Factors to Consider in the Design and Layout of Crushing Equipment

The design and layout of crushing equipment are crucial aspects of industrial applications such as sand and gravel aggregate production lines and mining, directly impacting production efficiency, operating costs, and product quality. The following analysis focuses on four dimensions: design principles, layout considerations, equipment selection and matching, and optimization directions:

1、 Core Principles of Crushing Equipment Design

Material Characteristics Compatibility

Hardness and Particle Size: Select equipment type (e.g., jaw crusher, cone crusher, impact crusher) based on the material’s compressive strength (e.g., limestone ≤350MPa, granite ≤500MPa).

Moisture and Viscosity: High-moisture materials require anti-stick liners or vibrating feeders to prevent clogging; viscous materials require optimized crushing chamber structure to reduce residue.

Mud Content: Materials with high mud content require additional screening (e.g., pre-screening) to prevent mud from entering the crushing chamber and affecting efficiency.

Process Flow Rationality

Graded Crushing: Employing multi-stage crushing (“coarse crushing + medium crushing + fine crushing”) reduces the load on individual equipment and improves particle shape quality.

Closed-loop circulation: Configuring screening equipment (such as vibrating screens) to form a closed-loop system, returning oversized materials for further crushing, improving the yield.

Modular design: Reserved expansion interfaces for easy upgrades or capacity adjustments later.

Energy consumption and efficiency balance:

Motor power matching: Selecting motor power based on material hardness (higher power is required for hard rock crushing).

Speed ​​optimization: Balancing crushing force and energy consumption by adjusting rotor speed (e.g., impact crusher) or eccentric shaft speed (e.g., cone crusher).

Hydraulic system design: Employing hydraulic opening and hydraulic gap adjustment technologies to reduce downtime and improve operating efficiency.

Wear resistance and maintainability:

Wear-resistant material selection: High-chromium alloys and ceramic composite materials extend the life of wear parts (hammers, liners).

Quick replacement structure: Designing keyless connections and hydraulic locking devices shortens maintenance time (e.g., HSI series impact crusher hammer replacement time is reduced by 40%).

Lubrication system: Centralized or automatic lubrication devices reduce manual intervention and lower failure rates.

2、 Key Considerations for Crushing Equipment Layout
Space Utilization and Logistics Optimization
Height Difference Design: Utilize terrain elevation differences to arrange equipment (e.g., primary crushing station at a higher location, secondary crushing station at a lower location) to reduce conveyor belt length and energy consumption.

Equipment Spacing: Ensure sufficient maintenance space (e.g., a maintenance passage of 1.5 times the equipment diameter is required for cone crushers) to avoid operational interference.

Material Flow Direction: Follow the principle of “short flow, fewer turns” to reduce material handling frequency (e.g., using a straight or U-shaped layout).

Environmental and Safety Requirements
Dust Control: Install dust collection devices (e.g., pulse bag filters) at the crusher inlet and outlet to reduce dust emissions.

Noise Isolation: Use soundproof enclosures or enclosed plant buildings to control noise levels below 85dB.

Safety Protection: Install emergency stop buttons, guardrails, and warning signs to prevent personnel from accidentally entering hazardous areas.

Modularization and Flexibility
Mobile Crushing Stations: For temporary or decentralized operation scenarios, use wheeled or tracked mobile crushers for rapid deployment.

Demountable Structure: Standardized interfaces facilitate equipment disassembly and transportation (e.g., modular jaw crusher main unit).

3、Equipment Selection and Process Matching
Coarse Crushing Equipment Selection
Jaw Crusher: Suitable for primary crushing of large-sized materials (e.g., ≤1200mm), high processing capacity but poor particle shape.

Gyratory Crusher: Even higher processing capacity (e.g., single unit up to 8000t/h), suitable for coarse crushing in large mines.

Medium and Fine Crushing Equipment Selection

Cone Crusher: Suitable for medium crushing of hard rock (e.g., granite), with less needle-like and flaky particles in the output, but higher cost.

Impact Crusher: Suitable for fine crushing of medium-hard materials (e.g., limestone), with a high proportion of cubic particles in the output, but weaker wear resistance.

Impact Crusher (Sand Making Machine): Used for fine crushing and shaping, producing high-quality manufactured sand (rounded particle shape, reasonable gradation).

Auxiliary Equipment Configuration
Feeder: Provides uniform feeding and prevents crusher overload (e.g., vibrating feeder with pre-screening function).

Conveyor Belt: Select belt width (e.g., 500-1400mm) and inclination angle (generally ≤18°) according to production capacity.

Screening Equipment: Vibrating screens perform layered screening to ensure the finished product particle size meets standards (e.g., construction sand must meet GB/T 14684-2011).

4、Optimization Directions and Case Studies
Intelligent Upgrade
Remote Monitoring: Real-time monitoring of equipment parameters such as temperature, vibration, and current via sensors to provide early warnings of malfunctions.

Automatic Adjustment: Automatically adjust crusher parameters based on material hardness (e.g., cone crusher discharge opening size).

Case Study: After introducing an intelligent control system, a mine saw a 15% increase in overall equipment efficiency (OEE) and a 10% reduction in energy consumption.

Green Transformation
Energy-Saving Motors: Adopting IE3/IE4 high-efficiency motors to reduce energy consumption (e.g., a production line saving 500,000 kWh annually).

Wastewater Recycling: Configuring sedimentation tanks and filter presses to achieve zero discharge of sand washing wastewater.

Case Study: A sand and gravel plant reduced dust emission concentration to below 10 mg/m³ through a closed plant and dust removal system. Flexible production and multi-product switching: By quickly changing lining plates or adjusting parameters, different specifications of products can be produced on the same production line.

Case study: A concrete company uses modular design to flexibly adjust the production line capacity between 500-1000 t/h.