Wear Study of Bulk Cargo Vehicle Body Materials Used to Transport Dolomite

Steel and aluminum alloys are used to manufacture the bodies of bulk material handling machines. The aluminum body enables a higher load mass and thus reduces transport costs. However, the greater abrasion of aluminum alloys leads to more frequent repairs to the underside of the body, as the abrasion parameters of aluminum are lower. This study, which used three different methods to evaluate abrasive wear (erosive/impact wear, abrasive wear in the mass of the free abrasive and abrasion test according to ASTM G65), showed that the most significant influence on the wear of 3004 series aluminum is the grain size of the abrasive. Only under erosive/impact wear conditions with abrasive particles of 2.0–5.0 and 5.0–8.0 mm is aluminum competitive with Hardox 450 in terms of volumetric wear, with aluminum exhibiting 1.3–1.4 times the wear rate of steel. Tests on the abrasive mass of the grinding fraction in question have shown that the volumetric wear of aluminum is 0.2–2.3 times higher at very low contact loads. In contrast, aluminum wears 7.5 and 4 times more than steel in the ASTM G65 test (0.1–0.4 mm fraction) at low and medium contact loads. Only in exceptional cases is the aluminum floor of bulk material handling equipment competitive with hardened steel in terms of wear intensity.