What a stud: wear-resistant TungStuds

Betek is a global leader in the production of tungsten carbide and special tungsten carbide-tipped tools.

The core of TungStuds is made of tungsten carbide, which is a combination of wolfram carbide and cobalt. Wolfram carbide is one of the hardest existing materials and, at the same time is very brittle. Combined with cobalt, a material is produced that is very hard and resistant to wear, while at the same time being ductile enough to withstand extreme loading.

The tungsten carbide’s quality is tailored at Betek to be application-specific. This ensures the necessary toughness of the product, while providing optimum resistance to wear. The tungsten carbide is created by sintering in an ultra-modern sinter/hip plant. TungStuds can be used to provide protection from wear on all construction machinery components that come into contact with construction materials or materials being excavated or conveyed, such as digger buckets, rotary grinder casing or crushing machine walls.

Case study

Recent tests of Betek’s TungStud product were completed for a France-based civil engineering company. The company was about to give one of its trench-cutting machines a general overhaul, badly worn down from working in difficult terrain, the cutting segments needed to completely replaced. This was a task that had to be completed several times a year.

The company had heard of Betek’s anti-wear solution, which provides protection against abrasion and corrosion for construction machinery parts that are at particular risk of abrasive wear. The overhaul of the trench cutter in early 2011 was an opportunity to test out the Betek solution, as Betek was known to the company as a partner for high-quality tungsten carbide tool systems, having already provided round shank cutter picks to the French company.

After the French agent and Betek’s product manager discussed the details of the project, the parts of the new milling/cutting wheel were sent directly to Betek, where the wheel’s side surfaces and blocks were completely fitted with TungStuds. The relatively small surface areas called for exact positioning and a very compact arrangement of the small anti-wear bolts. Being made of wear-resistant construction machinery steel, the material of the trench cutter wheel provided an ideal condition for welded joints.

After the TungStuds had been welded on, the client fitted the wheel into a Ditch Witch 7020 trench-cutting machine and immediately put it to use in France.

The company specialises in jobs such as digging cable ducts along the side of roads. The machine cuts trenches of between 10 and 22 cm wide and to a depth of up to 70 cm.

After 23 working days and 138 hours of operation spread over several different trench-cutting jobs, the cutting wheel and TungStuds were examined and inspected for wear. The majority of the TungStuds were still in place and in good condition. The new cutting wheel had been extremely well protected and showed no signs of wear after close inspection.

Prior to using TungStuds, the company used trench-digging cutter segments made of construction machinery steel with no additional protection against wear.

The eight parts of a new cutting wheel cost – excluding replacement work costs – approximately $4,000 and, depending on how hard they were worked, would need to be completely replaced every 200 hours.

Further tests demonstrated that a set of fitted TungStuds lasted approximately twice as long as a complete cutting wheel had previously. Thereafter, the TungStuds can be easily replaced, completely or partially depending on wear, while the cutting wheel itself remains fully serviceable.

The tests and savings achieved by the TungStuds convinced the client to at once. As the company owns several trench cutters of varying sizes, it placed an order with Betek two weeks after the first interim tests for a large stock of TungStuds and a KÖCO ELOTOP 2002 bolt-welding machine, for which Betek is a distributor. The purchase of these products meant that the company could fit and maintain its cutting wheels itself.

The French civil engineering company is now fully committed to tungsten carbide protection, fitting its trench cutters with TungStuds and thus avoiding the previous need to completely replace the cutting segments several times a year – saving on the associated downtime, dismantling and fitting costs.

Hard Metal Industries has three stud welders available in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. For trials and development work, contact HMI on (07) 3376 4303 to arrange a demonstration.

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