Komatsu Australia has announced a new range of "dual-bush" undercarriage now available for its D275-5, D375-5 and D475-5 bulldozers operating in abrasive conditions.
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The new bush structure has been incorporated in the existing track link assembly and specifically designed to reduce wear and extend track life, significantly reducing the cost of undercarriage maintenance over the lifespan of a machine.
Key to the success of the dual-bush undercarriage is Komatsu's rotating bush system, which allows the pin and bush to rotate independently of each other while being continuously lubricated by oil contained within a sealed gallery.
Compared to conventional fixed pin and bush undercarriage systems, the dual bush undercarriage system has the potential to double the life of the machine's undercarriage inthe right application, according to Komatsu's National Sales and Business Development Manager Undercarriage, Bruce Gale.
"Komatsu has spent several years developing this new undercarriage product in a variety of conditions,including extensive field trials in the abrasive oil-sands of Alberta, Canada," he said.
"With conventional undercarriage systems installed on larger dozers, operators are required to remove the track at around half-life and perform pin and bush turn to maximise the life of the track.
"The dual-bush system does away with the need for a pin and bush turn, thus eliminating downtime and maintenance costs over the full life of the track
link assembly - with the potential to double the lifespan of undercarriage components, there is a real financial incentive for operators to upgrade.
"What this means is that the complete undercarriage system pins, bushes and idlers etc are designed to wear at the same rate allowing change out to be carried out at the same time, resulting in big savings for operators over the life of their machine," he said.
Testing in the oil sands of Canada was conducted using a series of D375-5and D475-5 bulldozers fitted with the dual-bushing undercarriage.
A target of 3600 hours was easily achieved when the new undercarriage was fitted almost double that of standard undercarriage when operated in the same conditions.
Bruce said the dual-bush undercarriage was specifically suited to high abrasion applications such as sand mining.
Komatsu Australia has announced a new range of "dual-bush" undercarriage now available for its D275-5, D375-5 and D475-5 bulldozers.