but there has been a strong tendency to accept this traditional belief in the harmful effect of the element.

Jan 1, 1926

By S. A. TAYLOR

AN EDITORIAL on the Strike Situation in the Coal mining industry in the New York Evening Post of Nov. 4, 1919, gave what purported to be statistics of the Department of Labor, for a period of two weeks, which showed an average for the year, based on these two weeks, of 32% hours per week. This mode of arriving at the number of hours per week, while not accurate, is not so far off from the facts as to call for any special comment. The report of the U. S. Geological Survey, Department of Coal Statistics, give so the number of days worked in 1917 as 243; reducing the same to hours per week, assuming 8 hours per day, shows a weekly operation of mines at an average of 36J4 hours. But this assumption is not exactly correct, for the reason that it is not very often that the miners work the full 8 hours per day. There are many explanations for this, but it is not pertinent to this statement to discuss them now, as the important thing to consider is whether a 30-hour week would be for the best interest of not only the men themselves, but the public or country in general.

Jan 1, 1920

By D. Swan

Industrial research may be defined as a critical and exhaustive investigation to create new and better ways of doing things. The results of industrial research are new and improved products, processes, and techniques. This broad definition, of course, covers investigation of all subjects by either individuals or groups of people, and this chapter aims to examine the purpose (what research tries to do), and methods (or how research is done) as applied in the mineral industries. Concepts and History The idea or concept of organized research probably originated in the universities of Europe. There, groups of scholars banded together for discussion and application of their particular specialty to a common problem. Publication of the conclusions drawn from such investigations gave scholars in other areas the opportunity to review and criticize the work of their colleagues, and one of the hallmarks of scientific research work is the publication and criticism of the results of the investigation. It was not until the late nineteenth century that the concept of organized research for the profit of industry was recognized. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a large number of industrial enterprises sponsored organizations to study the application of the physical sciences with the aim of making discoveries that would result in profit to the sponsoring organization. The tangible benefits accruing from these activities were so great that they, in turn, fostered several other methods for the support of organized research activities. For the large problems involving public interest, United States Government scientific re- search laboratories were set up. As the demand of smaller enterprises for research activities increased, research institutes and consulting laboratories were organized. In Europe the idea of common industry sponsorship of research centers grew and many large research organizations there were sponsored by associations of manufacturers. Finally, in the United States

Jan 1, 1959

By D. Swan

Industrial research may be defined as a critical and exhaustive investigation to create new and better ways of doing things. The results of industrial research are new and improved products, processes, and techniques. This broad definition, of course, covers investigation of all subjects by either individuals or groups of people, and this chapter aims to examine the purpose (what research tries to do), and methods (or how research is done) as applied in the mineral industries. Concepts and History The idea or concept of organized research probably originated in the universities of Europe. There, groups of scholars banded together for discussion and application of their particular specialty to a common problem. Publication of the conclusions drawn from such investigations gave scholars in other areas the opportunity to review and criticize the work of their colleagues, and one of the hallmarks of scientific research work is the publication and criticism of the results of the investigation. It was not until the late nineteenth century that the concept of organized research for the profit of industry was recognized. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a large number of industrial enterprises sponsored organizations to study the application of the physical sciences with the aim of making discoveries that would result in profit to the sponsoring organization. The tangible benefits accruing from these activities were so great that they, in turn, fostered several other methods for the support of organized research activities. For the large problems involving public interest, United States Government scientific research laboratories were set up. As the demand of smaller enterprises for research activities increased, research institutes and consulting laboratories were organized. In Europe the idea of common industry sponsorship of research centers grew and many large research organizations there were sponsored by associations of manufacturers. Finally, in the United States

Jan 1, 1964

By J. S. Vanick

AN extremely hard, tough, and strong, white or chilled cast iron has been applied for the past several years to industrial and mining services in which its unusual properties have been confirmed by its ability to deliver in many instances much better performance than plain chilled iron, or other wear-resistant materials. It is being produced regularly by alloying a good base composition of chilled or white cast iron with essentially 4 to 6 per cent of nickel and 1 to 2.5 per cent of chromium. Such a material can attain a hardness exceeding 600 to 750 Brinell as against 380 to 530 for corresponding grades of plain chilled iron. The strength is approximately doubled and the toughness significantly increased. These properties make it especially useful for many applica-tions requiring a high hardness for resistance to wear, abrasion, attrition, deformation; to some extent to high compressive loading and to a lesser but important degree to corrosive action. A wide variety of commercial castings is being successfully produced from this iron, ranging in size from the small-grain grinding plates or burrs through medium-sized castings such as sand pumps up to large, heavy castings such as rolls for metal rolling or cement grinding. The composition of this white cast iron may be roughly bracketed within the range shown in Table 1.

Jan 1, 1933

By A. B. Young

THERE were produced in this country in 1923 probably in the neighborhood of 12,000 or 13,000 tons of refined and crude arsenic, by far the greater portion coming as a by product of smelting operations. Early this year copper smelters were producing arsenic at the rate of about 425 tons per month and lead smelters at the rate of 7;0 tons per month. During the entire eighteen years prior to 1919, there were produced in the United States only 47,000 tons of arsenic, which amounts to only 25 per cent. of the present output. The great increased demand has come about through the augmented use of arsenates as insecticides and arsenates as weed killers. In an extract from "Mineral Resources of the United States" on "Arsenic in 1922," Messrs. Heikes and Loughlin say, "The minimum possible demand for arsenic in 1923 was estimated at the end of 1922 to be about 13,000 tons, including 2000 tons for plate glass manufacturers, 3000 tons for lead arsenate, 3500 tons for calcium arsenate, 1500 tons for weed killers, 1200 tons for Paris green, 1000 tons for sheep dips and 750 tons for proprietary mixtures. More recent information, however, indicates twice as great a demand for calcium arsenate." The latter has found great use in the last three or four years as a weapon to combat the boll weevil pest of the southern cotton belt. ~t the present writing refined white arsenic is being quoted on the New York market at from 13)d c. to 1455 c. per Ib., while the average price during the eighteen-year period just mentioned was 4.8 c.

Jan 1, 1924

Jan 1, 1910

By Harry A. Wahl

Precent fracture design procedures are bared on the total fracture area created. A method to distinguish beI,,.ecn total area and [he propped or effective fracture area has not been available. This paper presents a solution to this problem, applicable to horizontal fractures. The difierences between effective fracture area and torn] area are demonstrared in example calculations. This work is hayed on experimentally determined transport efficiencier of solids in sand-liquid slurries. Newtonian and non-Ne~vtoninn systems are considered. INTRODUCTION Fifteen years after commercial introduction, hydraulic fracturing remains the most successful stimulation technique in the oil field. This success is primarily due to ability of induced fractures to penetrate and alter permeabilities deep within formations. Many fields producing today could not have been developed without the hydraulic fracturing process. Because of wide usage, fracture-treatment design has received a great deal of engineering and research effort. This work, resulting in improved equipment and materials, has increased the benefits from fracture treatments as well as the applicability of the process. A major contribution was the development of fluid-loss additives. Necessarily, the number of parameters to be considered in treatment design has steadily increased, resulting in more complicated design techniques. Almost all present design procedures are based on the precepts set forth by Howard and Fast. Relating the fluid volume lost into the formation, the volume required in extending the fracture, and the total slurry volume injected, they developed an expression for the total fracture area created in terms of pertinent treatment parameters. Fluid loss during treatment was expressed as a function of time for three flow mechanisms. Although modifications of fluid loss equations have been made, the total fracture area concept has remained unaltered. A vast amount of field data indicate that induced fractures must be propped and held open to be effective. A notable exception is the Mesa Verde formation in the San Juan basin. However, analysis of these treatments shows that improved well productivities are obtained when propping agents are incorporated in the treating fluid. Although propped fracture area has been recognized as an important design parameter, a method to distinguish between total area and effective fracture area has not been available. The necessary information on slurry-sand transport in fractures has been lacking. Interest in the propped region of induced fractures is not restricted to areal extent alone. The distribution of sand within fractures is important from the standpoint of fracture flow capacities. Flow capacity affects the increase in well productivity after stimulation. The work of Huitt and Darin4 hows that partial monolayers of sand have large flow capacities compared to thick* dense sand packs. It has been postulated that gelled fluids have the ability to transport sand within the fractures at the deired low concentrations. An early contribution in the area of sand placement in fractures was made by Kern et al.&apos; They studied sand movement in a transparent vertical fracture model. It was observed that the sand tended to settle out in the bottom of the model before moving very far. When the fluid velocity exceeded a certain critical value, all of the sand injected began moving through the crack even though it settled to the bottom. This critical velocity was determined under several flow conditions. Some work on sand movement in horizontal fractures has been reported in Russian publications. Sand movement was studied by Izyumova and Shan&apos;gin&apos; using a transparent "pie-shaped" flow model to simulate a horizontal radial flow system. However, the data were limited, especially in a quantitative sense. Dorozhkin, Zheltov and Zheltow studied the behavior of sand-liquid slurries in a horizontal linear flow model. The quantitative data were restricted primarily to the thickness of sand deposits formed at the bottom of the fracture. An earlier paper provided basic data on the flow of sand in horizontal fractures. This study was designed to yield specific quantitative information on rate of advance of sand particles and pressure behavior under various flow conditions. A comprehensive photographic study was undertaken in a 10-ft windowed flow cell to provide the necessary qualitative and quantitative data. Since the number of potential variables far exceeded the capacity of the initial study, emphasis was placed on the effects of sand concentration, oil viscosity and oil flow rate. A detailed description of these experiments and the results are described in Ref. 9. However. the implications of this work on the fracture design calculations were not discussed. An analysis of these data as well as new data is provided in the following sections. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The primary objective of the experimental investigation was to provide information on the rate of advance of the solids in sand-liquid sturries. A 10%-ft long transparent

Jan 1, 1966