CONE CRUSHERS
How Does a Cone Crusher Work?
Cone crushers are straightforward pieces of equipment, which makes it easy to understand.
It all starts with the material you need to crush, which is known as the feed. The feed drops into the crushing chamber, which is a large circular opening at the top of a cone crusher. Inside the crusher, a moving part which is known as the mantle gyrates inside the machine.
The mantle moves eccentrically, which means that it doesn’t travel in a perfect circle. The mantle can swing slightly while it rotates, which continuously alters the gap between the mantle and the concave.
The concave is a fixed ring that’s outside of the mantle. As the mantle swings, it crushes the material against the concave. Stones are crushed against each other, which breaks it down further. This concept is known as interparticle crushing.
The Sides of the Crusher
A cone crusher has two sides: an open side and a closed side. As the material crushes, the particles that are small enough to fit through the open side fall through the space between the mantle and the concave.
As the mantle gyrates, it creates a narrow point and a wide point. The distance on the wide side is known as the OSS or open side setting, while the narrowest point is called the CSS, or closed side setting.
Depending on how the OSS is set, it will determine the size of the particles as they exit the crusher. Meanwhile, since the CSS represents the shortest distance between the concave and the mantle, this is the final crushing zone. How the user configures the CSS is critical for determining capacity, energy consumption and final product size.
The Symons Principle
Many cone crusher manufacturers use the Symons Principle to produce more powerful and efficient crushers.
Based on this principle, each rotation of the mantle is timed in a way so that the thrust of the mantle meets the feed material at the point of maximum impact.
By ensuring that the crusher meets the material at the moment of highest impact, the closing head catches falling material and crushes it while the other side of the chamber can allow material to freely exit the chamber, or fall to the next point of impact.
This premise allows manufacturers to produce cone crushers that enable the user to increase production while also reducing the amount of energy the crusher requires to run.
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