| Summary: | Mining and mineral processing is a challenging field of industry for many reasons, including technological, economical, as well as political aspects. The market prices are constantly changing, many of the mines are located in politically unstable areas, environmental issues are becoming more and more topical, and, of course, technological requirements for the machinery used in various applications are constantly increasing. There are many ways to answer the technological challenges, and materials science is evidently one of the key areas where technological development can and must be expected. As wear of materials is a technological problem that causes huge expenses to the mining and mineral processing industry, it is only natural that this area is being under intense scientific and technological research, a part of which also this doctoral thesis is. The correct material selection for a certain wear environment will provide not only longer service intervals but also higher productivity, reduced use of energy and lower operating costs, as well as better environmental balance and lower climate impact. Despite the many changes that have taken place in mineral handling over the years, still today the significantly highest fraction of mine products constitutes mineral fuels, ferro-alloys, and other industrial minerals. All these product lines are very different from each other, and therefore the material selection suitable for one type of production may not be applicable to the other ones. Also the location of the production plays a huge role, for example whether it is in subtropic or in arctic regions of the globe. In this work, high stress abrasive wear of several different types of materials was studied using four different natural abrasives, i.e., rocks, and several different test methods. The main aim was to identify such characteristics of the abrasives that affect the most the wear behavior of the studied materials. In the best case, with that kind of knowledge prediction of the material’s performance at ...
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