Patent ID: 7877948

Claim:
A method of manufacturing one or more wear plates comprising the steps of: providing a large plate of material with a Brinell hardness of at least 300 HB, the large plate having opposite planar first and second surfaces and being dimensioned to have a surface area equal to or larger than a surface area of the one or more wear plates being manufactured; providing a computer controlled plasma cutter; entering desired hole locations of holes required in the one or more wear plates in the computer controlled plasma cutter; operating the plasma cutter to cut holes in the large plate at the desired locations, each hole having a frusto-conical configuration with a small diameter end and a large diameter end, and each small diameter end opening onto the first planar surface of the large plate and each large diameter end opening onto the second planar surface of the large plate; and operating the plasma cutter to cut the large plate into the one or more wear plates, wherein each wear plate includes at least one of the holes or at least a part of one of the holes.