Comprehensive Guide to 7 Main Crusher Types: Working Principles and Comparative Analysis

Crushing equipment represents the core machinery in mineral processing, stone production, and sand manufacturing processes. With the diverse range of crushers available in the market, selecting the most suitable equipment for specific needs can be challenging. This article offers an in-depth analysis of seven mainstream crushing devices, their working mechanisms, application scopes, and respective advantages and limitations.

Fundamentals of Crushing Mechanisms

Before delving into specific equipment types, it's essential to understand the basic crushing mechanisms. Modern crushing equipment typically employs several methods:

- Compression Crushing: Applies pressure to materials through working surfaces until the compressive stress reaches the material's strength limit

- Splitting and Shearing: Working surface edges wedge into the material to generate tensile stress, causing splitting when exceeding the material's tensile strength

- Bending and Breaking: Material behaves like a supported beam under force, primarily subjected to bending stress

- Impact Crushing: Utilizes high-speed moving crushing bodies to impact materials, or materials impacting against fixed surfaces or each other

In practical applications, most crushing equipment combines multiple crushing methods rather than employing a single approach.

Based on processing capacity and product size, crushers are typically categorized as:

- Primary Crushers: Reduce materials from 1500~500mm to 350~100mm

- Secondary Crushers: Reduce materials from 350~100mm to 100~40mm

- Tertiary Crushers: Reduce materials from 100~40mm to 30~10mm

Analysis of Seven Mainstream Crushing Equipment Types

Jaw crushers operate intermittently, with a crushing chamber formed by a fixed jaw plate and a movable jaw plate. When the movable jaw plate oscillates periodically, materials are crushed by compression between the two plates.

- Applications: Suitable for various materials regardless of hardness, particularly effective for primary and secondary crushing of hard rocks

- Key Advantages: Simple and reliable structure, lightweight, small footprint, economical price, easy maintenance, and adjustable discharge opening

- Limitations: Liner plates wear relatively quickly, higher percentage of flaky products, typically requires feeding equipment

Cone crushers operate continuously, utilizing the eccentric movement of the mantle to subject materials to a combination of compression, shearing, and grinding actions. Materials in the crushing chamber experience multi-directional forces, resulting in high crushing efficiency.

- Applications: Primarily used for secondary and tertiary crushing of hard materials, with some models suitable for primary crushing

- Key Advantages: High reduction ratio, high efficiency, low energy consumption, uniform product size, stable operation, and minimal over-crushing

- Limitations: Complex structure, challenging maintenance, taller machine height, and higher acquisition cost

Gyratory crushers operate continuously, employing inter-particle pressure crushing principles with the crushing process occurring continuously along the annular crushing chamber. The crushing head makes a gyratory motion driven by an eccentric shaft.

- Applications: Primarily used for primary crushing of materials with various hardness levels, unsuitable for sticky materials

- Key Advantages: Large reduction ratio, high capacity, can accept direct feed without separate feeding equipment, capable of full-load operation

- Limitations: Complex structure, massive size, significant height, substantial civil engineering investment, difficult to relocate, expensive

Roller crushers operate through two parallel counter-rotating rollers, relying on friction between materials and roller surfaces to draw materials into the gap. Smooth rollers primarily apply compression, while toothed rollers combine splitting and compression actions.

- Applications: Mainly used for secondary and tertiary crushing of medium-hardness materials like coal and limestone (compressive strength below 100MPa)

- Key Advantages: Simple and compact structure, low investment cost, easy adjustment, effective for processing sticky materials

- Limitations: Relatively lower production efficiency, ineffective for crushing high-hardness materials, less common in highway construction aggregate production

Impact sand makers operate continuously, primarily utilizing collisions between high-speed moving materials, friction, and impacts with equipment components for crushing. They employ two working modes: "rock-on-rock" and "rock-on-iron."

- Applications: "Rock-on-rock" mode suits medium-hard to hard abrasive materials; "rock-on-iron" suits medium-hard and below less abrasive materials

- Key Advantages: Low energy consumption, high output, large reduction ratio, compact size, simple operation and maintenance, cubic-shaped products with high bulk density

- Limitations: Complex maintenance with higher costs, maximum feed size typically not exceeding 60mm, primarily suitable for fine crushing and sand making

Hammer crushers utilize hammers attached to a high-speed rotating rotor to directly impact materials for continuous and efficient crushing.

- Applications: Suitable for medium to low hardness, non-abrasive materials (compressive strength below 100MPa) for secondary and tertiary crushing

- Key Advantages: Large reduction ratio, high productivity, higher proportion of fine products, strong processing capability

- Limitations: Hammers wear quickly requiring frequent replacement, significant dust generation during operation, poor performance with sticky materials exceeding 12% moisture content

Impact crushers utilize impact energy for material crushing, with product size and shape controlled by adjusting the gap between the impact rack and rotor.

- Applications: Primarily used for secondary and tertiary crushing of medium and below hardness materials, producing well-shaped crushed products

- Key Advantages: Compact size, simple structure, uniform product size, selective crushing characteristics, high capacity

- Limitations: Hammers and impact plates wear easily, especially when processing hard rocks, requiring regular replacement; unsuitable for plastic and sticky materials

Equipment Selection Recommendations

Based on the above analysis, we offer the following selection guidelines:

- Large-scale Mining Primary Crushing: Gyratory crushers are ideal for high-throughput operations; jaw crushers are suitable for small to medium-sized projects

- Secondary and Tertiary Crushing Requirements: Cone crushers are recommended for hard materials; impact crushers are suitable for medium-hardness materials

- Sand Making Requirements: Impact sand makers are the preferred choice when high-quality particle shape is required

- Special Material Processing: Roller crushers often perform better for sticky materials; hammer crushers can provide higher efficiency for non-abrasive materials

The Zexin Mining technical team can provide professional equipment selection and configuration solutions based on specific customer requirements. Please feel free to contact us for consultation.