The common failure points on fixed plant and mobile machinery

Machines in the earthmoving, mining, construction and related industries operate in the toughest of conditions and face intense friction and high impact.

Wear plates and industrial liners are a critical line of defence in protecting these machines and their components against expensive damage and from failing before scheduled maintenance, with fixed plant and mobile machines both having failure points.

Fixed Plant – Transition Impact

In fixed plant machinery, the high wear areas exposed to the most impact are those where materials are transitioned from one point to the next on-site. For example, moving debris from truck to crusher, crusher to conveyor, or conveyor to bin.

The rolling erosion of transitioning materials wears down the liners of chutes, feeder bins and other fixed plant machinery and is more severe at the point of impact – the transition point. It is these areas of transition that will benefit most from tailored wear plate solutions.

Mobile Machinery – Engaging Impact

Mobile machines are often “ground engaging” and it is the “engaging zone” of these machines that require wear plate liners to protect them from damage.

The high wear areas of an excavator bucket are predominantly at the digging face, closest to where the bucket first engages with the ground and faces more resistance and abrasion.

Wear will be greatest at this engaging zone and gradually fade further back. In excavator buckets wear plates are typically applied internally on the floor and side walls of the bucket, and externally on the cheeks of the bucket.

However, rather than having uniform wear plates throughout the bucket, installing stronger wear plates in the “engaging zone” will help create uniform wear, so all wear plates can be changed out together during scheduled maintenance. This avoids replacing healthy wear plates further from the engaging zone, that may be largely unaffected by erosion and wear.

The importance of the right plate in the right place

There are many different types of wear plate and many different factors that contribute to wear on-site and it can be complicated to identify which plates to replace and when.

Many sites regularly use incorrect wear plates. For example, some sites assume heavier, bulky wear parts are protecting their assets when the opposite is true. If your excavator buckets are protected using bulky wear plate liners, you will face increased resistance and friction when digging. This results in reduced productivity and increasing maintenance costs.

Ensuring that you have the right plate in the right place is vital to make it through to your scheduled maintenance with minimal downtime or wastage.

Cutting Edges offers a Complimentary Site Audit and Fleet Review that helps identify potential problem areas on existing machinery and provides the correct wear plate solution for your business.