Cast grinding ball is a kind of wear-resistant product with a large amount of applications in nonferrous metal and metallurgical mines, cement building materials, power generation and other industries. At present, the main cast balls used in the mills in China are: high and low chromium cast iron grinding balls, nodular cast iron grinding balls and other alloy casting balls.
Due to historical reasons, at present, the ball mill balls used in metallurgical mining, cement and thermal power industries in China, especially in the cement and power industries, are mainly wear-resistant cast iron balls, accounting for more than 90% of the total demand. With the development of ball mill and ball diameter towards large-scale, the demand for ball is diversified. The comparison of various grinding balls currently used in China is shown in the table.
| Grinding ball material | High chrome white mouth | Low chrome white mouth | CADI ductile iron | Si-Mn ductile iron |
| Main components (mass fraction) | Cr：10%~13% | Cr：1%~3% | Cr：1.0%~2.0% Mn：1.0%~3.0% Mo：0.5%~1% Cu：0.8%~1.0% | Si：2.0%~3.5% Mn：1.0%~3.0% |
| Current heat treatment process | Quenching and tempering of quenching oil | High and low temperature tempering | Salt bath isothermal treatment | Water based medium quenching and tempering |
| Surface hardness | HRC ≥56 | HRC ≥45 | HRC ≥56 | HRC ≥50 |
| Impact toughness | ≥3 J/cm^2 | ≥2 J/cm^2 | ≥10 J/cm^2 | ≥10 J/cm^2 |
| Cost comparison | High | Low | High | Lower |
| Input of environmental protection equipment | High | Commonly | High | Low |