Is a cone crusher a necessary equipment?

Although cone crushers are not absolutely necessary in the mining industry, they play a key role in many operating scenarios and are extremely important equipment.

Cone crushers have many significant advantages, making them widely used in the mining industry. In terms of material processing, it can crush more than 200 kinds of materials and is suitable for various ores and rocks with medium and above hardness (below 350 MPa), such as calcite, limestone, granite, river pebbles, dolomite, bluestone, etc.

In terms of working principle, the rotation of the motor causes the cone to swing around a fixed point under the force of the eccentric sleeve through the pulley or coupling and the transmission shaft, so that the crushing wall sometimes approaches and sometimes leaves the surface of the mortar wall, and the ore is constantly impacted, squeezed and bent in the crushing chamber to achieve crushing. This working mode makes the cone crusher have a large crushing ratio, high efficiency, low energy consumption, and a relatively uniform product particle size, which is suitable for medium and fine crushing operations.

In different types of mining, cone crushers have shown unique value. Taking metal mining as an example, for ores with higher hardness, such as iron ore, cone crushers can operate efficiently due to their good wear resistance. It uses high manganese steel linings, and its service life is 2-3 times that of some other crushers (such as impact crushers). In the long-term high-intensity metal ore crushing work, it greatly reduces the frequency of equipment replacement and reduces maintenance costs.

Moreover, the unit energy consumption is 15%-20% lower than that of the impact crusher, and the power consumption is about 0.8-1.2kW・h/ton, which can effectively control the electricity cost when mining metal ores on a large scale. Cone crushers can also perform well in non-metallic mining, such as limestone mining. Limestone ore is often used in building materials and other fields, and has certain requirements for output and particle size. Cone crushers can meet different production needs through their own structural design, such as multiple specifications of cavity types (four specifications of cavity types are designed from coarse crushing to fine crushing, with six possible combinations), achieve higher production capacity, and ensure that the product particle size meets the requirements of subsequent processing such as building materials.

However, the operating scenarios of the mining industry are complex and diverse, and cone crushers are not the best choice in all cases. For example, in some small mines, if the output requirements are not high and the material properties are relatively special (such as particularly soft or sticky), the use of cone crushers may be too costly, because the equipment procurement cost is relatively high, and the cost performance is not high for small-scale operations.

At this time, some small crushers with simple structures and low prices may be more suitable. In some fine processing fields with extremely high requirements for product particle shape, cone crushers also have certain limitations. The needle-like particles produced by it account for more than 10%. If strict particle shape standards are to be met, it is often necessary to use shaping machines or screening equipment for subsequent processing, which undoubtedly increases the complexity and cost of the process.

In the mining industry, cone crushers are not absolutely necessary machines, but in most common mining and ore processing scenarios, they have become key equipment with their excellent performance and adaptability to a variety of materials, providing strong support for efficient production in the mining industry.

Types of cone crusher:

There are various types of cone crushers. Common types include spring cone crushers, hydraulic cone crushers, compound cone crushers, etc., which are distinguished by structure and working principle. Different types have different focuses on performance and applicable scenarios. ​

• Spring cone crusher is an earlier type. Its structure contains a spring safety device, which is its distinctive feature. When the crushing chamber enters an unbreakable object (such as an iron block), the spring will be compressed, and the moving cone will drop to discharge foreign matter to avoid equipment damage. After that, the spring will reset and the machine will resume normal operation. Its crushing chamber type can be divided into standard type, intermediate type and short head type, which are suitable for medium crushing, medium and fine crushing and fine crushing operations respectively. It performs better when processing ores with medium hardness or above. For example, in the medium crushing of metal mines such as gold mines and copper mines, it can efficiently crush ores and the product particle size is uniform. However, its method of adjusting the discharge port is relatively cumbersome and requires manual adjustment after stopping the machine, which has a certain impact on continuous production. In addition, it is prone to blockage when crushing materials with high viscosity.​

• The hydraulic cone crusher is developed on the basis of the spring cone crusher. It uses a hydraulic system as a safety and adjustment device, and its performance is more advanced. When encountering unbreakable objects, the hydraulic system will automatically discharge the material, and it can automatically reset after the foreign objects are discharged. It is more convenient to operate, and the response is quick, which can effectively protect the equipment. Its discharge port adjustment is realized by a hydraulic device, which can be carried out without stopping the machine, greatly improving the continuity of production. The hydraulic cone crusher has high crushing efficiency, better product particle size, and less needle-like particles. It is suitable for scenes with high requirements for product quality, such as the crushing of sand and gravel for highway construction. In the fine crushing operation of large metal mines, it can exert a strong crushing capacity, large processing capacity, and low unit energy consumption. For example, when processing iron ore, the production capacity can reach hundreds of tons or even thousands of tons per hour. However, the structure of this type of equipment is relatively complex, the maintenance cost is high, and the technical requirements for operators are also higher. ​

• The compound cone crusher combines the advantages of traditional cone crushers and other crushers, and has certain innovations in structure and crushing principles. Its crushing chamber is deeper, which can achieve laminated crushing, so that the ore is more fully squeezed and ground in the crushing chamber, the crushing effect is better, and the product particle size is finer and more uniform. It is suitable for fine and ultra-fine crushing operations. In the selection stage of metal ore, it can crush the ore to a smaller particle size to meet the requirements of subsequent mineral processing technology. At the same time, its wear-resistant parts have a long service life, which reduces the replacement frequency and reduces production costs. However, the applicable material hardness range of the compound cone crusher is relatively narrow, and it is more suitable for processing ores below medium hardness, and its crushing capacity for extremely hard ores is slightly insufficient. ​

In addition to the above common types, there are some special types of cone crushers, such as the Simmons cone crusher, which is a typical representative of traditional spring cone crushers, with a long history of application in the mining industry and mature technology; there are also single-cylinder hydraulic cone crushers and multi-cylinder hydraulic cone crushers. The single-cylinder hydraulic cone crusher has a simple structure and convenient maintenance, while the multi-cylinder hydraulic cone crusher has more advantages in stability and crushing efficiency, which can be selected according to specific production needs.

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