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Quartz Sand and Photovoltaic Sand: Production Process and Market Prospects​ Quartz sand, an seemingly ordinary mineral, holds a pivotal position in the industrial sector. Especially when processed into photovoltaic sand, it becomes an indispensable compon

    Quartz sand, an seemingly ordinary mineral, holds a pivotal position in the industrial sector. Especially when processed into photovoltaic sand, it becomes an indispensable component in the booming photovoltaic industry. Behind the transformation from raw ore to high-quality products lies a rigorous and sophisticated production process, along with broad market development prospects.​

    Production Process of Quartz Sand and Photovoltaic Sand​

Crushing Stage: Initiating the Processing Journey​

    The initial stage in quartz sand processing is crushing. Due to the hard texture of quartz stones, a combination of crushers is usually employed. Firstly, jaw crushers take on the task of primary crushing, effortlessly reducing large quartz ore chunks to smaller sizes, around 50mm, laying the foundation for subsequent procedures. Subsequently, cone crushers step in for medium and fine crushing, further reducing the material particle size to below 10mm. The combination of these two crushers not only ensures crushing efficiency but also allows adjustment of crushing force according to the characteristics of quartz stones, avoiding excessive crushing that would increase energy consumption and introduce impurities.​

Sand-Making Stage: Compound Crushing and Sand-Making Machine Takes the Lead​

    The crushed quartz stone particles enter the sand-making stage, where the compound crushing and sand-making machine plays a crucial role. Its working principle is unique: materials fall vertically from the upper part of the equipment's feed inlet, and under the centrifugal force generated by the high-speed rotation of the impeller, they collide and crush with another part of the materials that are split in an umbrella shape around the impeller. After that, these materials form a vortex between the impeller and the machine shell, undergoing multiple collisions and frictions, and finally are discharged from the lower part, becoming sand particles that meet the required particle size. This equipment boasts significant advantages: a large crushing ratio, with output several times higher than similar products, and high energy efficiency. Its vulnerable parts are made of high-hardness and high-toughness multi-alloy wear-resistant materials, greatly extending their service life. Meanwhile, the gap between the hammer and the impact plate can be flexibly adjusted to meet the production needs of different particle sizes, providing a strong guarantee for producing quartz sand with uniform particle size and good shape.​

Drying Process: Removing Moisture to Ensure Quality​

    The quartz sand after sand-making often contains a certain amount of moisture, which can affect subsequent processing and product quality. Therefore, it needs to be dried by a dryer. The common rotary dryer is widely used. Quartz sand fully contacts with hot air in the rotating cylinder, and moisture evaporates rapidly. During the drying process, temperature and time are strictly controlled to ensure that moisture is effectively removed without adversely affecting the physical and chemical properties of quartz sand. Generally, the temperature is controlled below 200°C to prevent the crystal transformation of quartz sand. The dried quartz sand has a significantly reduced moisture content, creating favorable conditions for the next step of calcination and purification.

Calcination and Purification: Enhancing Purity to Meet Standards​

Finally, quartz sand enters the rotary kiln for calcination and purification. In a high-temperature environment (usually 1000 - 1200°C or even higher; for photovoltaic sand production, it may reach 1600 - 1800°C), a series of physical and chemical reactions occur to the impurities in quartz sand. For example, some metal oxide impurities react with other added substances at high temperatures, transforming into gaseous or easily separable forms, thereby being removed from quartz sand, which greatly improves the purity of quartz sand. For photovoltaic sand, which has extremely high purity requirements, after calcination and purification, the silicon content needs to reach more than 99.5% or even higher standards (such as 4N or 5N, i.e., 99.99% or 99.999% SiO₂ content) to meet the stringent requirements of the photovoltaic industry for raw materials.​

Market Development Prospects​

Stable Demand in Traditional Industries​

In the glass manufacturing industry, quartz sand is one of the main raw materials, used in the production of flat glass, glass bottles and jars, glass fibers, and other products. With the continuous development of construction, packaging, electronics, and other industries, the demand for glass grows steadily, thereby driving the stable demand for quartz sand. In the foundry field, quartz sand is used to make molds and cores. Due to its characteristics such as high temperature resistance and low thermal expansion coefficient, it can ensure the precision and quality of castings. The existence of traditional foundry industry maintains the demand for quartz sand in this field.​

Explosive Growth Opportunities Driven by the Photovoltaic Industry​

In recent years, the global demand for clean energy has surged, and the photovoltaic industry has entered a period of rapid development. As the core raw material for manufacturing photovoltaic silicon materials, the market demand for photovoltaic sand has shown explosive growth. With the continuous expansion of photovoltaic power station construction scale and the wide application of photovoltaic products in civil and industrial fields, the demand for high-purity photovoltaic sand continues to rise. Many enterprises have increased their investment in the field of photovoltaic sand production, building and expanding production lines to meet the urgent market demand. Moreover, with the continuous advancement of technology, the quality requirements of the photovoltaic industry for photovoltaic sand are gradually increasing, which urges production enterprises to continuously optimize the production process and improve product quality, thus promoting the entire quartz sand and photovoltaic sand industry to develop to a higher level.​

The production process of quartz sand and photovoltaic sand is complex and sophisticated, and each link has a key impact on product quality. Its market prospects, whether supported by stable demand in traditional industries or driven by the explosive growth of the photovoltaic industry, show huge potential and broad development space. It is expected to play an important role in more fields and continue to innovate and develop in the future.