Category Archives: Undercarriage

Prevent and Minimize Heavy Equipment Undercarriage Wear

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We all know that any minute issue in heavy equipment if not taken care at the right time may give birth to serious problems in the nearby future and which is why it is very critical to keep your machine well maintained. By saying your machine, it is just not limited to the equipment but also the undercarriage that forms an important part of the machine. The equipment is not operated in the right manner may give exert more unwanted pressure to the tracks and thus it may lead to issues down there and that may even result in the machine going idle for days till the time the undercarriage doesn’t gets fixed.

The major reason that can lead to an early deterioration of the undercarriage is having a tight track. A tight track can give rise to many problems in the undercarriage and therefore it is recommended to check the tracks well during the time it’s installed on the machine. Too tight tracks can lead to eating away of sprockets, bushings, carried rollers etc. thus decreasing the overall life of the tracks and will also shoot up the operating cost of the machine. The procedure to adjust tracks differs from machine to machine. It basically depends on the kind of sprockets being used in the machine (if it has an elevated sprocket or a conventional one). Though, it is advisable that one should always adjust the tracks in a job site rather than doing it in a shop.

Lower down the speed of the equipment when it is not productive. You definitely would not want it to wear for non-operational reasons. It has been seen in many construction sites that the operator is always in a hurry and runs the machine at high speed when it is not productive. Well, there is simply no reason to put it in a high speed when you don’t want it to perform. That is one of the reasons why the undercarriage wears in less time than compared to equipment that are not always in a state of hurry. How is speed related to deteriorating the quality of the machine? It directly affects the bushings, sprockets, idlers and all the other important component of the undercarriage. It affects the most to the bushings and sprockets when you reverse the machine at a high speed. Hence, when it’s not at work or when it is needed, it should be driven at a high speed.

Turning the machine constantly in a particular direction wears the undercarriage in that part. It particularly affects the rail slides, idle flanges and rollers. In case, where you just can’t avoid turning the machine in one particular direction, you should better examine the tracks at the end of the day and check if you can continue with it the following day. If so ever, you see that it needs some adjustments to be done, get that done before you further wear it down.

In case of slipping tracks, you should ensure that you reduce the load because if not done, then it may affect the grousers.

How Do We Identify Good Undercarriages for Our Heavy Equipment

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The heavy equipment used in construction companies work a great deal to make things look simpler and also get the task done swiftly which may not happen if it was supposed to be done manually. Surely, the construction and the mining industry would be highly grateful to companies producing these heavy equipments. However, it’s just not the heavy equipment that play a pivotal role in shaping up the industry but also the undercarriages like idlers, track chains, sprockets and so on that do their best to keep the heavy equipment running. These undercarriages are more prone to lose their shine and are more often replaced by a new one. It is because the undercarriages takes most of the load of heavy equipments and also plays an important role in manoeuvring the machine in any direction as per the discretion and need of the operator. Due to this wear and tear, it become fragile and needs to be substituted with a new piece.
Quite fortunately, these undercarriages are easily available with dealers and if at all you see a problem with any of the undercarriage, you know from where you can get it swapped. Alternatively, there are also few companies who exclusively produce undercarriage parts and try to have collaboration with major heavy equipment manufacturing companies and also with their dealers. In this way, they supply the undercarriage parts to the heavy equipments manufacturing companies who use them in the final product. Like ways, they also supply them to the dealers so that when the existing one ceases to work, it can be easily replaced.
Most undercarriage parts are model specific, which means that a set of undercarriage parts can be installed exclusively on few models. In other words, the parts should be compatible to the machine in order to go with it.
There are ideally 3 ways to know if the undercarriage part is indeed good for your machine.
Get an expert:- Big construction houses hire a team of experts who tend to understand each and every part of the machine. Having worked on different machines makes them efficient in every aspect in dealing with any problem related to the machine. Thus, they should be the first preference of a construction company when it comes to picking up an undercarriage part. Dealers also know these experts quite well and hence they never try to play tricks with them. Alternatively, you also save a good deal of money as these experts are well aware of the cost of an undercarriage part.
Browse the net:- If you’re a person who likes to do things on your own, then you should consider taking some help from the internet. It unarguably carries all the information for you. However, it’s just that they may not be in a proper manner and you have to take the extra effort to do a thorough search. Also, some parts are even sold online which allows you to make instant purchase at reasonably affordable price. Thus surfing the net can be quite helpful to you if only you are willing to give the desired time.
Calling or visiting the dealer:- You can try this as your last option. Calling the company will make sense if you’ve the machine under warranty period. Even if it crosses the period, you can still get some leads from them and can then make your way on your own. Approaching a dealer would be a good option only if you known the dealer in person. By that, the dealer is more likely to give you quality stuff at a lesser price.