Managing The Parts You Want to Wear Out
- Details
- Written by Tim Newman
- Published on 25 August 2017
Ground engaging tools (G.E.T.) are a special class of wear parts. GET is sacrificial iron that takes the brunt of the wear to protect more expensive components such as excavator and loader buckets, motor grader moldboards and dozer blades. It’s a matter of pure economics. Its simply costs more to repair or replace a worn bucket than it does to routinely replace a set of bucket teeth.
That doesn’t mean you can throw on a set of teeth and forget about them until they are worn out. Proper GET management is essential, both to control costs and maximise performance. If you are late changing a tooth and you wear into an adaptor, for example, the tooth wont fit properly any more. It wont protect the bucket as it should and it wont produce the penetration and performance it is designed for.
Its possible over time to spend almost as much on GET as the purchase price of the machine. Clearly, managing your GET investment effectively can make a big difference in your machines total owning and operating costs.
Of course, different types of machines require different GET and their own set of management practices, but in all cases proper GET management includes five steps; selection, operation, maintenance, record keeping and worn iron analysis.
Keep an eye out over the next few editions for the 5 steps.
Ardie Rankin. Product Manager Cat GET.