Industrial Testing

Product Overview

Molycop’s industrial testing services provide customers with comprehensive froth flotation testing both on-site and in the laboratory to ensure optimal results in mineral processing. Molycop testing services enable the evaluation and comparison of frothers, indirect testing of depressants and the measurement of critical flotation parameters like bubble size distribution and superficial gas velocity, providing valuable insights to enhance flotation performance and efficiency.

Molycop conducts industrial testing for its customers to:

• test and compare frothers
• indirectly test depressants
• measure bubble size distributions and superficial gas velocity.

Froth flotation instruments

Two instruments can be used for froth flotation testing purposes:

Bikerman: The Bikerman froth stability column can be used on-site and in the laboratory. The unit is used to test and compare frothers and collectors with frothing characteristics. The unit can also be used to indirectly test depressants if the gangue has froth stabilising characteristics such as talc and clays.

Bubble sizer: The bubble sizer is a portable device used to measure both bubble size distributions and superficial gas velocity – e.g. directly within a flotation cell. 

It comprises a sampling tube attached to the bottom of a sealed viewing chamber. Bubbles from the pulp phase within the flotation cell travel in the sampling tube under non iso-kinetic conditions. The viewing chamber is made of plastic PVC with a single reinforced glass window.  

A lighting array (LED lights within the viewing chamber) is used to ensure image contrast. The chamber is sloped (angle 15%) to spread the bubbles into a single layer to limit overlap and provide an unambiguous plane of focus. Digital photographs of the sample of bubbles are captured and then analysed with specialist image analysis software processes to derive the bubble size distribution.