Jaw liners form a protective layer to the inside of the crushing chamber. Image: Superior Industries
It is critical to match a jaw liner to the right crushing application. Superior Industries looks at the key tips for doing so successfully.
Matching a jaw liner to the crushing application is a crucial factor behind achieving maximum liner wear life.
Achieving a correct combination can allow quarries to increase the uptime on their crushing application, which bolsters productivity.
Superior Industries crushing product manager Jarrod Adcock assists aggregate producers with overall plant productivity in his role as a member of the company’s product management team. This process begins with well-designed primary circuits and ongoing assistance with aftermarket wear parts.
Adcock shares a few facts that Quarry readers need to know to select a liner with the ideal characteristics to suit their feed material and the product size they desire.
“Having the correct liner profile will boost cost-efficiency,” he said.
Pinpoint Manganese Percentage
Constructed of manganese steel (or other alloys), jaw liners form a protective layer to the inside of the crushing chamber, preventing excessive wear to the crusher body caused by the material being processed. The given feed material type will dictate the optimum percentages of manganese required.
Adcock said that some operations might equate higher manganese content with longer liner life.
“(However) if their material is not hard enough to ‘work harden’ the liners – they could simply be throwing money away,” he said.
“Superior’s application engineers help producers pinpoint the manganese percentage they need – as an operation may be able to access a lower manganese content and be far more cost-efficient.”
Superior offers five different liner configurations. Image: Superior Industries
The Right Configuration
Adcock said that while a standard liner may cover many applications, it’s important to consider the variety of application-specific liners available.
“Superior offers five different liner configurations – from a standard flat tooth liner to a wavy sharp tooth liner, and also a corrugated, bellied-filled, or anti-slab liner,” he said.
Adcock explained that the anti-slab liner is engineered for concrete recycle or slabby laminated material applications for example. Its uneven tooth height generates less “slabby” product from the flat slab of material that enters the jaw.
The protruding teeth or ridges of the anti-slab liner help to initially break up the material. In comparison, a standard flat tooth liner that will chew up that material longer before reducing it to a size that passes the closed-side setting.
For rounded or slippery-type rock, a sharp tooth liner may be the best choice. It offers moderate spacing between each tooth to really grab the rock and help pull it down through the machine. Alternatively, the tooth height and spacing on the corrugated liner is designed for all-purpose applications such as shot rock and gravel.
For applications with varying feed gradations (like portable crushing), a bellied and filled-ends liner, helps to maintain a high position of crushing while providing maximum liner life in these variable feed applications.
Downtime is one of the biggest operating concerns for quarry operators. Image: Superior Industries
Gauge Liner Wear
An industry rule of thumb on proper liner usage is defined as wearing the jaw liner surface evenly along the length of the liner and utilising 50 per cent to 55 per cent of the original liner weight.
While several factors may determine when to change out a set of liners, one of them is the tooth height. During maintenance, measure the distance between the teeth’s peaks and valleys. If the distance is less than 10mm, the liners should be replaced.
Adcock said that if liner replacement is delayed, crushing operations lose the advantages of the liner design. Both tooth height and corrugation are required to properly crush the material as the configuration provides voids for material to fall into.
When that corrugation wears away, there is a lot more force that gets generated down into the crusher. This can potentially cause costly damage such as toggle plate breakage or decreased bearing life.
Avoid Downtime and Damage
Downtime is one of the biggest operating concerns for quarry operators. If a crushing machine is down, productivity and the business’s bottom line is hampered.
In many heavy industries, including quarrying, downtime is regarded as one of the largest cost drivers.
Therefore, reducing this factor and increasing uptime is key for any operation.Adcock said this factor made pairing the right jaw liner with the correct crushing application key for quarrying operators.
“Downtime is money at the end of the day,” Adcock said.
“At Superior, we focus on providing all the expertise, engineering, equipment, and wear parts needed to make processing as efficient as possible.
“If the producer optimises liner performance, that means less downtime – and if they do not change the liner in time, damage can occur to other components – resulting in lost production, and additional labour, parts, and maintenance costs.”•
For more information, visit superior-ind.com
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