Analysis and Improvement of the Mineral Sizer Crushing Beam
Introduction
As a new type of crushing equipment that has emerged abroad in the past thirty years, the Mineral Sizer has become irreplaceable in both open-pit and underground mining production. Its core function is to crush large materials into the required particle size for customers. During this process, the crushing teeth and the crushing beam serve as the key components, playing a critical role.
The crushing beam is not only an essential part of the Mineral Sizer’s crushing operation but also a typical wear component. Its lifespan and working efficiency are directly related to the overall lifespan and operational efficiency of the Mineral Sizer, as well as to the power consumption, production capacity, and final product quality. Based on the differences in the type of materials being crushed, parameters such as the material, shape, and fastening method of the crushing beam need to be adjusted accordingly.
Mineral Sizer Crushing Principle and Crushing Beam Connection Method
Mineral Sizer Crushing Principle
To fully understand the crushing beam, it is first necessary to grasp the crushing working principle of the Mineral Sizer. The Mineral Sizer mainly consists of crushing teeth rolls, a frame, a drive unit, a crushing beam, and other components. The crushing process relies on two crushing teeth rotating inward at the same speed, with both working together to crush the material.
To ensure that the discharge particle size meets the requirements, the Mineral Sizer crushes the material twice. The first crushing occurs when the crushing teeth on the two rolls bite and crush the material. The crushed material then passes through the gap between the teeth and is discharged. For material still too large in size, it will be blocked by the crushing beam. When the crushing teeth on the rolls move near the crushing beam, they work with the crushing tooth caps on the beam to split the larger material and force it out. This is known as secondary crushing.
Crushing Beam Connection Method
In the Mineral Sizer, the crushing beam is connected to the frame using bolts, with several adjustment shims placed in between. The crushing tooth caps are also bolted onto the crushing beam. Each crushing tooth cap is independent, with a welded tooth cap cover. The tooth cap cover plays an important role in keeping the bolt heads that connect the crushing tooth caps and the crushing beam in a sealed space, effectively preventing the bolts from being clogged by materials, thus facilitating the disassembly of the bolts.
Issues with the Original Mineral Sizer Crushing Beam Structure
Difficult Installation
The original crushing beam had significant quality issues. When installing it onto the frame, it was very difficult to align the bolt holes between the beam and the frame, which severely impacted installation efficiency.
Connection Parts Easily Damaged
During operation, the Mineral Sizer experiences heavy vibration and severe impact. During the crushing process, there is a huge force between the crushing teeth and the tooth caps, and this force is only borne by the connecting bolts between the crushing beam and the frame. Under long-term vibration and impact, these bolts are prone to deformation and even fracture.
Furthermore, due to the compact internal structure of the Mineral Sizer, the structure, size, and installation space for the adjustment shims are limited. To make the shims easier to install and remove, they are currently designed to be small, which leads to a small load-bearing area and the potential for misalignment or crushing of the shim bearing surface.
Poor Stability of the Crushing Tooth Caps
During crushing, the immense force between the crushing teeth and the tooth caps can cause the independent tooth caps to twist, which in turn changes their working position, affecting the secondary crushing effect. This leads to unqualified discharge particle sizes and failure to meet production requirements.
Inconvenient Maintenance
When disassembling the crushing tooth caps, the tooth cap cover welded onto the caps must first be removed. However, due to the compact structure of the Mineral Sizer after assembly, the disassembly space is very limited. It is necessary to remove the entire crushing roll first, then remove the tooth cap cover, and only then can the tooth caps be disassembled. This greatly increases maintenance time and severely affects production efficiency.
Improvements to the Mineral Sizer Crushing Beam
Optimizing Installation
To address the installation difficulty of the Mineral Sizer crushing beam, guide components are set up on the frame, and guide grooves are added to both ends of the crushing beam. During installation, the crushing beam’s guide groove can be aligned with the guide component along the frame, making it easy to align the bolt holes between the crushing beam and the frame in one go. This eliminates the need for repeated adjustments and greatly improves the installation efficiency of the Mineral Sizer.
Improving Load Bearing
During the installation of the crushing beam along the guide components, lateral force is applied to the beam. One long side of the guide groove contacts the guide component, while the opposite side of the guide groove also contacts the guide component. This dual-contact surface transmits the force. The added guiding structure helps bear some of the forces generated during crushing, improving the force-bearing condition of the bolts at both ends of the crushing beam and extending the service life of the connecting bolts.
Adjusting Shims
The adjustment shims of the Mineral Sizer are optimized by adding several U-shaped grooves, with the opening direction of the grooves forming a certain angle (preferably 45°) to the sides of the shims. Additionally, notches are created along the side of the U-shaped grooves in the direction of inclination. This allows the shims to be inserted at an angle into the Mineral Sizer. This new design increases the load-bearing area inside the limited space of the Mineral Sizer, improving the stability and load-bearing capacity of the shims.
Convenient Disassembly
To facilitate the disassembly of the crushing tooth caps, square grooves are added to the bolt head positions of the tooth caps, and the groove width is appropriately increased. This eliminates the need for complicated operations like before, significantly reducing maintenance time for the Mineral Sizer.
Improving Tooth Cap Stability
To improve the load-bearing condition of the crushing tooth caps, adjacent tooth caps are tightly connected through their side surfaces. Specifically, a block is fixed at one end of the crushing beam with a bolt, and the first crushing tooth cap is placed on the beam so that its side surface contacts the block. The second crushing tooth cap is installed next to the first one, and so on until all tooth caps are installed. Finally, a block is fixed at the other end of the crushing beam, ensuring that all tooth caps are in tight contact and preventing them from twisting and shifting during operation.
Conclusion
As an efficient crushing equipment, the structure and performance of the crushing beam and tooth caps in the Mineral Sizer directly impact the equipment’s operating efficiency, service life, and ease of maintenance. Through systematic improvements addressing issues with installation, load-bearing, shim performance, tooth cap stability, and maintenance convenience, the defects in the original crushing beam structure have been effectively solved.
The improved crushing beam structure offers significant improvements in installation ease, rational force distribution, operational stability, and maintenance efficiency, providing reliable support for the high-efficiency and stable operation of the Mineral Sizer. It has strong practical value in actual production, better meeting the production needs of the mining industry.
