Understanding the cost factor of crusher wear parts
Filip Naessens
In the current economic climate, the cost base is an important factor in running a succesful crushing company. The wear costs associated with crusher wear parts can represent a significant expense. How important are crusher wear parts in the overall cost comparison of operating a crusher, and how can the costs related to these components be reduced?
“Crusher liners” serve several very important functions in a crusher. The first and most important task is to protect the crusher from expensive or irreparable damage.
The wear material is hard and tough and can withstand plastic deformation without breaking. By having the right chemical composition, with a special manufacturing process, the liners protect the frame of the machine. As a result, they guarantee that the crusher will have many years of service.
“Crusher liners” are wear parts that are installed in the machine. The machine is exposed to the material entering the structural components and is designed for the crushing chamber to provide strength and durability while the liners wear. As such, different grades are designed based on wear resistance, toughness, and impact strength.
Do they need replacing when worn out? Absolutely! Neglecting them can transfer severe damage to the crusher itself.
Such damage can take the form of premature bearing failure, cracking of the crusher chamber castings and signs of wear on the crusher chamber castings themselves.
Abrasive process
Since crushing is an abrasive process, crusher liners protect the structures and components of the crusher by acting as the main contact surface. The shape of crusher liners can also have a great effect on the crushing result in terms of particle shape and gradation.
Sacrificial components
The wear parts of a crusher are the sacrificial parts designed to protect the very expensive machine and extend its life by isolating the structural components of the machine from the materials being processed.
Crusher liners
The industry term, “crusher liners,” refers to a specialized set of sacrificial liners in a jaw or cone crusher. These special liners are subjected to the full compressive forces in a crushing chamber and absorb large amounts of energy.
Liner profiles
The second essential aspect of crusher wear parts is that they can have complex and intricate profiles.
Lining profiles may look simple, but they create specific and complex force vectors in the crushing chamber.
Liner profiles determine material flow paths, which affects crushing efficiency, crusher throughput and wear patterns. They also affect the physical characteristics of the finished product, such as size and shape.
The different types of wear parts are designed to maintain the ideal crushing chamber profile while withstanding high crushing forces and wear of the processed material.
The feed profile is a feature that is common and does not receive enough attention from the machine operator. Changing the lining profile can yield significant improvements in throughput and product quality. A benefit that has a greater impact on the bottom line than the wear properties that operators usually focus on.
Another essential feature of wear parts of a crusher, and probably the most discussed feature, is resisting wear from the crushing process. This feature is probably the one that customers focus on the most, sometimes at the expense of the other essential lining qualities.
Contact Naessens Hydraulics for all your crusher wear parts needs.
