Steel balls play a very important role in the operation of ball mills. They are the grinding media of ball mill equipment. It can produce abrasive action when the steel balls are hitting with each other and when the steel balls and the materials are hitting with each other. The introduction of the steel balls of ball mills is as follows:
The Classification of Steel Balls
1.Forging steel balls
The raw materials of steel balls are round steel, which have been forged with heat. The quality of the steel ball’s surface is decent and the impact resistance of steel balls is excellent. Besides, steel balls have strong toughness and nice abrasive resistance. And it is not easy for them to be out-of-round or unbreakable.
2. Casting steel balls
Scrap steel slag is adopted as the raw materials of steel balls. Steel balls are made of scrap steel slag and alloy such as chromium iron by casting them in the mold. The hardness of high chromium balls is great. They are wear-resistant materials with high quality, which are widely used for the cement ball mills. But the toughness of high chromium balls is not so good. It is easy for them to be broken in the ball mill whose diameter is more than 3 meters. Besides, the prices of high chromium balls are high.
The Diameters of Steel Balls
The grinding force of a ball mill is influenced by the loading capacity of steel balls and the diameter of the steel ball. The proportion of the balls with a certain diameter and the ones with different diameters should be kept. In general, the range of the diameters of the balls in the drum body of a ball mill is 25-60mm. The through-put of per unit volume of the ball mill should be considered while the user is selecting the diameter of the steel ball.
The Effect on Steel Balls by the Casting Technology
The casting technology of steel balls determines the service lifetime of them. If there are flaws such as shrinkage cavities and cracks on the surface of the steel ball, the performance of the steel ball will be degraded, even the steel ball will be broken. Therefore, we should adopt reasonable technologies of forging, casting, and heat treatment in the production process of steel balls.
