A HIGH-VOLTAGE MONITORING SYSTEM EMPLOYED FOR EVALUATING THE METAL CONTENT OF GRANULAR MIXTURES PROCESSED IN ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATORS

摘要

High-voltage is known to be one of the main control variables of any electrostatic separation process. The present work describes a high-voltage monitoring system that turned out to be a tool for supervising the overall operating conditions of electrostatic separators. A custom-designed virtual instrument was employed for processing the experimental data provided by a high-voltage probe the output of which was connected to an electrometer. The dispersion of high-voltage measured values was found to increase in the presence of the material. The statistical analysis of the data revealed a significant correlation between the standard deviation of the high-voltage and the concentration of metal in the processed material. These findings could be helpful for the optimization of the operating conditions of the electrostatic separation applications where the metal content in the feed materials is characterized by important fluctuations with time.