Endurance Contest: Suppliers Steadily Improve Wear-resistant Materials Lineup

OEMs and end users can pick from an expanding range of products, selection tools and installation techniques
By Russell A. Carter, Managing Editor

At a factory in France, a new hydraulic excavator is assembled, tested and disassembled for shipment to an Australian iron ore producer. A few thousand miles to the west, a drilling jumbo hammers away at a hardrock face underground in Canada's Sudbury Basin. At a surface mine in the Southwest U.S., a high-speed conveyor dumps thousands of tons of copper ore each day onto a transfer point. And at a nickel mine in Finland, a tweak to the profile of a gyratory crusher's wear mantle results in a 15% increase in crusher throughput.

Apart from the single obvious connection between these examples—all are hardrock related—is another: The equipment involved in each application benefits from advances in materials and techniques that protect against abrasive and/or impact wear—and future versions will likely gain even more reliability and productivity as wear materials continue to evolve and improve.

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