Iron is the most common element on earth, found in both the inner and outer cores. Perhaps it is this abundance which accounts for the wide use of iron. It was one of the first metals to be used in human history (some people believe it is the first. But copper alloys actually predate iron in human usage). The drawback of iron is its low resistance to corrosion. When exposed to air or water, it quickly corrodes and forms a layer of rust. The modern usage of iron is mainly for production of other alloys, especially steel.
According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, 90% of all refined metals that we have these days is iron. This makes it an important part of metallurgy and industries like steel. The sourcing of iron from ores therefore, becoming important for these industries. One of the important implements in this are crushers. With the growth of metal industries like steel, iron ore crushers exporters are also seeing an impressive growth.
History of Crushers
An iron ore crusher is a machine that is designed to pulverise large rocks into small parts that include rocks, dirt and gravel. This is imperative to find pieces with different compositions. As the name suggests, a crusher uses brute force to break down the large ore. The ore is usually place between two solid surfaces and then sufficient force is applied on these two surfaces to bring them together. A build up of energy between these two planes causes the ore to disintegrate.
The earliest crushers were probably stones. These were later followed by mortars and hammers. The force applied was sheer muscle power as miners used hammers, chisels and smiths to work the ore. This remained the only way of working with the ore till the middle of the industrial revolution. The scenario only changed as explosives brought in large scale mining. This was also the time when steam shovels started replacing the hammer in mining work.
The invention and development of the railways also played a role here – speeding up the delivery, thereby raining demand for the ore and the metal. This, in turn, led to the development and innovation in metallurgy, including the development of ore crushers. Initially mines and foundries handled the work in casting and working with metals and the leading metals here were brass and bronze. It was only in 1707 when the English cracked the technology to cast iron, that the face of industry in the world changed forever. This technology changed demand, the infrastructure and drove innovations in various fields.
Crushers Today
Today iron ore crushers exporters usually have three type of crushers:
1. Jaw crusher
This is named so because the designed resembles the ore bring grinder between two jaws. One jaw is fixed and kept stationary, while the other moving jaw is known as a swing jaw. The swing jaw is a class II lever. It moves back and forth using a pitman or cam mechanism. The space between the jaws is the crushing chamber. A weighted flywheel on one end of the swing jaw provides the inertia for the movement, moving the shaft in an eccentric motion. These crushers are solid heavy duty machines with parts made of cast steel. There are three types of jaw crushers that are classified as per the point at which the swing jaw is fixed – blake crusher, dodge crusher and universal crusher.
2. Gyratory crusher
This works on the same concept as the jaw crusher. However, the surfaces here are a conical head and a concave surface. The concave surface make an inner cone and this has a circular movement which comes from a circular arrangement. The ore to be crushed is placed between the two surfaces and is gradually crushed. This is a primary crusher in many mines.
3. Cone crusher
This is quite similar to the gyratory crusher. The difference lies in a slight variation of design. The crushing chamber is less steep and the two surfaces are more parallel. There are four types of cone crushers: compound cone crusher, gyratory crusher, hydraulic cone crusher,and spring cone crusher. You will find this popular among the iron ore crushers exporters because it has lower operational costs, easily adjustable design and high productivity.
