"Green Manufacturing": Reduces energy consumption by 28%, incorporates green process innovations, and responds to the "carbon neutrality" policy.
New material forged steel balls enhance mining crushing efficiency by 40%
In July 2025, a new breakthrough was announced in the Weicheng Casting Industry Cluster in Shandong Province. Local enterprises in collaboration with universities developed high-carbon alloy forged steel balls, which passed industrial tests. Their wear resistance was improved by 60% compared to traditional cast steel balls, and the lifespan of a single ball exceeded 800 hours, thereby boosting the overall efficiency of the mining crushing system by 40%. This achievement recently won the "Innovative Award for Green Casting Equipment" at the 23rd China International Casting Exhibition.
The performance advantages have achieved triple breakthroughs.
Density leap: Using 1085 high-carbon steel material and undergoing isothermal forging at 850℃, the product density reaches 7.85 kg/m³, which is 12% higher than that of cast steel balls, solving the problems of sand holes and ring band defects in traditional cast balls.
Hardenability revolution: Innovating the "post-forging residual heat quenching" process, the impact toughness of the steel balls has exceeded 15 J/cm², achieving the safety characteristic of "deformation without cracking", and extending the service life of the steel balls by more than twice compared to cast balls.
Intelligent production: Introducing an industrial robot automated forging line, with a daily production capacity of 30 tons per line, energy consumption is reduced by 28% compared to the casting process, meeting the requirements of the Weicheng District's casting industry for "high-end, digital, and green" transformation.
According to the calculation by the China Foundry Association, if this forged steel ball completely replaces traditional products, it can enable national mining enterprises to reduce steel ball consumption by 120,000 tons annually and save over 600 million yuan in labor replacement costs. Currently, the first batch of 2,000 tons of orders have been dispatched to large mining groups such as Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, initiating a new stage of "replacing casting with forging" in China's wear-resistant parts field.
