High-stress abrasion of wear resistant steels in the cutting edges of loader buckets

To simulate the wear behavior of the cutting edge of the mining load-haul-dumper bucket, high-stress abrasion laboratory wear tests were conducted and compared to the in-service tests. The effects of test parameters and different abrasives on the wear rates and wear mechanisms of wear resistant steels were studied using the high-speed slurry-pot with a dry abrasive bed (dry-pot) and in the actual in-service use as a cutting edge. The laboratory wear tests produced results that are well comparable with the in-service case observations. Especially at the higher sample rotation speed with granite as an abrasive, the wear rates were quite similar as determined from the cutting edge of a loader bucket that had been used in a mine.