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What kind of a breaking machine (hammer/press or something else) can be used to break a solid slab of low carbon ferro chrome?


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I am a manufacturer of low carbon ferro chrome - an alloy of iron and chromium with bulk density of 7.15 gm/cubic cm. In my current process, the finished product is generated in the form of a solid button shape slab (or a flat cylinder shape slab) with diameter of about 3 feet and thickness of about 80 to 100 mm. This product is extremely hard (as can be seen from the bulk density) and is very difficult to break. My requirement is to break down the material into smaller lumps of sizes 10 to 50 mm.

Today the breaking is done by manual labors who continuously hit the slab with 10 kg hammers to break down the material. This process is extremely time consuming as the material is very hard and does not even break after 20 hits at times and is also inefficient as it generates a lot of waste with sizes below 10 mm which get rejected. I am looking for some kind of an automatic hammer machine that can hit and break this entire button so that the process is automated and the efficiency is increased. While searching online i came across multiple machines such as the pneumatic power hammer or power hammer press but i am not sure what kind if machine will be suitable for my requirement. 

Could anyone suggest if they know of any machine that would be suitable for my requirement? Any help is highly appreciated.

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You have laborers swinging 22 LB hammers that can fracture 4" thick metal alloy into rubble at around 1/2 mesh?  Wouldn't want to run into them in a dark alley, that is for sure.

Bulk density is not a measure of hardness, as far as I am aware, nor should hardness be your concern for being able to fracture the material.  Brittleness is most likely the key parameter.  Also note that the density of your mixture is less than that of pure iron and just below that of pure chromium.

Automating the process somehow seems prudent.  It is hard to tell what might work as I have no experience with your material or what level of contamination in the final product can be tolerated.  I suspect that some method of generating multiple fracture points during the initial manufacture would be a good avenue to investigate.  Perhaps introduction of a sacrificial containment in the mix that wouldn't combine with the stock and could later be removed after the puck was broken down.  Or, could you score the material to create fracture initiation points before you attempt to break it down (perhaps in a grid pattern)?  How about casting it into a mold that already includes multiple v-notches for fracture points?  Perhaps you could just cast it in smaller quantities (molten droplets falling from a height into a vat of water for example).

My concern for using a machine to create brittle fracture would be the added energy imparted to the pieces breaking off.  I can see jagged pieces of your product flying off in all directions at high velocity from the impact of a powered hammer...

This really isn't a blacksmith related question.  You may be more successful on another forum.

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I'd look into the systems used to break up various ores for further processing in the mining and refining industries.  As Latticino mentions if you are constrained by limits on usable/salable output, pre processing may be a good way to go.  There are numerous casting methods that can result in easier to work pieces or even pieces that are ready to package and sell.  I knew a fellow working on  casting of alloys that involved a cooled serrated disk spun to high speeds to be dipped in a  melt and kick off a stream of pieces of uniform size and shape.   That was 20+ years ago and so the information should be out there.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Where are you located Sumit? What you describe isn't a profession you'd find around here. Your location can make a lot of difference in solutions available to you.

I'm thinking a continuous caster feeding long rods to be sheared or broken as desired.  The real trick would be feeding the melter at a rate the product could cool enough to haul off fast enough. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Ahh, fits with the way his company works, probably short of 2nd. world industry and probably lurking hoping for an answer he can use.

Gosh now I feel all violated our industrial stuff breaking secrets have been stolen! :o 

Frosty The Lucky.

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