Large dump trucks are used extensively in the Australian mining environment. The CAT 777 is a common mid-sized off highway dump truck and a characteristic off highway vehicle used in mining.
Wheel spindles are a high wear high cost component that can readily be remanufactured but not within Australia until now. With the downturn in mining there are a growing number of dump trucks ‘parked-up’ awaiting maintenance overhauls.
By using our laser cladding to reclaim these – and other high cost components – significant time and money can be saved on waiting for new or replacement parts.
The Problem
Fretting of the bearing surfaces, wear damage to the drive splines and contamination can all lead to drive spindle failures. When a truck is not in active service (‘down time’) this represents lost capacity within the fleet of trucks, and decreasing efficiencies.
The process of remanufacturing these complex, load bearing, safety critical components need to be carefully controlled. Quality is an extremely important consideration for this type of work.
Sometimes unsuitable repair processes like welding or thermal spraying are used which can compound the problem further.
Our Solution
LaserBond uses the same laser cladding process used by OEM’s like CAT to rebuild worn or damaged surfaces. The metallurgical bond allows applied layers to be used in high impact, heavily loaded situations with no risk of spalling or separation of the overlay.
The remanufacturing process involves premachining inspection, premachining to remove damaged surface, LaserBond cladding, final machining to OEM specifications.
The infinite controllability of the laser cladding energy allows minimisation of undesirable thermal decomposition of hard phases such as carbides, resulting in decomposition, dilution of substrate and distortion effects associated with other repair methods.
Being a highly loaded critical component the final remanufactuered wheel hub undergoes NATA certified quality assurance inspection before delivery.
Benefits Achieved
Faster component turn around means less service time for fleet equipment – overall increase in operating efficiency.
Machine availability improved with increased OEE and less maintenance.
Cost savings over OEM replacement parts.
Better outcome for environment – less waste, lower carbon footprint.
Customer Feedback
The customer commented: “Now we don’t have to pay and wait for new parts or overseas REMAN. LaserBond offers a better than new replacement part at a fraction of the cost.”
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