the granulator bowl right from the instance of initiation of granulation at regular intervals of 30 min and determined the increase in their diameter and the indices of their main physical and mechanical properties. Figure 4 shows the appearance of the corundum granules. It was established that the growth rate of the granules before attaining a size of (20 • 3) mm during granulation on the inoculator grains amounts to 0.14 mm/min, i.e., 1.4 times higher than that obtained during seedless granulation; furthermore, the period of granulation decreases from 240 up to 180 min and the yield of the final granules increases by 25-30%.
CONCLUSIONSThe improved technology for granulating particulate oxide materials using the grains of inoculator seeds makes it possible to reduce the period of granulation and to increase the yield of the final granules. The waste products obtained during production of flaky (platelike) corundum can be used as the inoculator grains. In order to obtain granules having an ellipticity not exceeding 0.5-0.7 mm, the optimum size of the inoculator grains is 1-2 mm.