Case StudyNovember 24th, 2022
EX3600 Crawler Shoes and Drive Tumblers
Bradken Crawler Shoes and Drive Tumblers were trialled alongside OEM undercarriages to quantify and validate any benefits that Bradken crawler shoes might provide to the customer in their hard rock application.
Location
Pilbara Region, Western Australia
Platform
EX3600 Hydraulic Excavator
Solution
Bradken Crawler Shoes and Drive Tumblers
Situation
A customer located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia was
operating seven Hitachi excavators, consisting of EX2500’s and
EX3600’s. The OEM shoes on these machines were achieving
between 13,500 and 19,700 hours, however the customer was
seeking increased wear life in their tough application.
Solution
Bradken Crawler Shoes and Drive Tumblers were trialled alongside
OEM undercarriages to quantify and validate any benefits that
Bradken crawler shoes might provide to the customer in their hard
rock application.
In these conditions, increased wear life can be achieved as a result
of Bradken’s patented ‘Pillar of Strength’, which provides greater
structural integrity to prevent crushing of the roller path as the
crawler shoes wear, and through the use of Bradken’s proprietary
through hardened alloy, which provides greater depth of wear
material compared with case hardened crawler shoes.
Results
With the Bradken Crawler Shoes and Drive Tumblers installed,
the EX3600 machine achieved 25,876 hours. The previous OEM
shoes on this same machine had achieved 13,624 hours in similar
conditions. Other EX3600 excavators at the mine have also been
replaced at notably lower hours than the Bradken undercarriage
components.
The customer determined the cost per hour for the Bradken and
OEM components. Bradken products achieved $15.27 cost per hour,
compared to the OEM products at an average of $24.97 per hour.
Resulting in a 39% cost saving to the customer.