Effect of surfactants on wet zircon vibrogrinding

The effect has been investigated of various surfactants upon the fineness of zircon in wet vibro-grinding and the sintering of specimens obtained from ground powders. It is shown that the surfactants speed up grinding of zircon by 2.5 to 4 times. The effect is determined of the content of fine-size fractions and of the specific surface area of powders upon the open porosity and the apparent density of sintered specimens. It is ascertained that the sintering to an open porosity of less than 1% is obtained by using powders with not less than 80% of size fractions smaller than 5 microns, of which at least 60% should be smaller than 2 microns across, this corresponding to a specific surface area of powders of not less than 12 m2/g. A relationship is found between the amount of iron grindings, the fineness of zircon and the sintering ability of powders after acid cleaning. The amount of iron grindings may serve as an indirect characteristic of the suitability of ground zircon for manufacturing extra-dense zircon refractories