Crushing & Screening Tip #16 - Difference between Crushing and Grinding

Crushing occurs through Impacting or Compressing the rock or concrete until a suitable size is achieved.

Impact Definition: "the striking of one thing against another, forceful contact; collision"

Grinding Definition: "To wear, smooth, or sharpen by abrasion or friction, to reduce to powder or small fragments by friction"

A 3rd apron in an impactor is sometimes referred to as a grinding path - you don't want to be grinding, you want to be impacting if you want to keep your wear costs down.

In a quarry application for road base or aggregate production, if you are grinding, your wear costs will be far higher and the end product sale price isn't high enough to justify the wear.

Grinding is often used for extremely fine product with limestone as an example used for toothpaste, paint, chicken feed, steel production, paper production, dyes, carpet and the end product sale price is quite high.

Adjust the aprons to achieve impacting and not grinding.