Characteristics and Maintenance of Forged Grinding Balls

Forged grinding balls are wear-resistant grinding balls produced through a forging process. They are widely used in ball mills across various industries, including mining, cement, power, and metallurgy, for grinding and crushing materials. Chengxin is a grinding ball supplier that adheres to the business philosophy of "customer first" and is committed to providing customers with superior products.

Characteristics of Forged Grinding Balls

High Wear Resistance

Forged grinding balls are made from high-quality carbon steel or alloy steel, processed through forging, which gives them high hardness and wear resistance, allowing them to maintain stable grinding performance over time.

High Strength

During the forging process, the steel billet undergoes impact and pressure, which refines the internal grain structure and makes the material denser, thus enhancing the strength and toughness of the grinding balls.

Good Impact Resistance

Forged grinding balls are less likely to break under impact, maintaining their spherical shape, which helps improve grinding efficiency and reduce downtime.

Precision and Surface Smoothness

After forging, the grinding balls undergo fine processing, such as grinding and polishing, to improve their precision and surface smoothness, ensuring stability and consistency during the grinding process.

Differences Between Cast Grinding Balls and Forged Grinding Balls

Raw Materials

• Cast Grinding Balls: Mainly made from scrap steel, scrap iron, ferrochrome, and other materials.

• Forged Grinding Balls: Primarily made from high-quality steel.

  
  

Production Process

• Cast Grinding Balls: Produced by melting raw materials in an electric furnace, adding ferrochrome, ferromanganese, and other alloys in proportion, then pouring them into molds using an automated production line, followed by subsequent heat treatment.

• Forged Grinding Balls: Produced by directly heating the raw material to a high temperature and then forging it. The chromium content is 0.1% to 0.5%, and the carbon content is less than 1.0%. After high-temperature forging, the surface hardness (HRC) can reach ≥56, but due to the poor hardenability of the material, the hardened layer is only about 15mm thick, and the core hardness is generally only in the 30s. Therefore, forged grinding balls are usually water-quenched.

Heat Treatment

High Chromium Alloy Cast Balls: With chromium content ≥10.0% and carbon content between 1.80%-3.20%, the national standard requires that the hardness (HRC) of high chromium balls must be ≥58, and the impact value (ak) must be ≥3.0J/cm². To achieve this hardness, high chromium balls must undergo high-temperature quenching and tempering treatment.

Maintenance and Care of Forged Grinding Balls

To ensure the long-term stable operation of forged grinding balls and extend their service life, the following maintenance and care work is required:

• Regular Inspection: Regularly inspect the wear of the grinding balls and replace severely worn balls in time.

  
  

• Proper Ball Loading: Determine the size and quantity of grinding balls according to the operating conditions of the ball mill and the particle size characteristics of the material being ground.

  
  

• Regular Ball Replenishment: Regularly add new balls based on the wear condition of the grinding balls to maintain the normal operation of the ball mill.

• Keep Clean: Keep the interior of the ball mill clean and dry to prevent material and moisture accumulation, which can cause corrosion and wear on the grinding balls.