Abstract
In mineral processing solid-fluid mixtures are separated in various ways. Of these, hydrocyclones are found to be a simple and low cost technique for particle separation. Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology has the potential to improve the design and testing process for hydrocyclones. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using AM and surface treatments to optimise hydrocyclone design. The hydrocyclone used in these experiments is based on a commercial model used in practice. The hydrocyclone was manufactured with a common plastic material (ABS+) and was fabricated by use a Rapid Prototyping Additive Manufacturing (RPAM) technique. This paper describes the 3-D design printing (3DDP) and manufacture of a hydrocyclone design based on a commercial design using RPAM and a surface protection process. Based on the results of this study, this process has the potential to reduce development time and cost to produce an optimal hydrocyclone design iteration.