Lime Briquetting Machine

Lime Briquetting Machine For Sale

Due to the processed materials, lime briquette machine is also called quicklime briquette machine and lime briquette press machine. The finished product can be used in lime calcination, blast furnace calcination, metallurgy, and other fields. The main purpose of quicklime press is to reduce dust, control unit weight, recycle and improve its transport characteristics.

Lime briquetting machine is mainly used to press powder materials like quicklime powder, dolomite powder, copper concentrate, chromium ore, manganese ore powder, laterite-nickel ore, lead and zinc scrap, bauxite, non-ferrous metal powder, refractory materials, ceramic materials, iron powder materials in steel plant, converter sludge, ferric oxide powder, iron sheet, aluminum skimmings, activated alumina, etc.

What is Lime?

Lime is a general term for calcium-containing inorganic materials. It is a fundamental chemical product derived from limestone. When limestone (calcium carbonate, CaCO₃) is heated in a kiln, it releases carbon dioxide. The remaining material is calcium oxide (CaO), also known as quicklime or lump lime. This is a highly reactive and caustic material. When you add water to quicklime, it undergoes a chemical reaction to become calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂), also known as hydrated lime or slaked lime. Both quicklime and hydrated lime are essential materials in countless industrial processes.

What is the Lime Briquettes Used For?

Lime briquettes are used wherever lump lime is needed. The key benefit is that they are made from recovered dust and fines, which would otherwise be wasted. This makes them a cost-effective and sustainable alternative. By using a lime briquetting machine, you create a product with consistent size, density, and chemical properties, making it ideal for precise industrial applications.

Here are some primary uses:

• Steel Manufacturing: Briquettes are added to furnaces as a fluxing agent. They help remove impurities like silica and phosphorus from the molten steel, forming a slag that can be easily skimmed off. Their density is crucial here, as it allows them to sink through the slag layer instead of being blown out by exhaust fans.
• Chemical Production: Lime is a key ingredient in making many other chemicals, including soda ash, bleach, and citric acid.
• Agriculture: Lime briquettes can be crushed to produce agricultural lime, which is used to adjust the pH of acidic soil, improving crop yields.
• Construction: Lime is used to make mortar, plaster, and soil stabilization blocks.

What are the Features of Lime Powder?

Lime powder is notoriously difficult to handle. Understanding its properties is key to seeing why a lime briquetting machine is so necessary. The powder is very fine, lightweight, and fluffy. This means it has a low bulk density and traps a lot of air.

The key features are:

• Very Fine Particles: Lime dust can easily become airborne, creating a hazardous breathing environment for workers.
• Poor Flowability: The powder does not flow smoothly from hoppers and silos. It tends to bridge, arch, and clog, making consistent feeding a major challenge.
• Caustic and Corrosive: Lime dust is caustic. When it mixes with moisture in the air or on equipment, it becomes corrosive, attacking steel, bearings, and electrical components.

These characteristics make handling and transporting lime fines inefficient, unsafe, and costly.

Why Do We Need to Briquette the Lime Powder?

We briquette lime powder to solve all the problems caused by its features. The primary goal of the lime briquetting process is to dramatically increase the material’s density and turn it into a manageable form. This unlocks significant value and improves safety across your entire operation.

The main benefits are:

• Reduce Dust and Waste: Briquetting contains the dust, creating a much cleaner and safer work environment. It also converts 100% of your lime fines into a usable product, eliminating waste.
• Improve Handling and Storage: Dense briquettes are easy to handle with conveyors, loaders, and trucks. They take up far less storage space than the original powder.
• Increase Value: Briquettes can be sold for a higher price than bulk powder or used in-house to replace expensive lump lime, directly improving your bottom line.
• Precise Application: Uniform briquettes allow for accurate dosing and feeding into industrial processes like furnaces, improving efficiency and product quality.

Which Types of Lime Can Be Processed?

Our machines can process both quicklime and hydrated lime, but the method is completely different. It is critical to understand your specific raw material, as this determines the entire setup of your briquetting plant. This is where we apply our deep process knowledge to design the right solution for you.

• Quicklime (CaO): These are often fines collected from kilns or in steel mills. Quicklime has a unique self-binding property. When briquetting quicklime, you do not need a traditional binder. Instead, we add a very small, precisely controlled amount of water (2-4%). Under the pressure of the lime briquetting machine, this water triggers a chemical reaction that forms hydrated lime crystals, which lock the briquette together from the inside.
• Hydrated Lime (Ca(OH)₂): This material is often a byproduct sludge from industries like sugar processing or water treatment. Since it is already hydrated, it lacks self-binding ability. For this material, you must add a binder. Common binders include bentonite, molasses, or starch. The process for hydrated lime often requires a drying step before briquetting to control the moisture content.

Applications of Lime Briquetting Machine

Lime briquette machine is suitable for lime powder, silicon powder, chromium powder, refractory briquetting and other powdery substance which has no or low water content.

Lime briquette machine produced by Zoneding Machinery is mainly used for making the lime powder in coal or power plant into briquettes. The produced lime briquettes can be directly sent into the furnace for combustion or smelting, so as to improve the added value and realize resource recycling at the same time. It can be used to suppress, lime powder, quicklime, refractory materials, non-ferrous metal powder, coal powder, iron powder, coking coal, aluminum, iron, tin oxide, carbon powder, coal powder, slag, gypsum, tailings, sludge, kaolin, clay, activated carbon, coke breeze and other powdery materials. It is widely used in refractory material, power plants, metallurgical, chemical, energy, transportation, heating, and other industries.

Applications of Lime Briquetting Machine

Performance Advantages of Lime Briquetting Machine

• The finished product has complete shape and high strength.
• Simple structure and short technical process.
• The steel plate is coated with four coats of paint to ensure the durability of the equipment.
• High ball forming efficiency, low power consumption, compact structure and easy maintenance.

How the Lime Briquetting Machine Work?

A lime briquetting machine works by applying immense pressure to powder, but the real secret is in the chemistry. The machine uses two large, counter-rotating rollers with pockets, or molds, machined into their surfaces. However, for quicklime, our machine becomes more than a press; it becomes a low-pressure chemical reactor.

Here’s the process:

1. Controlled Mixing: First, the quicklime fines are fed into a mixer. A fine mist of water is sprayed and thoroughly mixed into the powder. This is the most critical step.
2. Forced Feeding: The conditioned material is then fed into the hopper of the lime briquette machine. A powered screw feeder inside the hopper pre-compacts the light powder, forces out trapped air, and ensures a consistent, dense flow of material down to the rollers.
3. High-Pressure Compaction: The material is drawn into the gap between the two rollers. The immense pressure forces the particles together in the roller pockets.
4. Chemical Reaction: At this moment of high pressure, the added water reacts with the quicklime (CaO + H₂O → Ca(OH)₂ + Heat). This hydration reaction forms a network of interlocking hydrated lime crystals. This reaction is what acts as a powerful, self-generating binder, creating an incredibly strong briquette with zero binder cost.

Working Principle of Lime Briquetting Machine

Lime briquette machine or double roller press is driven by gear and driven shaft. The hydraulic device is mounted on the back of the driven shaft assembly and driven by electromagnetic speed regulating motor. After the belt pulley and worm reducer run, the screw feeding device presses the material into the feeding port. When the screw feeder and press have the same pressure, the feeding pressure remains constant, thus stabilizing the packing quality. If there is too much feeding, the feeder will overload. If there is too little feed, the feeder will not form a ball. Therefore, the skilled operation technology has become the key conditions of pressure ball.

What’s the Cost of Lime Briquetting Machine?

The cost of a lime briquetting machine typically ranges from $5,000 to over $100,000. The final price depends heavily on the model’s capacity (tons per hour) and the specific features required for your material. However, it is crucial to understand that the press itself is only one part of the total plant cost.

You must also budget for the essential support equipment. The single biggest and most important associated cost is the dust collection system. Lime dust is aggressive and regulated. A cheap, undersized baghouse will fail quickly and create a hazardous environment. You must invest in a high-quality, properly sized dust collector. This system alone can represent 25-40% of the cost of the press. Other costs include mixers, conveyors, dryers (if needed), and control systems. We help you plan for the total project cost, not just the machine price, to ensure your success.

What is the Structure of the Lime Briquetting Machine?

Our lime briquetting machines are built to withstand the harsh, corrosive environment of lime processing. We focus on robust engineering and features that ensure long-term reliability. A standard machine will quickly fail in this application.

Key structural components include:

• Heavy-Duty Frame: The frame is made from thick, high-strength steel. To combat corrosion, we use a superior coating process. The frame is shot-blasted to white metal, then covered with a multi-layer epoxy coating system, the same type used on offshore oil rigs.
• High-Hardness Rollers: The rollers are the heart of the machine and the main wear part. They are cast from high-chromium alloy steel and heat-treated for maximum surface hardness and abrasion resistance.
• Forced Feeder System: Because lime powder flows poorly, a powerful screw-driven forced feeder is not optional; it is essential. It pre-compacts the material and eliminates trapped air, which is critical for forming a strong briquette.
• Advanced Bearing Protection: Standard bearings fail in months. We use multi-stage labyrinth seals with a positive pressure air purge. A constant flow of clean air from inside the bearing housing physically prevents any corrosive dust from entering. This feature can extend bearing life from months to years.

Operation Guidance of Lime Briquetting Machine

1.The selection of binder: the choice of binder has wide source and low price. A good effect is an important issue, which is directly related with the hardness and density of the balls as well as the product quality and production cost.

2.The uniform degree of materials: the grain size and hardness of the material will affect the pressing effect and work efficiency of lime briquetting machine, so the uniformity of material will have a direct impact on the quality of the product. Before entering the lime briquetting machine, the particle size of materials must be inspected. When reaching the appropriate size, they can be put into the machine.

3.Moisture content and drying process: if the material is too wet or too dry to be placed directly into the equipment without any treatment, problems such as adhesion or ball breakage may occur. Therefore, the material should be kept at a certain humidity, not too dry or too wet.

How Do You Select the Right Lime Briquetting Machine Model?

Selecting the right model is about matching the machine to your specific production needs and material properties. Simply choosing the biggest machine is not the best strategy. For lime, control is more important than raw power.

Here are the key factors we help you consider:

• Required Capacity: How many tons of briquettes do you need to produce per hour or per day? This is the primary factor in determining the machine size.
• Material Characteristics: Is it quicklime or hydrated lime? What is its moisture content and particle size? This determines whether you need a dryer, a binder system, and what type of mixer is best.
• Control over Finesse: Lime powder needs finesse, not just brute force. We recommend machines with a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) on the motor. A VFD allows you to adjust the roller speed. Slowing the rollers down gives the fluffy powder more time to de-aerate as it enters the press, resulting in a denser, more stable briquette at a lower pressure.
• Final Briquette Requirements: What size, shape, and strength (crush resistance) do your customers require? This influences the roller design and machine pressure settings.

What Shape and Size of Briquette is Best for Your Market?

The most common shapes are pillow and oval, but we can customize them. The best shape and size depend on how the final briquettes will be used. The goal is to create a briquette that is easy to handle and performs well in its final application.

• Pillow Shape: This is the most popular and versatile shape. It creates a strong, durable briquette that handles well on conveyors and resists breaking. Sizes typically range from 25mm to 60mm.
• Oval Shape: Similar to the pillow shape, ovals are also very common and produce robust briquettes.
• Size Considerations: For applications like steel furnaces, a larger, denser briquette (e.g., 50x40mm) is often preferred because it has less surface area and sinks better. For agricultural use, smaller briquettes might be desired as they are easier to crush into a fine powder for spreading.

We work with you to design the roller pockets to produce the exact shape and size that will bring the most value in your specific market.

What Does a Complete Lime Briquetting Production Line Include?

A complete production line is a fully integrated system designed for efficiency and dust control. The lime briquetting machine is the centerpiece, but the supporting equipment is just as critical for a successful operation. A typical line includes:

1. Feeding System: A silo or hopper with a screw feeder to provide a consistent flow of lime powder.
2. Mixing System: A double-shaft mixer is used to blend the lime powder with water (for quicklime) or binders (for hydrated lime) precisely.
3. Lime Briquetting Machine: The core press that forms the briquettes.
4. Drying System: For briquettes made with binders or high moisture content, a mesh belt dryer is needed to cure and strengthen the briquettes. This is often not needed for the quicklime self-binding process.
5. Screening and Conveying: A vibrating screen separates any fines, which are recycled back to the start of the process. Conveyors move the material between each stage.
6. Dust Collection System: This is non-negotiable. A large, high-efficiency pulse-jet dust collector is connected to all transfer points, mixers, and the press to capture airborne dust, ensuring a safe and clean plant.

What are the Wear Parts of the Lime Briquetting Machine?

The main wear parts are the roller shells. The rollers are in constant contact with the abrasive lime powder and are subjected to extremely high pressure. Their lifespan is the single biggest factor in your machine’s maintenance cost. This is why we invest so heavily in the quality of our rollers. They are cast from specialized high-chromium alloy steel (like Cr13 or Cr26) and undergo a rigorous heat treatment process to achieve a very high surface hardness. While they are a consumable part, using superior materials means they last much longer, reducing your downtime and overall cost per ton produced.

General Specification