Aug. 04, 2025
A crusher, also known as a stone crusher, is a machine that uses mechanical action to break large rocks, ores, or other raw materials into gravel or rock powder.
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Crushers are widely used in ore crushing, aggregate production, construction waste recycling, and natural stone processing.
Different crushers have various crushing methods, and different stages of crushing require different types of crushers.
Crushers reduce the size of materials by applying mechanical force. In the mining and construction industries, the most commonly used crushing methods are compression crushing and impact crushing.
Understanding material characteristics and defining production needs can help you choose the right crushing method, saving costs throughout the production process.
Crushing is a multi-stage process that includes primary crushing, secondary crushing, and tertiary crushing. Different types of crushing equipment are used at each stage to meet various crushing requirements.
Primary crushing breaks down large raw materials into medium-sized pieces for easier handling in subsequent processes. Next, secondary crushing reduces the material to smaller sizes. Finally, if needed, tertiary crushing further reduces the material to fine particles.
Here is an introduction to the different types of crushers used at each stage and their characteristics.
Primary crushing is the first stage of the stone crushing process. At this stage, raw materials extracted through blasting or mining are crushed to a size suitable for conveyor transport and downstream processing.
The three main types of primary crushers are jaw crushers, gyratory crushers, and hammer crushers.
Jaw crushers use the compressive and bending action of a fixed jaw plate and a movable jaw plate to crush materials of various hardnesses.
When the two jaw plates come together, the material is crushed; when the plates move apart, material smaller than the discharge opening is released from the bottom. The crushing action is intermittent.
Jaw crushers have a wide range of output capacities, making them suitable for large, medium, and small crushing production lines. They are currently one of the best-selling crushers on the market.
The maximum feed size for a jaw crusher can reach 1,200 mm. They perform better than gyratory crushers on high-humidity, high-viscosity materials like clay, but often produce output with poorer particle shapes, such as flat, sharp, or triangular particles.
Gyratory crushers use the oscillating motion of the crushing cone to compress and crush hard ores and large materials, making them particularly suitable for high-hardness and abrasive materials.
They produce smaller particle sizes and can generate fine needle-like particles, but can only handle dry to slightly wet materials. Sticky materials may cause machine blockages.
With a maximum capacity of up to 8,898 t/h, gyratory crushers are highly effective in medium to large mining operations and construction material production lines, though they are relatively expensive.
Hammer crushers utilize high-speed rotating hammers to impact and crush materials. The crushed materials are then propelled at high speed towards the impact plate and grate bar, undergoing multiple impacts.
They can crush low to medium hardness materials such as limestone and coal, as well as materials with moisture content below 15%, suitable for both dry and wet crushing.
Hammer crushers have a reduction ratio of up to 50, a feed size of up to 1,000 mm, and a maximum output capacity of 3,000 t/h. They are energy-efficient, produce minimal over-crushing, and are designed for medium to large production lines.
After primary crushing, secondary crushing equipment further processes medium-sized materials into smaller particles for subsequent processing or final use.
Secondary crushers include cone crushers and impact crushers.
Cone crushers utilize lamination crushing, where material enters the crushing chamber from the top and is compressed and ground into smaller particles between the moving cone and the fixed cone until it is discharged from the bottom.
Cone crushers are commonly used for medium, fine, and ultra-fine crushing stages of high and medium hardness materials like granite and basalt but are not suitable for softer or wet, sticky ores and stones.
The equipment produces a high proportion of cubic-shaped particles, exceeding 85%, with a maximum feed size of 480 mm, but it cannot handle overly large materials.
While cone crushers are relatively expensive, they have low operational costs, making them suitable for long-term operation in large quarries and mining operations.
Impact crushers use a high-speed rotating rotor and blow bars to strike the material. Inside the crushing chamber, the material is repeatedly impacted by the blow bars and impact plates until it reaches the desired size and is discharged from the bottom.
Unlike cone crushers used for high-hardness rocks, impact crushers are typically used for medium or fine crushing of medium-hard and brittle materials such as limestone and dolomite. They are often paired with jaw crushers for secondary crushing in sand and gravel production lines.
Impact crushers produce excellent cubic-shaped final products with minimal stone powder, ideal for applications requiring high-quality particle shapes. They handle feed sizes up to 800 mm and output capacities from 30 to 2,000 t/h.
They are affordable, suitable for budget-conscious users. However, the blow bars and impact plates wear out quickly when crushing hard rocks. The machine struggles with wet or muddy materials, making blockages hard to clear.
After primary and secondary crushing, big stones are turned into finished stone particles. If finer sand and gravel are needed, tertiary crushing is required.
Tertiary crushers are used for fine crushing and sand making, typically employing vertical shaft impact crushers (VSI), roller crushers, fine crushers, or compound crushers.
The VSI, also known as a sand making machine, is used to produce high-quality manufactured sand, with output capacities up to 703 t/h.
It is suitable for materials of various hardnesses, especially hard and abrasive materials like granite and river pebbles. The produced sand has excellent particle shape with very low flakiness, making it ideal for construction and road building.
During operation, the high-speed rotating impeller scatters and crushes the material, which then collides and grinds together before discharge. There are two crushing methods: rock-on-rock and rock-on-iron.
Roll crushers crush materials through the compression action of two rotating rollers. They are commonly used as tertiary crushers, widely applied in cement, mining, building materials, and abrasive industries for fine crushing and sand making.
Designed for medium to low hardness and brittle materials, they are effective for crushing sticky or moist materials (up to 30% moisture) like coal, limestone, and clay. They are the preferred equipment for coal crushing.
With a reduction ratio of 4:1, roller crushers have a lower ratio compared to other crushers, making them unsuitable for hard and highly abrasive materials due to rapid roller wear and increased operational costs.
Fine crushers use high-speed hammers and impact plates to crush materials, which then fall onto the lower rotor and are thrown at high speed against the impact plates. This repeated process achieves ultra-fine results.
This machine is suitable for fine crushing and artificial sand making of medium-hard materials such as quartz, calcite, marble, iron ore, and granite, providing sand and gravel aggregates for roads, construction, and cement applications.
The compound crusher, a double-rotor primary impact crusher, is a new type of fine crushing and coarse grinding product launched by FTM Machinery.
Materials entering the high-speed rotating impeller are centrifugally thrown outward, colliding with other materials, then repeatedly colliding and grinding between the impeller and casing before finally discharging from the bottom.
This grateless equipment can crush and produce sand from hard and medium-hard, high-moisture, sticky materials. It is commonly used for fine crushing in small to medium-sized cement plants.
In sand making, it is renowned for its high sand production ratio (0–5 mm). In 800 and specifications, it shows exceptionally high sand production rates, making it indispensable in sand production lines.
To ensure the smooth progress and achieve expected production efficiency and product quality, choosing the right crusher is crucial.
Here are key factors to help you make the best choice:
Determine the hourly capacity needed. Choose gyratory or cone crushers for large-scale production lines, and jaw or impact crushers for medium to small-scale operations.
For a complete crushing production line, in order to produce sand and gravel aggregates of right size, the raw materials generally need to go through three to four crushing and shaping processes. In different crushing stages, different stone crusher is required. Using the different characteristics of the equipment, the raw materials can be crushed to the required particle size.
There are many types of common crushers on the market, such as jaw crushers, cone crushers, impact crushers, vertical shaft impact crushers, etc. So in different crushing stages, how should customers choose a suitable crusher?
Primary crushing, also known as coarse crushing, is mainly used for the initial crushing of large pieces of material, and the particle size of the crushed materials is generally large. In the primary crushing stage, the feed size is about 500 to mm, and the output size is generally 100 to 350 mm.
The commonly used crushers in the primary crushing stage are jaw crushers and gyratory crushers.
Jaw crusher
The jaw crusher is an earlier crushing equipment. Because of its simple structure, reliable operation, easy maintenance and low cost, jaw crushers have been widely used in metallurgy, chemical industry, building materials, electric power and other fields.
The jaw crusher mainly realizes the crushing of materials through the mutual extrusion of the jaw plates, and is the first choice for crushing hard materials such as granite.
Gyratory crusher
Gyratory crushers are also known as vertical compound crushers. Because of its high crushing efficiency, large feeding size, simple production process and low maintenance cost, the gyratory crusher has always been an ideal equipment for coarse crushing of relatively hard materials in large mines and other fields.
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Applicable materials and fields
The jaw crusher can handle ore with high moisture and high viscosity, and it is not easy to cause blockage. Generally, small quarries and mineral processing plants mostly use jaw crushers as primary crushing equipment.
Gyratory crusher can crush materials of various hardnesses, but it is not suitable for crushing ores with large viscosity. Generally large mineral processing plants mostly use gyratory crushers.
Production capacity
The gyratory crusher can crush continuously, and its outstanding advantages are high capacity, large crushing ratio, and stable operation.
The crushing of jaw crusher is intermittent, and the crushing efficiency is a bit lower than that of gyratory crusher.
Appearance and structure
The jaw crusher has the advantages of simple structure, low manufacturing cost, low machine height, and easy maintenance.
The structure of gyratory crusher is more complicated, the machine body is high and large, which requires high workshop height and large investment in infrastructure. The machine is heavy and inconvenient to carry.
Feeding and discharging size
The feeding size requirement of jaw crusher is more strict, and the large stone must be impact crushed after blasting to fit the feeding requirement of jaw crusher. And the material crushed out of jaw crusher is more needle-shaped.
The feeding size of gyratory crusher is larger, and the discharging size is smaller, and the crushed material is less needle-shaped.
Maintenance cycle
The purchase cost of the jaw crusher is relatively low, but it mainly adopts the working principle of impact extrusion crushing, and the jaw plate wears quickly and needs to be replaced frequently.
Although the purchase cost of the gyratory crusher is relatively high, it adopts the working principle of laminated crushing, the service life of the wear-resistant parts is longer, and the maintenance interval is longer.
Conclusion
Because of the high crushing capacity and large crushing ratio of gyratory crusher, generally large mineral processing plants will choose it as a primary crushing, except for crushing viscous materials.
Considering the feeding and discharging size and output, if the two types of crushers can meet the requirements, the customer can determine according to actual needs.
According to our experience, if one jaw crusher can meet the production requirements when selecting the type, choose a jaw crusher; if two jaw crushers are needed, a gyratory crusher can be considered.
The secondary and tertiary crushing is also called medium and fine crushing, which mainly crushes the materials after the primary crushing. If you require a larger output particle size, then secondary crushing can meet the requirements; if you require a smaller output particle size, then you need to perform tertiary crushing.
In the secondary crushing stage, the material is crushed from 350 to 100mm to 100 to 40mm.
In the tertiary crushing stage, the material is crushed from 100 to 40mm to 30 to 10mm.
The most commonly used crushers in medium and fine crushing are cone crushers and impact crushers. In recent years, due to the appearance of fine jaw crusher, its lower cost has also been welcomed by some customers.
Cone crusher
The cone crusher is mainly suitable for crushing various rocks and ores with medium and above medium hardness, such as granite and pebbles.
There are five common types of cone crushers, including spring cone crushers, Symons cone crushers, compound cone crushers, single-cylinder hydraulic cone crushers, and multi-cylinder hydraulic cone crushers. Customers can choose the appropriate cone crusher according to actual needs.
Impact crusher
Impact crusher is a device that uses impact energy to crush materials. It is mainly used to crush brittle materials of medium hardness and below. The material crushed by impact crusher is mostly cubic in shape.
At the same time, it also has the characteristics of high production efficiency, large crushing ratio, compact structure, good product shape and strong impact resistance.
Scope of application
Although both of them can be used for secondary and tertiary crushing, the hardness of the materials they are suitable for crushing is different.
Generally speaking, cone crusher is mainly used to crush materials with higher hardness, such as granite, basalt, tuff, river pebbles, etc., while impact crusher is used to crush materials with lower hardness, such as limestone, etc.
Discharging size
The discharging size of the cone crusher is finer, while the discharging size of the impact crusher will be slightly coarser.
In practical application, cone crushers are often used in mineral processing projects, while impact crushers are mostly used in building materials and construction projects.
Grain shape of the finished product
The finished product of the impact crusher has a better grain shape, less edges and corners, and most of them are cubes. However, the finished product of the cone crusher has more needles and flakes, and the grain shape is relatively poor.
Production capacity
Compared with impact crushers, cone crushers have the characteristics of low energy consumption, large output, and stable production, so cone crushers are often used in large-scale, high-output production lines.
The impact crusher has the characteristics of high crushing efficiency and convenient maintenance. It is often used in stone yards for high-grade highway construction, reinforced concrete regeneration of urban construction waste, etc., to crush materials with low toughness and brittleness.
Investment cost
The price of cone crusher is relatively higher than that of impact crusher. However, the wearing parts of the cone crusher are more wear-resistant and have a longer service life, which avoids frequent replacement of parts and reduces maintenance costs.
The initial purchase cost of the impact crusher is relatively low, but the maintenance cost is relatively high in the later period because of the need to frequently replace the wearing parts.
Conclusion
The cone crushers are more suitable for large-scale stone production lines and handle some harder materials.
The impact crushers are more suitable for small-scale stone production lines and handles some brittle materials.
If you have strict requirements on the grain shape of the finished product, you can choose an impact crusher, or add an impact crusher or sand making machine after the cone crusher.
If the size and grain shape of the produced material cannot meet your requirements, you can consider adding a sand making machine to crush and shape the material again. The equipment commonly used at this stage is a sand making machine.
Sand making machine can also be called vertical shaft impact crusher. It is widely used in sand making and shaping of limestone, river pebbles, granite, ore tailings and other materials. It can provide high-quality sand and gravel aggregates for highways, high-rise buildings, municipal engineering, stone factories, hydropower dam projects, concrete mixing plants, etc.
Generally speaking, the feeding size of sand making machine is less than 40mm and the discharging size is 0 to 10mm.
In recent years, because of the protection of river sand resources and the increase of demand for sand and gravel aggregate, more and more customers want to invest in a suitable sand making production line. So what are the advantages of sand making machine?
The finished sand has good grain shape. The grain shape of the sand produced by vertical shaft impact crusher is excellent, mostly cubic in shape, with low content of needle-shaped materials. Moreover, its fineness modulus can be adjusted at will.
Unique design, easy maintenance. The hydraulic cover opening device makes the internal inspection and maintenance of the crushing chamber convenient, saving time and effort.
Thin oil lubrication reduces labor intensity. The vertical shaft impact crusher is equipped with a thin oil lubrication station, which automatically stops when there is no oil flow and oil pressure, ensuring that the bearing lubrication is always in the best state and prolonging the service life of the equipment. It also reduces the labor intensity of workers.
Multiple feeding methods can be converted. It can realize the conversion between the two feeding methods of full center feeding and center feeding with cascading feeding. Moreover, it can also realize the conversion of “stone hitting stone” and “stone hitting iron”, one machine with multiple functions, adapting to the requirements of different users.
Less pollution. The unique air circulation system greatly reduces the amount of external air exhaust, reduces dust pollution and reduces pollution to the surrounding environment.
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