Abstract
The article presents the results of a study of the operation processes of steel grinding balls in semi-autogenous grinding mills (SAG). It was determined that the balls experience both abrasive and impact loads. The properties of steel grinding balls with the same production technology are determined by the chemical composition and the formed microstructure over the entire cross-section of the ball. Balls made using 3 different technologies were studied. The balls of sets 1 and 2 show high hardness values at the surface, sufficient to ensure good resistance to wear during operation, and a sharp decrease in hardness at a distance of ~(15â20) mm from the surface as the volume of pearlite structures increases. At the same time, the balls of the 1st and 2nd sets showed low values of impact strength and insufficient resistance to impact. The lowest hardness values from the surface to the center were observed for set 3. Also, the highest mass loss during the abrasive wear test was recorded for set 3, which is explained by the lowest hardness values. The balls of set 3 showed higher values of impact strength and no splitting during the ball-on-ball test, which is explained by the soft ferrite-pearlite structure both on the surface and across the cross section of the ball, due to the reduced carbon content and the presence of nickel in the chemical composition. At the same time, the balls from set 3 showed the worst result in terms of abrasive wear. In the course of the conducted research, it was established that for successful operation in SAG, steel grinding balls must have a surface with high hardness due to the martensitic structure and a viscous core with a ferrite-pearlite structure. A promising direction in the development of technology for the production of steel grinding balls will be to obtain a steel ball microstructure that decreases uniformly from the surface to the center, which will allow maintaining high wear resistance and increasing the resistance to ball splitting
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