The Story Of Sand
The Journey
Sand forms when rocks break down from weathering and eroding over thousands and even millions of years. Rocks take time to decompose, especially quartz (silica) and feldspar.
Often starting thousands of miles from the ocean, rocks slowly travel down rivers and streams, constantly breaking down along the way.
The composition of sand varies, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz.
Composition
Sand is a non-renewable resource over human timescales, and sand suitable for making concrete is in high demand. Desert sand, although plentiful, is not suitable for concrete. 50 billion tons of beach-sand and fossil sand is used each year for construction.
Rocks erode or weather over a long period of time, mainly by water and wind, and their sediments are transported downstream. These sediments continue to break apart into smaller pieces until they become fine grains of sand. The type of rock the sediment originated from and the intensity of the environment give different compositions of sand.
The most common rock to form sand is granite, basalt, where the feldspar minerals dissolve faster than the quartz, causing the rock to break apart into small pieces. In high energy environment, rocks break apart much faster than in more calm settings. In granite rocks this results in more feldspar minerals in the sand because they don’t have as much time to dissolve away. The term for sand formed by weathering is “epiclastic.”
Sand from rivers is collected either from the river itself or its flood plain and accounts for the majority of the sand used in the construction industry.
Because of this, many small rivers have been depleted, causing environmental concern and economic losses to adjacent land. The rate of sand mining in such areas greatly outweighs the rate the sand can replenish, making it a non-renewable resource.
ARTIFICIAL SAND IS THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE
Artificial sand is made from rocks, by crushing them. There are multiple types of technologies are used across the world to make artificial sand.
In India, the artificial sand used for common construction is known as M-sand, manufactured with IS 383 Zone Specifications.
But unfortunately 99% of the machines that are used to make Manufactured Sand in India fail to achieve the prescribed standards due to the extreme presence of micron particles contained in the final product.
The higher presence of micron particles leads to additional use of cement in concrete to maintain the standards. Otherwise it will make the concrete weak. This will ultimately increase the construction cost.
CLEANING
There are two ways to clean the sand by removing the micron particles from the manufactured sand.
Washing with Water.
Washing with Air
1. Water wash
This is the most common option used in the production of manufacturing sand water washing.
But we all know water is precious.
There are millions of people who walk miles to procure water for their daily usage.
Getting water in every season to clean the sand is a big challenge.
Handling the slurry and dumbing it is another big challenge and create environmental issues. It invites issues from the local population also.
Slurry management is another cost factor that increases the production cost of the sand.
The chemical used in water for settling the slurry causes damage to the concrete and it damages the environment as well.
Reusing the chemically contaminated water could affect the cleaning standard of the sand.
2. Air Wash
Air wash is an environmental friendly alternative for Water wash. But there are serious operational issues with regards to this technology.
At present, all air classifiers follow the open air theory and airbag filtration. But cleaning the sand by this method is impossible during humid weather as the wet feed material obstruct the air bag filtration. The sand becomes stiff and concrete and the micron filtration wouldn’t be possible in such a state.
Managing the airbag is a costly affair. A simple crack in the airbag can halt the entire operation.
The existing type of Air classifiers require technically qualified engineers to operate such machines that consist of the solenoid valve pressure system.
The cost of air classifiers and the cost of maintenance are too high for small and medium enterprises.
This is where the revolutionary innovative technology of AirZone Air Cleaning Technology of Fines Extraction comes in.
WHAT IS
AIRZONE AIR CLEANING TECHNOLOGY ?
- AirZone Air Cleaning Technology of Fines Extraction is a fusion of the technologies used in Impactors and Classifiers.
- AirZone Technology works with closed circuit with controlled air flow.
- This can be operated in any weather.
- This machine is economical in price and inexpensive in operation, beneficial for small and medium entrepreneurs.
- This is the perfect IS 383 Zone maker, invented by L Sukumar, who has an experience and expertise of over 50 years in crushing and mining machinery.
- This machine turns out to be the single suitable solution for Artificial Sand Manufacturing industry in world.
- This is the only one machine in the world that uses Crushing Air classification system with closed circuit.
A SIMPLE PRODUCTION CALCULATOR
Any 200TPH JAW+(CON/HSI/JAW)+VSI machine combination Crushing plant produces an average of 110-125 MT below 20mm finished aggregate/hour.
At the same time, a JAW+(CON/HSI/JAW)+ AirZone Air Cleaning Technology 200 TPH Machine Plant produces an average of 170-180 MT below 20mm aggregate/hour and the final product will be IS 383 Zone Specified Sand.
This means Your AirZone Air Cleaning Technology Plant can produce 55-60 MT extra in every hour at the same operational cost which is translated to nearly 1000MT on a 17 hour daily working basis. In a month your AirZone Plant can produce 30,000 MT sand additionally.
Financial Calculator
If we take the average profit per MT at Rs 200, with the extra production of sand can create an additional profit of Rs 60Lakhs per month and Rs 7.2 Crore per annum. This calculation excludes the operational profit of the extra production which will increase the profitability further at the final tally.
