Bell Cone Crushers – How they work and some common Applications
The cone crushers manufactured by companies such as Bell are just one of the several varieties of machine designed to reduce large lumps of hard materials to smaller particles of a size that is better suited to the proposed use for the particular material concerned. This need for crushed particles is one that is shared by quite a wide range of sectors and is particularly prevalent in the fields of mining, quarrying, construction and, more recently, in the recycling industry.
In the mineral exploitation industry, the whole process of extracting and refining metals such as gold and platinum begins with the crushing of the mined ore. This is necessary so that the resulting smaller particles are made more suitable for the subsequent physical and chemical treatments. Limestone and other forms of rock will sometimes be quarried and dressed to provide the natural building blocks that are often used in upmarket construction projects. However, it is also common practice to employ specialised machinery such as Bell cone crushers to reduce the rock to an aggregate which, for example, can then be used as the raw material widely used to stabilise road surfaces and as a component of concrete.
In South Africa, those engaged in demolition are probably just as busy as those involved in construction and in recent times, the product of the demolishers has found a place in the building industry. In pursuit of a greener and more sustainable industry, many of the materials resulting from demolition are now being recycled. Along with the more obvious items such as metal window frames, doors and bricks, the vast quantities of concrete obtained from demolished walls and floors is also being reclaimed by employing machines that operate in a slightly different manner from that of the Bell cone crushers to reduce it to reusable aggregate.
How do these tough crushing machines work? Firstly, they can take a variety of forms and each of these, in turn, will employ its own mechanism to achieve similar ends. The suitability of any given type will be decided largely by the nature, the quantity, and the size of the materials that are to be crushed, as well as on the desired size of the final product. Some of these machines employ jaws; others apply a succession of vertical impacts while still others may rely on gyratory movements to do the job.
Offered in a range of four models and especially effective for the reduction of medium to very hard materials such as quarried stone, Bell cone crushers are widely acknowledged as the machinery of choice both for this purpose and for the surface mining of ore. The material to be crushed is fed into a chamber from above, usually by a conveyer belt. Within the chamber a cone-shaped head is rotated eccentrically allowing the rock to progress through the chamber to the point where is then impacted and broken up. The further it penetrates, the smaller the particles produced until the required size is attained when they are ejected from beneath.
Bell cone crushers are available in South Africa from Kanu Equipment, along with a wide range of vehicle and machinery for the agricultural, earthmoving and forestry industries, plus full maintenance facilities and service.
