Correlation between a laboratory impact-abrasion test and an in-situ marked-ball test

In ball milling, materials consumption by wear represents a very high production cost, and must be minimized by the proper selection of materials, especially those for balls. A simple laboratory impact-abrasion test was compared with the abrasion caused by ball mill grinding to develop a method of evaluating ferrous alloys for grinding applications. A marked balls test has been used for direct assessment of wear. For different chromium white cast irons, a good correlation was found between the relative abrasion resistance determined in the laboratory tests and in actual field tests. The laboratory test method is described in the present paper, as well as the results obtained with these experimental grade of high chromium cast irons.