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Maintenance News
Customer Service

Every comminution process is accompanied by the

phenomenon of wear. Wear is a loss of material from
the surface of components. The area subject to the
most intensive wear in Loesche mills is that of the
grinding tools, i.e. grinding roller and grinding plate.
The prevailing form of wear in the grinding roller
grinding plate system is abrasion, i.e.:
hard particles penetrate into the grinding tools,
whereby the depth of penetration is dependent on
the hardness of the grinding body material;
in the case of multiphase materials (chilled castings
embedded carbides) local score grooving processes occur, resulting in a selective removal of
material.

The choice of wear material which is to be used

in vertical mills is determined not just by the abrasivity
of the grinding stock. What is required is a consideration of all the economic factors, such as costs, plant
availability, simultaneity of utilisation of all the
wear parts referred to in their entirety by the term
LIFE CYCLE COST.
Loesche offers the right material for every application.
In practice three different material groups have gained
acceptance:
Grinding parts made from chromium alloy
cast iron
Hardfaced grinding parts
Grinding parts made from composite casting

The harder the particles to be ground, the greater the

removal of material or wear. Increasing wear has a
negative impact on the comminution effect of the
grinding tools.

Typical wear pattern on a Loesche tyre

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Worn tyre

Worn tyre when installed together with grinding plate

Sign of wear at a grinding plate

Collar formation on a worn-out tyre

Grinding parts made from chromium

alloy cast iron

100 m

Structure of hardened Ni-Hard IV

Chromium alloy cast iron has proven itself as the

standard material used for grinding parts in everyday
applications. These materials are known for example
by the trade names Ni-Hard IV and Cromodur.
The carbon in the cast iron is present in chemically
bonded form as iron carbide or chromium carbide.
This produces a very hard structure which offers
high wear resistance. The matrix is usually modied
by heat treatment to martensite so as to offer the hard
carbides a rm hold and thereby further increase wear
resistance.
In order to avoid embrittlement of the material and with
it a risk of fracture, it is necessary for the components
to be tempered by further heat treatment. Tempering
leads to a loss of hardness and wear resistance. Due
to this, tempering is only carried out at very low temperatures. Despite these low temperatures the impact
resistance is appreciably improved.
The manufacture of grinding parts containing high
levels of chromium requires detailed knowledge of
materials and plenty of experience. To achieve the
desired material properties, it is essential to adhere
exactly to the parameters of temperature and heating
duration.
Materials containing high levels of chromium have
good to very good resistance to abrasion. The general
hardness of 630 to 800 HV20 produces uniform,
anticipated wear. Grinding parts made from this
material are used in coal mills and in raw meal and
cement mills.
Although contrary statements are made in the
literature, grinding parts made from chromium alloy
cast iron can nowadays be armoured safely and
economically. Thanks to hardfacing the useful life
can be signicantly increased compared with wearresistant castings.
The down-times caused by hardfacing are unavoidable. Depending on the amount of material to be
deposited, down-times ranging between a few days
and more than a week may be anticipated. The number
of repeatable weld deposits on a grinding part is dependent on the previous service life, the load and the
condition of the previous deposits. The correct combination of hardening and tempering leads to a wear resistant material with sufcient impact resistance for
many functions and which can also be regenerated.

Tyre made from Cromodur with worked seat

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Hardfaced grinding parts

Hardfacing refers to the deposition of a high-alloy

material as surface protection on heavily stressed
metallic components. The grinding tools are made
from either a weldable cast steel or alternatively wearresistant iron castings. Hardfacing can be completed
with a layer thickness of up to 80 mm.
Welds are deposited with a ller wire in order to
minimise the application of energy to the grinding
parts.
Structure of a hardfacing application

The welding materials contain high levels of chromium

and carbon. Depending on the degree of wear resistance required, further carbide-forming materials, such
as niobium, vanadium, etc. are used.
A weld-deposited hard layer increases the wear resistance of the ductile cast steel.
In this thermal process high-strength carbides are
formed within a matrix, resulting in a highly wearresistant layer.
For most tribological systems there are appropriate
ller metals to suit the parent metal.
Some of these material combinations are mechanically machinable, offer a high degree of safety against
fracture, and provide a far greater useful life than grinding parts made from a wear-resistant casting.

Tyre during regeneration

Hardfacing can be carried out inside or outside

the mill.
Regular wear measurements provide information
on the state of wear of the grinding parts. Evaluation
of these measurements produces specic wear rates,
makes it possible to provide a good assessment
of the utilisation ratio and the remaining service life,
and provides information on when to introduce
necessary regeneration measures or when to acquire
new grinding parts.

Completed weld-deposited tyre

Grinding parts made from composite casting

In the case of composite materials two or more materials are structurally bonded in such a way that each
component is stressed in that area in which it demonstrates the best properties. Grinding tools are made
up of a so-called metal matrix composite (MMC). This
involves shaped ceramic pieces being embedded
in ductile cast iron. The shaped pieces themselves
are sintered from non-metallic oxides together with
chromium carbides. This combination makes the
grinding tools particularly hard and wear-resistant with
simultaneously high impact strength. The matrix of
cast iron increases the mechanical machinability of the
grinding tools.
Then heat treatment is also required here in order to
achieve the nal hardness.

These composite materials provide a longer useful life

than standard materials and also hardfacing.
The material is already being used by various customers and has received an entirely positive evaluation.
It must be noted that regeneration by hardfacing is not
possible once the wear limit has been reached.
The advantages at a glance:
Highly wear-resistant
Very high impact resistance
Simple machinability
No hardfacing necessary
Thus investment in a welding machine not
necessary

Tyre made from composite material. The shaped ceramic pieces can be clearly made out.

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Wear of grinding parts has a negative

effect on:
Mill throughput
Product quality
(neness, specic material surface
and grain size distribution)

Improving wear protection results in:

Reduction of costs
Stabilisation of product quality and
mill throughput
Increase in availability
Reduction of down-times
Prolongation of maintenance
intervals

If you require further information or have a specic query, e-mail our Customer Service team
at: wearparts@loesche.de

Wear rate of different wear materials as a function of the grinding stock

Wear rate [g/t]

0
Coal mill

Chromium alloy cast iron

Raw meal mill

Composite casting

Cement mill

Hardfaced

Loesche LM 46.2+2 C/S roller grinding mill, Kingston, Jamaica, 2006

Loesche GmbH
Hansaallee 243
40549 Dsseldorf, Germany
Tel.
+49 - 211 - 53 53 - 0
Fax
+49 - 211 - 53 53 - 500
E-Mail: loesche@loesche.de
www.loesche.com