Quarrying or industrial-scale excavation is a punishing application for mechanical equipment. For KuluCrete, a supplier of bricks, blocks, roof tiles, kerbing, pavers, river sand and crushed stone in Southern KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, switching lubricants on the company’s excavator has resulted in cost savings.
KuluCrete’s Komatsu Excavator PC270 is a turbocharged, air-to-air after cooled hydraulic excavator used for the removal of raw materials and subsequent placement in crushers.
Previously, the company was using an EP2 lubricant, but having to replace the excavator’s pins every three months. Llewellyn Owen, National Sales Manager in South Africa at Lubrication Engineers (LE) SA, recommended KuluCrete test LE’s Almagard 3752 as an alternative lubrication.
KuluCrete’s workshop manager Clinton Stroebel had a new set of pins installed with the Almagard applied, and the unit was returned to the quarry. With the Almagard 3752, the pin set remained scar free for over
1 000 work hours and was only replaced after 1 834 run hours when slight scarring appeared.
According to Clinton, when using the previous lubricant, the pins sometimes wore so severely that they were a third of their original machined size after three months of use.
Lubrication Engineers
Callum Ford
Tel: (011) 464-1735
Email: callum@
lubricationengineers.co.za
www.lubricationengineers.co.za
