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Excavator bucket tooth wear analysis

Article · March 2016

DOI: 10.1109/ICEEOT.2016.7755328

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 International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, and Optimization Techniques (ICEEOT) - 2016

EXCAVATOR BUCKET TOOTH WEAR

ANALYSIS

Birendra Kumar Tanweer Alam

Department of Mining Machinery Engineering Department of Mining Machinery Engineering
Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad
Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India
bikr285@gmail.com tanweer.amu@gmail.com

Abstract— Excavators used in mining industry have bucket In order to achieve the purpose, design analysis of the teeth is
teeth usually made up of hard alloys. In order to improve the carried out using FEA based software (ANSYS).
anti-wear properties of these alloys coatings are provided. The
purpose of the present work is to make the deformation analysis
of the bucket teeth. It was observed that maximum stress II. CALCULATION OF EXCAVATORS BUCKET FORCE
occurred at the fixed joint of teeth and tongue, while the
maximum wear takes place at the tip of tooth. The abrasive Digging force has a key effect on the dynamic behavior of
nature of soil is one of the reason of tip wear. the bucket wheel drive system [3]. The methodology adopted
is to find maximum digging force for the given cylinder
Keywords—bucket teeth; abrasive wear; stress concentration; pressures, and this is done using design view. The second
digging force; hard facing stage is to find the forces at all pivot points of the attachment,
this is done using MathCAD [4].
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Calculation of Digging and Breakout Force
Excavators are heavy duty earthmoving machines and
normally used for excavation task. During the operational life 1) Digging Force (RX):The digging force, as shown in fig.
of the excavator several resistive forces are offered by the 1, is the available force at the tip of the bucket teeth created by
surfaces to the bucket teeth. Large value of these resistive the stick cylinder(s). Maximum digging force is calculated
forces caused the failure of machine parts. Failure of tooth using eq.1 with dimension “a” at its maximum and with the
generally occurs due to impact, wear, abrasion, chemical bucket in a position calculated for maximum breakout force.
action. The teeth are subjected to severe wear due to impact
force during dynamic loading. The direct contact of metallic (1)
components with the soil constituents requires the
employment of alloys that have both good toughness and
Fs -Stick cylinder force
abrasive resistance. The excavator bucket teeth are generally
made up of alloy steel and in order to improve the tooth life a -Perpendicular distance stick cylinder axis - stick pivot
against abrasive wear, further wear resistive materials are b -Distance stick pivot - tooth tip
applied on it [1].
High values of hardness are also needed in those surfaces
over which the extracted materials move and even harder
materials to manufacture the mineral milling equipment. For
the selection of appropriate material for bucket teeth, it
becomes necessary to make an accurate analysis, also
replacement of worn out teeth on weekly basis caused the
increase in cost and hence an important economic factor in the
mining industry [2].
Bucket tooth design along with wear and tear during its
operational life affects the productivity and reduces the
efficiency. Present work is intended to
ƒ Improve service life of teeth
ƒ Reduce teeth wear

978-1-4673-9939-5/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

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 2) Breakout Force (L): The breakout force is the available
force, as shown in fig. 2, at the tip of the teeth created by the
bucket cylinder. Maximum breakout force (L) is reached when
the available tooth force reaches at its maximum. It is
calculated by using eq. 2.
(2)
Fl- Bucket cylinder force
c- Perpendicular distance bucket cylinder axis - lever pivot
d- Perpendicular distance connecting link axis - lever pivot
e- Perpendicular distance connecting link axis – bucket pivot
r- Radius bucket pivot - tooth lip
III. MATERIAL SELECTION
Bucket teeth wear and tear takes place due to the improper
design, improper selection of materials, defects and
discontinues in metal itself, improper manufacturing
processing of materials, poor service conditions and poor
assembling. Hard alloys are normally used as materials for
excavators’ teeth in mining industry. The alloys contain cast
iron alloyed with different elements. In most cases these alloys
don’t have enough anti-wear properties and coatings are
employed as a good alternative. Regarding the coating
materials, two types are basically employed for these
applications: steel alloys of chromium, vanadium, niobium
and materials formed from a weldable ferrite matrix
containing tungsten carbide of varying shapes and sizes.
IV. MATERIAL PROPERTIES
The tooth material for excavator bucket were taken as of
AISI 1040 standard and have the following properties as
shown in table 1.
V. GEOMETRIC MODELING & DESCRIPTION
Fig. 3a-b shows the solid model of shovel PNH1900 and
IZ-KARTEX (EKG-10) respectively. It consist of a holder
apart from the cutting edge and an optimized cutting tooth.
The cutting tooth is jointed into the holder as a removable
piece. The holder is actually a steel rectangular structural tube,
and remaining parts of structure are made of a different kind
of steel. The finite element mesh of cutting tooth is of free
type using 3121 node tetrahedral elements and so this solid
structure is divided into 1505 finite elements in model (a) and
for model (b) it is 21269 nodes and11759 elements as shown
in fig. 4a-b.
VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The mechanical properties of steel used in linear elastic
finite element analysis are also taken: Young’s modulus is
205x103 MPa and Poisson’s ratio is 0.29. This material
behavior is assumed to be linear elastic until the effective
stress reaches proportional limit and in this region the stress-
strain relation is represented by Hooke’s law. The maximum
stress generated is calculated using von-misses stress theory as
shown in fig.5 where it shows maximum stress is at the fixed
point while the rate of deformation is maximum at the tip of
the teeth shown in fig.6 and thus wear of teeth occurs from tip
to the whole body. It was observed that the head of tooth is the
most critical point and so it could be conclude that high
strength steel will be adequate because of the extreme loads.
Also geometry is one of the parameter and effects the
deformation during operation life as observed the higher
deformation value in case of model PNH1900 in comparison
to model IZ-KARTEX (EKG-10).
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 VII. CONCLUSION
From the above analysis, following conclusion can be
drawn:
• Maximum stresses are generating at the fixed
position of tooth.
• Maxim deformation will occur at the tip of tooth to
the whole body.
• On comparing the two models PNH1900 and IZ-
KARTEX (EKG-10), both have same maximum
stresses but the total deformation value is higher in
case of PNH1900 model.

REFERENCES

[1] S. Singla, V. Shibe, J. S. Grewal, “Performance Evaluation of Hard

Faced Excavator Bucket Tooth against Abrasive Wear Using MMAW
Process”, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Applications
Research, Vol. 02, Issue 02, pp. 74-77, August-December 2011
[2] J.E. Fernandez, R. Vijande, R. Tucho, J. Rodriguez, A.Martin “Material
selection to excavators tooth in mining industry”,Wear, Vol.250 Issue 1-
12, October 2001,pp 11-18.
[3] Bhavesh kumar P.Patel, Dr.J.M.Prajapati, An excavation force
calculation and application (IJEST) Vol.3 No. 5 May 2011,pp 3831-
3837.
[4] K Bhaveshkumar P. Patel, J. M. Prajapati,“Soil-Tool Interaction as a
Review for Digging Operation of Mini Hydraulic Excavator”,
International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, Vol. 3,
No. 2, 894-901, February 2011.

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