Komatsu Australia has launched a revolutionary new range of undercarriage that can provide customers with an extended service life when compared with standard fitment undercarriage, together with substantially reduced maintenance and machine downtime
Komatsu's Parallel Link Undercarriage System, or PLUS undercarriage, features a newly- designed rotating bush, extended link life and recessed grooved sprocket segments working in tandem to substantially reduce metal to metal wear and increase the life of the undercarriage.
The PLUS undercarriage system has been engineered with the main goal of providing significantly longer service life with reduced maintenance, said Komatsu's Sales and Business Development Manager- Undercarriage, Bruce Gale.
"100% manufactured in-house by Komatsu, PLUS undercarriage has been designed for reliability, durability and extended ongoing performance," he said.
"PLUS undercarriage is now fitted standard to D51, D61 & D65 bulldozers sold in Australia and can be retro -fitted to existing machines without the need for any major modifications.
"You simply change some of the individual undercarriage components and refit the PLUS undercarriage shoe assembly you can re-use the existing idlers & carrier rollers.
"Upgrading to PLUS undercarriage is cost effective because it's designed to last longer in operation with significant ongoing reductions in costly downtime," he said.
Komatsu says all PLUS undercarriage components are designed to wear at similar rates, increasing change-out intervals and significantly reducing the need for maintenance during the life of the tracks and hence related downtime.
Specially designed sprockets with recessed grooves prevent material build-up that can lead to binding of the track links, which is a major cause of sprocket, pin and bush wear. In addition, the sprockets themselves are segmented and can be replacedindividually in the field in the case of damage."Komatsu engineers field-tested PLUS undercarriage extensively world-wide, including several thousand hours of testing in Australian conditionsbefore the product was released to the market," Bruce said. There's nothing like a real-world test to prove the worth of a product and I n the case of PLUS undercarriage,it's still going strong long after conventional undercarriages have reached the limits of their service life," he said.?