How to protect your plant
The job of a wear protection solution is somewhat self-explanatory: to protect equipment and machinery from different types of wear (see the previous section for a breakdown of the types of wear relevant to mining operations). Generally, there are two broad approaches to how wear protection materials achieve this:
Tough wear protection
By being tougher than the materials they are exposed to. This is the most common strategy, and involves materials like abrasion resistant steel, white iron and ceramics.
Flexible wear protection
By being flexible and redistributing the forces they are exposed to. This strategy involves materials like rubber and polyurethane.
The hybrid category
There is also a third way: a hybrid category that combines the strengths of both the tough and flexible materials. Hybrid wear protection typically involves multiple materials, for example ceramics and rubber, or tungsten carbides and nodular iron. Sandvik utilize a ceramic and rubber combination in their WT9200 and WG9200 products, and their HX900 range uses carbide and iron.
Let’s take a look at these three approaches to wear protection.
