When it comes to running an excavator, there is one maintenance cost that accounts for half of your total lifetime cost. It is up there with fuel and the money you pay to your operators. It is your undercarriage maintenance cost.
The golden rule of undercarriage maintenance is the following: if you don’t manage these costs, these costs will manage you! Your goal is simple, to minimize the wear on your undercarriage. In order to do this, you need to understand wear. Wear is made up of three components: Load, Contact, and Motion. If you are able to lower any of these components, you are able to reduce the wear on your undercarriage. Here are some tips on how you can reduce the wear on your undercarriage. Tip 1: Proper Track Tension
When it comes to track tension, you need to apply the Goldilocks principle – your tracks must not be too tight and they must not be too loose. If your tracks are too tight, it will cause excessive wear on the pins, bushings, rollers, sprockets, and idler. Track tension is that is too low will result in an uncomfortable ride for the operator and may also cause track slap which in turn could damage those same key components. Either way, you are placing unnecessary strain on key undercarriage components.
Tip 2: Keep Your Undercarriage Clean Cleaning the undercarriage of an excavator is not fun. You will recall that wear is caused by load, contact, and motion. Debris in your undercarriage means that there is constant load, contact, and motion which means that there is increased wear. In order to avoid build-up of debris, you need to train your operator to clean the tracks two or three times a day. It needs to become part of their daily operational regime. Tip 3: Limit the Amount of Reverse Travel One of the many benefits of an excavator is that it can travel forward and backward with equal ease. Operators, therefore, jump to the erroneous conclusion that the positioning of the idlers in daily operations is immaterial. The machine was designed to move forward which means it was designed for work to take place over the idlers and not over the final drives. By traveling in reverse, you are increasing the amount of motion between the bushing and the sprockets which in turn can increase your wear by as much as 20%.
Tip 4: Control Your Turns
It is common for operators to frequently turn the machine in the same direction. This could either be due to personal preference or due to the work environment. This can create a situation where one side of the undercarriage will wear faster than the other creating unbalanced wear patterns. Operators also sometimes are in the habit of locking one side of the tracks in order to execute a fast turn. This will create a shock load on the track which in turn will result in unnecessary wear. These high-speed turns should be avoided at all costs. Tip 5: Do Not Dig over the Sprockets When excavators dig, they lift themselves off the ground and then drop themselves back. This can be done hundreds of times a day and places immense strain on the undercarriage. The idlers are specifically designed to take this strain. The sprockets, on the other hand, are not.
#heavyequipment #construction #excavator #heavymachinery #constructionequipment #heavyequipmentlife #caterpillar #earthmoving #mining #excavation #komatsu #equipment #heavyequipmentnation #cat #digger #excavators #demolition #heavyequipmentoperator #machinery #constructionlife #engineering #truck #concrete #bulldozer #earthmovers #constructionmachinery #civilengineering
Commentaires