From the perspective of application categories, steel balls can be divided into two categories: wear-resistant steel balls used in the crushing industry and bearing steel balls used in the precision bearing industry. Wear-resistant steel balls (abbreviated as grinding balls) are the most widely used products in industrial practice today. There is a saying that "there is industry, there is crushing", which is very appropriate; Bearing steel balls have a long history of use in the precision bearing industry and the field of life, and are more widely used. It can be said that steel balls exist in most places where there is rotation, commonly known as steel balls or ball bearings. Steel ball is a general term for steel ball, steel segment, and special-shaped abrasive body. From the perspective of appearance, it can be divided into regular round balls (commonly referred to in a narrow sense), capsule balls, elliptical balls, yin and yang balls, hollow balls, polyhedral balls, and polyhedral balls (with pits on the surface).

Bearing steel ball

Bearing steel ball

The production methods of steel balls generally include forging, rolling, semi solid forming, and casting. Due to the special usage conditions, comprehensive environment, and background of the history and mineral processing industry, forging and rolling balls account for a significant proportion in these industries. Semi solid forming has the characteristics of unconventional casting, which cannot be explained by simple die casting. It has attracted people's attention due to its excellent performance formed by an advanced technology that combines the advantages of casting and forging. "Cast steel balls, with their simple, flexible, and reliable production methods, are easy to achieve the expansion advantage of low investment and large-scale production. Especially when experts and engineers use various advanced processes and alloy composition designs in the face of steelmaking furnaces, they exert their endless imagination to create more novel and advanced varieties one after another, to meet the sense of achievement brought by competitive needs, which is even more appreciated.". The high cost performance and sustainable development potential of ball casting make it a key force in the production of steel balls in today's crushing industry, especially in the cement crushing industry.