Melco Precisions Melco PrecisionsPvt Ltd | Wear Parts & Industrial Castings

Shredder Hammers

Shredder hammers in manganese steel.

For end-of-life vehicle and mixed scrap shredding — the highest-impact duty in the recycling plant, and the one where manganese has no real competition.

Manganese steel shredder hammers of several sizes in the Melco Precisions foundry

Why manganese owns this duty

A shredder hammer takes an uncrushable object on almost every rotation. End-of-life vehicles arrive with engine blocks, axles and drive shafts still in them, and a hammer has no way to be selective about what it hits.

That rules out the hard, brittle grades immediately. Hi-Chrome white iron reaches 56 to 61 HRC but has very low impact strength — it would shatter, probably on the first engine block.

Manganese steel answers the problem differently. It is cast relatively soft, at around 200/230 Brinell (20/21 HRC). In service the working face work-hardens up to roughly 500 Brinell (50 HRC), to a depth of approximately 10 mm, while the deeper layers stay unhardened and keep the hammer tough.

The whole trick: a hard working face on a tough body, renewed continuously as the hammer wears. Nothing else offers both.

The depth and hardness reached depend on the application and the type of manganese steel. We supply standard and premium grades, matched to your feed and shredder design.

How manganese work-hardening actually works →

From our foundry

Hammers we cast.

Cast, heat treated, machined and finished in our own foundries — then painted, palletised and strapped for sea freight.

Finished & Palletised - Melco PrecisionsFinished & PalletisedPainted, strapped and ready for export
Shredder Hammers - Melco PrecisionsShredder HammersManganese steel, standard and premium
Production Batch - Melco PrecisionsProduction BatchCast to your pattern or worn sample
Hammer Detail - Melco PrecisionsHammer DetailHard working face, tough core
Loaded for Despatch - Melco PrecisionsLoaded for DespatchCast, finished and shipped
Manganese Hammers - Melco PrecisionsManganese HammersFor ELV and mixed scrap

Complete the package

Hammers are not the only part that wears.

We supply the full wear package for a shredding line: shredder grates and grids matched to your fragmentiser and required product sizing, rotor end caps in alloy steels, plus anvils and breaker bars engineered for continuous high-energy impact.

End-of-life shredding is done for economic as well as environmental reasons — scrap metals can be recycled and used again for an indefinite period, meaning we protect and preserve some of nature's most limited resources.

ELV & auto shredder industry →
Shredder rotor end caps and anvils in alloy steel
Shredder Grates - Melco PrecisionsShredder GratesMatched to your fragmentiser
Grates & Grids - Melco PrecisionsGrates & GridsTo your required product sizing
Rotor Caps & Anvils - Melco PrecisionsRotor Caps & AnvilsRotor end caps in alloy steels
Wear Parts Stock - Melco PrecisionsWear Parts StockHeld for fast despatch

Common questions

Shredder hammers — questions we get.

What alloy are your shredder hammers? Manganese steel, in standard and premium grades. It is cast at around 200/230 Brinell and work-hardens to approximately 500 Brinell in service to a depth of roughly 10 mm, while the unhardened core underneath keeps the hammer tough enough to survive engine blocks and axles.
Why not a harder alloy for shredder hammers? Because hardness is not what survives an auto shredder. High chrome iron reaches 56 to 61 HRC but has very low impact strength, and would fracture on the first uncrushable object. Manganese gives a hard working face on a tough body instead.
Can you make hammers to our drawing or worn sample? Yes. Send a drawing, a pattern or a worn hammer and we will cast to it, in-house from R&D and design right up to final finishing.
What else do you supply for a shredding line? Shredder grates and grids, rotor end caps in alloy steels, plus anvils and breaker bars — the complete wear package alongside the hammers.
What sizes and weights do you cast? Our product weight range is 5 kg to 3,000 kg per piece in our own foundries, with a capacity of about 3,000 tons per year from our two integrated manufacturing facilities.
Are you ISO certified? Yes. Melco Precisions works to an ISO 9001 quality management system, certified by International Certifications Limited.

Send a drawing, a pattern, or a worn hammer.

We cast from 5 kg to 3,000 kg per piece, in our own foundries.

Get a quote →