Iranian Journal of Manufacturing Engineering

Iranian Journal of Manufacturing Engineering

Experimental analysis of the mechanical properties of cast iron crusher hammers reinforced with chromium oxide particles

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Farzad Rahmani 1
Seyed Jalal Hashemi 2
Saman Marzban 1
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kar Higher Education Institute, Qazvin, Iran
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical and Vocational University (TVU), Tehran, Iran
10.22034/ijme.2026.538407.2147
Abstract
One of the main challenges of crusher machines in industry is the severe wear of their hammers, which leads to high maintenance costs and production downtime. The hammers of these machines are usually made of cast iron and produced by casting methods. To improve the strength and wear resistance properties of these hammers, chromium oxide (Cr₂O₃) reinforcing particles with different weight percentages were added to the base material, and the samples were produced using sand casting. Hardness, wear, and compression tests were performed on the produced samples. The results showed that the lowest hardness value (43.7 HRC) was obtained for the sample without chromium oxide powder, while the highest hardness value (47.03 HRC) corresponded to the sample containing 12 wt.% chromium oxide. Furthermore, the lowest weight loss in the wear test was observed for the sample containing 12 wt.% chromium oxide (0.019 g), followed by the sample with 9 wt.% chromium oxide (0.024 g). The minimum compressive fracture strength (238.42 MPa) was obtained for the sample without any additive. Additionally, SEM imaging was conducted on the samples to further investigate the results.
Keywords
Cast Iron
Chromium Oxide
Compressive Strength
Fracture
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