McLanahan Carbide Teeth More Than Double Throughput for Crushing Customers
McLanahan Corporation will soon be preparing a shipment of replacement DDC-Sizer roll segments for a customer in South America. These segments feature McLanahan’s unique carbide-impregnated weld-on teeth.
Creation of Carbide Teeth
McLanahan began developing its carbide tooth in 2003 at the request of a customer who was already utilizing the most wear-resistant tooth design McLanahan had to offer at the time.
“We were challenged by one of our top coal customers in the Powder River Basin,” recalled Dan Holes, Director of Parts and Service for McLanahan North America. “At the time, our roll elements offered substantial protection to the face of a tooth, but the top was susceptible to abrasion wear. As the top began to wear, the face protection became highly vulnerable and would eventually fail. We went to the drawing board and began an R&D project, and the result was our carbide impregnated tooth.”
The goal of the carbide tooth was two-fold; it must increase wear life, which ultimately reduces downtime and maintenance, and it must be replaceable so that the lifespan of the base roll element can be extended.
When the carbide teeth were first put into service, the results were staggering.
“We doubled our customer’s throughput across the set of our roll segments,” Holes explained.
McLanahan's unique carbide-impregnated teeth on a crusher/sizer roll segment.
Dedication to Continuous Improvement
Besides building crushers to last, a major benefit of working with McLanahan is the company’s dedication to continuous improvement. This means constantly reviewing designs and making changes that will best suit the needs of its customers.
Over the next few years, McLanahan worked closely with customers in similar applications and, from those relationships, was able to make some subtle changes to how the teeth were attached and even positioned that further extended their wear life.
“Our customers are sometimes the best engineers because they’re the ones dealing with maintenance and they see the wear characteristics and wear patterns developed,” said Holes. “We listen to what they say and their suggestions have allowed us to further develop our teeth to that which continues to meet or surpass customer’s expectations today.”
“You can expect to double your wear life, but in most cases we’ve seen customers improve three to four, five to six, seven to eight times over what they were previously using.”
The increase in wear life all depends on the application, “but for most applications in which we place DDC-Sizers, carbide teeth far outlasts hardened steel and typical hard-surfacing,” Holes said.