Development of a Wear Sensor for Monitoring Grinding Mill Shell Liners

Shell liners are critical components during the operation of the grinding mills. Continuous wear on the shell liners significantly impact on the grinding dynamics and associated throughput. This study aims to develop a wear sensor for embedding into the shell liner casting materials for live wear tracking during mill operation. Wear was measured using multiple closed-circuit loops embedded into the sensor board. A wireless transmitter was also coupled with the wear sensor to transmit the wear data to a cloud platform. Results indicated non-linear wear performance of the shell liner during campaign. The wear distribution on the shell was also reconstructed-based wear measurements and laser scanning results. Outcome of the study will improve the overall reliability of the grinding mill during operation.