Need to Armour up your Buckets?
Get some ideas and inspiration from this 50T Rock Bucket that’s had a birthday! This Bucket has been working in one of the hardest, highest wearing coal mines in the world – on the West Coast, where the abrasive overburden rock eats steel for breakfast, lunch and tea!
Our team of expert engineers refurbished this Bucket with a new West-Trak wear package, inside and out. Protecting the high wear areas of your Bucket is very important to prevent structural wear and damage, causing breakage and downtime. We know what works best with Bucket armouring techniques & products to prevent common structural failures & cracking issues.
A few helpful things to note below:
- Protect the outside ends of your cutting edge using chocky blocks or wear plates. This stops the edge from wearing into the adapter, washing the welds away & causing adapter/side plate cracking or breakage.
- Protect your adapter welds from wearing away by using lip protectors between them and fitting a wear plate behind & beside them on the top & bottom sides to prevent weld washing. The main cause of adapter weld cracks is when the welds wear too thin.
- Protect your bucket sides, inside and outside & the underside with wear strips, wear plates & heel shrouds to prevent wearing holes through the sides or floor.
- BEFORE doing any welding on a Bucket – always preheat to 150-180 degrees. After welding allow it to cool slowly by covering the welded area with welding blankets. Post heat the welded area to 220-250 degrees & cover with a welding blanket to allow slow cooling again – this process stress relieves the welds & steel, minimizing the chance of cracking and makes a stronger weld. Grinding out the weld toes & polishing the end areas of where the welds start/stop will also help reduce the chance of weld cracking.
Let us spec your next Bucket Rebuild with our huge range of wear protection products in stock. Call 0800 654 323 to discuss your needs now!
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