Measurement for Contact Angle of Iron Ore Particles and Water

Granulation1–4) process is a typical method getting iron ore particles together to form pellets/granules using water as the binder in steel making industry. A good granulation result can make a better permeability of the bed of granules in the sintering strand.5,6) With the decreasing of high grade iron ore, sinter preparation in the iron ore industry is routinely performed using a blend of different ores with low total Fe content which usually called low grade iron ores. However, there is little regard for how this may be affecting the granulation performance. Maeda et al.7) discovered that the use of some low grade iron ores in granulation may cause the fracture of sintered ores, which suggests the sintered ore has a low strength. Due to the above uncertain situation, this is particularly important for iron ore samples where significant differences in surface chemistry may be expected to be altered substantially granulation process. It is believed that the granule strength is largely determined by the wettability of iron ore particles, the surface characteristics and properties of binders.8) Wettability9) is always characterized by contact angle which is first expressed by Young10) as a three phases angle Measurement for Contact Angle of Iron Ore Particles and Water