Wear mechanism of abrasion resistant wear parts in raw material vertical roller mills

The raw materials industry is faced with severe challenges due to ever changing heterogeneous mixtures and thus each industrial comminution system needs to be analyzed one by one. This study is aimed at identifying the most common degradation mechanisms occurring in closed circuit high stress comminution equipment such as vertical roller mills. Both a macroscopic and a microscopic analysis of the wear parts has been conducted. A laboratory scale vertical roller mill with a transparent roller/table has been developed to further understand the material movements during grinding. The development of a simple wear test apparatus has verified the type of wear mechanism dominating the process. Optical microscopy revealed that strain incompatibility resulted in fracture and decohesion of the carbides below the worn surface. The emphasis of this work are wear related issues and thus detailed rock mechanical considerations have been omitted and are not within the scope of this study.