A study on the development of an open-gradient magnetic separator under dry condition

This is an attempt to explore feasibility to develop an open gradient magnetic separator for mixed powder under dry condition. The magnetic separator proposed here is intended to separate the ferromagnetic particles from mixed powder, being based on the consideration that the separation efficiency depends upon changing systematically the particle sizes and its surface properties such as hydrophobicity and cohesive force. As a result, it is found that the separation efficiency became lower as the particle size of the mixed particles became smaller. This is supposed to be caused by the cohesive force between the particles of ferrite and alumina which are easily affected by the magnetic drag force and the gravity difference. But the result is encouraging because the separation efficiency will be enhanced if the magnetic gradient is increased and if air flow in the separator is optimized in the appropriate system of the open-gradient magnetic separator proposed in this paper.