The application of quartz sand in the photovoltaic glass industry

With the rise of the solar photovoltaic industry, the quality of quartz sand, which is the main raw material for solar photovoltaic glass, is gradually developing towards low iron and ultra white. According to the technical suggestions of several well-known glass design institutes in China

Quartz sand is a quartz particle made by crushing and processing quartz stone. Quartz rock, also known as silica, is a type of mineral that is hard, wear-resistant, and chemically resistant

Stable silicate minerals. Quartz sandstone, quartzite, and vein quartz exist in nature. Quartz sandstone is a consolidated detrital rock with a quartz detrital content of over 95%. It originates from various magmatic rocks, sedimentary rocks, and metamorphic rocks, with relatively few heavy minerals and associated minerals such as feldspar, mica, and clay minerals. Quartzite can be divided into two types: sedimentary origin and metamorphic origin. The former refers to quartzite ore with a deep degree of metamorphism and pure quality, while the former has an unclear boundary between clastic particles and cement. Vein quartz is formed by hydrothermal action and is almost entirely composed of quartz, with a dense blocky structure.

The excess acidic substances in quartz sand have an impact on the expensive lifespan of kilns. Major domestic photovoltaic glass enterprises are resistant to acid washing quartz sand, and low iron quartz sand is mainly processed by physical methods for iron removal. Accumulated experience in removing iron from quartz sand. The popular process in China now includes the combination of artificial magnetic rods and cylindrical permanent magnet machines with vertical ring magnetic separators, especially the application of high gradient vertical ring magnetic separators, which have had a profound and far-reaching impact on the beneficiation of low iron quartz sand. The author once conducted tests and found that the iron content in the raw ore slurry after stone grinding was 300PPM. After the above process, it was removed to 72PPM, including 112PPM before the vertical ring and 72PPM after the vertical ring, with an iron removal rate of 36%.

Many manufacturers specializing in low iron quartz sand are unwilling to give up the manual magnetic rod iron removal process (before the application of vertical ring magnetic separators in quartz sand beneficiation, most manufacturers used magnetic rods for manual iron removal and achieved certain results). With the continuous rise of rare earth materials and labor costs, the author has calculated an economic account and found that replacing manual magnetic rods with two vertical ring magnetic separators in series and parallel can achieve better iron removal. The fixed asset investment of vertical ring magnetic separators will achieve better output benefits.