What does a feeder breaker do in mining
A feeder breaker is a type of equipment widely used in industries such as coal and mining, particularly in open-pit mining operations. It is an integrated continuous mining machine combining crushing, feeding, and material conveying functions. Serving as a vital link between the coal mining system and the material conveying system, the feeder breaker uses a chain conveyor and crushing rollers to continuously feed and crush the mined material.
One of the long-standing challenges in mining equipment is wear resistance, which directly affects the service life of the feeder breaker and the overall operating cost of mining operations. The defining feature of a feeder breaker is that material flows in a “through-type” manner in the crushing chamber, meaning the processes of feeding, crushing, and discharging occur continuously. This makes it particularly suitable for large-scale industrial production scenarios.
A typical feeder breaker consists of a tensioning device, chain and scraper system, conveyor housing, and crushing components.
Working Principle of the Feeder Breaker:
Mined materials are either dumped directly into the hopper by dump trucks or loaded using bulldozers or loaders. Once the feeder breaker is started, the drive mechanism powers the sprocket, causing the chain to move horizontally within the conveyor housing and drag the material forward. As the chain and material move through the crushing chamber, rotating toothed rollers crush the oversized material.
Large chunks that cannot pass through the specific gap between the crushing rollers and baseplate are subjected to impact, compression, and tensile forces from the rotating rollers. These forces reduce the material to sizes small enough to pass through the gap. Thus, the feeder breaker performs feeding, crushing, and conveying in one integrated system.
Feeder breakers typically crush large materials (800mm–1500mm) into medium-sized particles (200mm–500mm).
Depending on the crushing unit, our company’s feeder breakers are categorized into toothed roll crushers and hammer crushers. Below is a detailed explanation of their working principles in mining applications:
I. Tooth Roller Crusher: Working Principle
1.Basic Structure
Crushing Mechanism: Consists of one or more toothed rollers. Common types include single-toothed roll crushers and double-toothed roll crushers.
Single-Toothed Roll: Composed of a rotating toothed roller and a fixed jaw plate, resembling a jaw crusher setup.
Double-Toothed Roll: Features two counter-rotating rollers (fixed and moving) with teeth or grooves on the surface.
Drive System: Electric motors drive the rollers via belts or gears.
Adjustment Mechanism: Controls output particle size by adjusting the gap between rollers or jaw plate position.
2.Working Principle
The toothed roll crusher breaks ore mainly through shearing, compression, and splitting, with the following steps:
Feeding: Material falls between the toothed rollers (or between roller and jaw plate) from the feed opening.
Crushing:
Tooth Engagement: The rotating roller teeth penetrate the ore gaps, applying shearing force to tear the material.
Simultaneously, compression and splitting between rollers (or between roller and plate) further reduce the size.
Forced Discharge: The crushed material is driven downward by roller rotation and discharged through the bottom gap.
Size Control: Adjusting the roller gap or jaw plate position controls the final particle size.
3.Advantages
Crushing teeth are made from specially formulated, precision-cast, and heat-treated materials with high strength, wear resistance, and impact resistance.
High-frequency induction assembly provides durable and reliable structure.
Unique deep-spiral tooth design offers strong biting capacity and high production efficiency.
II. Hammer Crusher: Working Principle
1.Basic Structure
Crushing Chamber: Composed of a high-speed rotating rotor (with mounted hammers), crushing plates (fixed on the chamber walls), and a screen plate (at the chamber base).
Rotor System: Powered by an electric motor, the rotor spins at high speed (20–80 m/s), with hammers swinging in a circular path.
Screen Plate Assembly: Ensures that only particles meeting the required size are discharged, while oversized material remains for further crushing.
2.Working Principle
The hammer crusher breaks material mainly through impact, collision, and grinding, as follows:
Feeding: Material enters the crushing chamber through the feed inlet and is first hit by the high-speed hammers.
Primary Crushing (Impact): The hammers deliver strong kinetic energy to the material, breaking it into smaller pieces and hurling it against crushing plates or chamber walls.
Secondary Crushing (Collision and Grinding):
The material rebounds off crushing plates and walls, undergoing further size reduction.
Smaller particles are ground between the rotor and screen plate until reaching the desired size.
Discharge: Material that meets size requirements exits through the screen plate. Oversized particles are retained and continuously impacted and ground by the hammers.
3.Advantages
The impact-based hammer crushing method is especially effective for oversized materials common in open-pit mines.
Designed for large particle sizes, hammer crushers offer high wear resistance, large processing capacity, and long service life.
III.Application Recommendations
In mining operations:
If processing wet coal or clay-type materials, or aiming to avoid over-crushing, such as in pre-sorting coal mines, we recommend the tooth roller crusher.
For high-hardness brittle ores (e.g., limestone for sand production), or applications requiring high reduction ratio and fine crushing, the hammer crusher is more suitable.
Feeder breakers, with their integrated feeding, crushing, and conveying capabilities, play a crucial role in modern mining. Their ability to efficiently process large volumes of material and their specialized wear-resistant designs make them indispensable tools for optimizing production flow and reducing operational costs. You can select either our tooth roller crusher or hammer crusher model based on your specific operational needs.
