Daily Pioneer News

UWP senior design students (from left to right) Jon Oliver, Allen Bongert, Paul Huettl, Matt Hillmer and Mike Galligan are helping Metso Minerals redesign a machine that crushes rocks into a fine powder for abrasives.

PLATTEVILLE - Initially, the concept of crushing rocks into dust doesn't seem very complicated. But as University of Wisconsin-Platteville senior design students Matt Hillmer, Paul Huettl, Jon Oliver, Mike Galligan and Allen Bongert discovered, it's a much more difficult and detailed process than meets the eye. Working for Metso Minerals test facility in Milwaukee, the students' project focused on a new application for one of the company's existing products. Metso Minerals is well known for producing quality mining and rock crushing equipment. The high energy vertical mill the students are working with is a large machine that uses various mechanisms to crush or grind certain types of rock into a fine powder used for a variety of components including abrasive for sand paper. The company wants to use the same concepts but in a smaller design, since the existing machine is too large. "Currently there is a multi-step process utilizing various screens and different techniques to complete the rock to dust process," commented Hillmer. Added Huettl, "The problem is that the machine takes up too much space and isn't as efficient as it could be."

To alleviate this problem, the students developed two different designs. According to Oliver, "One is a multi-stage crushing process using variations of the same methods used in the original machine. But our model is small and minimizes the amount of space needed." "The other design combines two processes in one machine with a cascading effect," said Galligan. Air enters a cylinder with larger particles at the bottom being crushed by rotors. The air pushes the crushed fine particles out the top of the cylinder through a filter or vacuum system. Bongert elaborated, "To test this concept with our prototype required a good knowledge of materials to determine the best types of products to use to maximize reduction and minimize contamination of our client's product. It's not easy to crush pieces of rock into dust so a lot of consideration is going into wear resistance on the machine."

Because there is a high demand to control the fineness of the powder and make it as consistent as possible, the design must ensure that no contamination occurs from metal being scraped off the machine. The students agreed that their materials classes and extra reading helped them understand how rocks cracked and thus decisions could be made about what materials are necessary to build a better machine that will last longer. Another interesting thing the team learned during the project is that at high speeds, rocks act similar to fluids.

The students could not have completed their prototype without the help and ingenuity of John Abing, the machine shop manager for the mechanical engineering department. "Rock on rock crushing is not high tech, but it's a tough concept. We relied a lot on team unity and applying our classes together to complete a hands on real life project scenario," said Huettl. All of the students are mechanical engineering majors and anticipate graduating in December 2005. Hillmer is the son of Dave and Carol Hillmer of Pardeeville. Huettl is the son of Peter and Joyce Huettl of Oregon. Galligan is the son of Scott and Barb Galligan of Franksville. Bongert is the son of Barb and Tom Bongert of Oshkosh. Oliver is the son of John and Madeleine Oliver of Stetsonvillle.

Contact: David Kunz, mechanical engineering, (608) 342-1431,kunzd@uwplatt.edu

Prepared by: Rachael Lehr, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194,lehrr@uwplatt.edu