Magneettisen erotuksen suomalainen innovaattori

Laurilan erotin osana tutkijoiden kaivosteollisuudelle tekemää ylirajaista kehitystyötä

Authors

• Petri Paju

Abstract

A Finnish Innovator of Magnetic Separation: The Laurila Separator among transnational development work by researchers for the mining industry.Professor Erkki Laurila is best remembered, at present, for his societal roles in designing Finnish science policy and policies for the research and use of atomic energy from the late 1950s onwards until the 1970s. However, his own research and innovation career is, except among specialists in mineral beneficiation, mostly unknown before this study. From the early 1950s until the early 1980s, based at VTT, Technical research centre of Finland, Laurila focused his personal research effort on the magnetic treatment and analysis of minerals. The transnational work started by him collaborating on contracted research for Otanmäki Ltd, then a new state-owned mining company close to Kajaani, Finland. This background helped him to suggest a solution for magnetic separation problems at the Swedish Höganäs Ltd for which Laurila designed a machine called the “Laurila separator”, and which was used from 1953 onward at a major plant owned by Höganäs Ltd in the United States. Soon, Krupp Rheinhausen from West-Germany bought the rights to manufacture the Laurila separators but for some reason they only delivered a few of them. Despite the fact that the Laurila separator did not diffuse in large numbers, its basic ideas were utilized by Höganäs and allied companies in several countries for three decades at least. Laurila continued developing magnetic separators but these later models could not match the earlier success. Regardless, his scientific papers analyzing the magnetic behavior of minerals are still used today. Moreover, Laurila invented several mining instruments for Outokumpu Ltd to sell and helped the company develop its R&D for business purposes. No doubt these experiences, their gains and losses, had wide repercussions influencing Laurila’s plans for a future technological Finland.