MATERIALS FOR CONTROLLING WEAR IN SURFACE MINING

It has been estimated conservatively that the costs of wear damage and friction in the Canadian mining and mineral processing industry amoun t to over one billion dollars per year. These are mainly incurred thro ugh the repair or replacement of worn parts and production losses from related equipment downtime. The selection and application of the most appropriate wear protection components and systems, can thus have a v ery significant influence on productivity, profitability and global co mpetitiveness. Details are presented of the wide diversity of material s used to counteract the varied and often complex wear attack mechanis ms that occur in surface mining. The majority are various forms of ste els and irons with generally very high hardness. However, they also in clude relatively soil elastomers and polymeric products. The main char acteristics and applications of the different classes are reviewed. Ca se studies record significant performance improvements achieved throug h more judicious selections. Finally some new developments which reduc e maintenance charges by substantially increasing wear component life, are described.