How a Bell Impact Crusher Works and Some Common Uses
If one needs to reduce a relatively soft material such as a clove of garlic, to smaller particles, the steady application of a minimal amount of pressure between two surfaces is all that will be required. Even in the garden, when encountering a large and unwanted rock, it should be a comparatively simple matter to reduce it to a mixture of small stones and rock dust with a few measured blows from a sledgehammer. On an industrial scale however, where it may be required to pulverise hundreds of tonnes of material daily and on an on-going basis, something a lot more powerful than a couple of strong men with hammers will be necessary. In practice, this is a typical task for an impact crusher such as those made by the giant, global equipment manufacturer, Bell.
With regard to the manner in which these impressively powerful machines operate, the principle involved is a surprisingly simple one. Although certain variants may simply rely on gravity to produce a fracturing effect when an object is dropped on to a metal plate, most will, as mentioned before, involve applying sufficient force to some form of material when passed between two surfaces. It is a process that is widely used in the production of aggregates for construction purposes and in the initial processing of mineral ores. However, like the sledgehammer rather than the garlic press, the end product of these Bell crushers results from the use of repeated heavy impacts rather than sustained pressure, and amounts to a sort of automated hammering effect.
Typically, the large rocks are fed from a hopper into the steadily decreasing gap between fixed and moving (often rotating) tough steel surfaces fitted with a series of strategically positioned projections. As the material enters, these act to break it into smaller pieces, which are then able to proceed further into the narrower region further on. As this same effect is repeated, each successive step sees the material reduced to progressively smaller particles until they are eventually of the pre-determined size required. This is determined by the final exit gap set between the fixed and moving surface. The smaller the gap, the finer will be the end product of the crushing process.
However, it is not always required to process large rocks. In practice, the same principle upon which these heavy-duty Bell impact crushers depend can also be applied in the far more compact units that are commonly used to prepare small mineral and metallurgical samples before further testing.
In addition to their traditional roles in mining and construction, environmental concerns that have spurred the search for more sustainable materials and technologies have found a new role for these machines in the recycling industry. The demolition that is necessary to pave the way for new developments results in huge quantities of used building materials, among them concrete. Sufficiently ground up, the old material becomes suitable for re-purposing. What then could possibly be a better means to tackle this requirement than with one of the Bell range of impact crushers?
Supplied, commissioned and maintained in operational condition by Kanu Equipment, these units are ideal for use wherever the grain-shape, distribution and consistency of the end product are essential.
