Effects of plate wear on bar forces and fiber properties in a mill scale LC-refiner

A set of piezo electric force sensors is implemented in a 52-inch mill-scale low consistency refiner to explore the effect of refiner plate wear on bar force sensor measurements. The sensor replaces a short length of a stator bar and measures normal and shear forces applied during the passage of each rotor bar. In previous work with this type of force sensor, force profiles for individual bar passing events (BPE) were investigated. In the work presented here, force profiles for individual BPEs are identified based on key features in the time domain force data. The individual bar force profiles are classified as single peak events which feature one peak corresponding to the fiber compression force and as dual peak events corresponding to fiber compression force and the corner force. The bar passing events are then analysed, based on dual peak ratio and time to peak of the early peak in the dual peak events. Force measurements are evaluated over the full run time of a set of refiner plates. Findings are compared with refiner plate wear measurements and discharge fiber analysis. It is shown that the decrease in the prevalence of the corner force correlates with the wear of the leading edge of the refiner bars or bar rounding of the run time of the refiner plate. This is accompanied by a decrease in plate performance which is represented by a decrease in fiber length and freeness reduction for the same refiner load.