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Assessing Effectiveness of Various Wear-Resistant Materials Used as Hard Facings in Mining Applications

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Abstract

Characterizing the abrasiveness of soil/rock and the allowable wear of hard-facing products in various conditions is a critical factor in selection of the best material for certain applications related to drilling and excavation in mining and construction industries. The Soil Abrasion Index test machine at Colorado School of Mines (CSM) is one of the recently developed unique systems capable of testing soil/crushed rock abrasion under various conditions, such as dry, wet, and saturated settings. It is also capable of testing the performance of various types of hard-facing materials in a given geo-material. This paper studies the wear properties of different hard-facing materials in various crushed rocks from a surface mining operation in the iron range region of the USA. The hard-facing materials include regular and hardened steels and six different specialized hard facings, based on chromium carbide. The soil/rock include a standard sand and two rock samples from the surface mine. Fourteen abrasion tests were conducted, where the weight loss of each hard-facing material was measured over timespans up to 1 h of testing. The results show the distinct performance differences between the steels with 17 HRC and 43 HRC hardness and the hard-facing products for this application. The results show the possibility to evaluate the abrasiveness of different rocks at a mine or construction site and the performance of various hard facings in similar working conditions. This is a practical solution for selection of the cutting tool or reinforcement of bucket lips and truck beds for comparison of relative wear life between different wear-resistant materials.

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Acknowledgments

Several individuals helped design the testing and prepare the equipment and materials, particularly Brent Duncan, Bruce Yoshioka, and Ray Johnson from Colorado School of Mines, as well as Sam Anderson and Scott Rife from JADCO Manufacturing, Inc. Professor Richard Wendlandt has performed XRD testing and analyzing and the authors appreciate his support and feedback. Thanks also go to Travis Garska and David Leustek of Komatsu/JOY Global field office in Minnesota, USA.

Funding

This project was supported by Earth Mechanics Institute at Colorado School of Mines and JADCO Manufacturing, Inc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, 80401, USA

    Wei Hu, Jamal Rostami & Omid Frough

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  1. Wei Hu
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  2. Jamal Rostami
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  3. Omid Frough
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Correspondence to Wei Hu.

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Hu, W., Rostami, J. & Frough, O. Assessing Effectiveness of Various Wear-Resistant Materials Used as Hard Facings in Mining Applications. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration 37, 117–128 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-019-00110-x

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