The mining industry puts their equipment through incredibly demanding conditions. One of the key pieces of equipment used to excavate and handle large quantities of material is the dragline. Nearly every component of a dragline is subjected to an incredible amount of stress, particularly its pins and bushings that are subjected to metal-to-metal, metal-to-earth and impact wear. Unfortunately, standard pins can struggle with these extreme conditions leading to wear and failure.
To help combat these issues, Tricon’s engineering team developed specialized pins that are much more durable than standard pins, leading to increased performance and longevity of dragline equipment. In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about dragline pins and how our specialized solutions may be able to help your operation.
The Role of Pins in Dragline Equipment
Pins play a key role in many pieces of heavy equipment, including draglines. They help connect articulating parts that are subjected to heavy loads, high impact, and abrasive conditions.
However, given their role as a connecting component, they’re exposed to an incredible amount of shear force, which erodes them over time.
This degradation can lead to failure, resulting in costly downtime, production delays, and employee time spent on repairs. Having to replace pins frequently is costly in both time and money for mining operations. Tricon Wear Solutions developed specialized hardened pins for mining equipment, including draglines, to improve durability and reliability for our customers.
Advantages of Specialized Pins for Mining Efficiency
Our specialized pins for the mining industry are designed to be superior alternatives to standard pins. Through cutting-edge materials science, we’ve created pins that have exceptional wear resistance, with up to 400 BHN interior hardness and surface hardness levels exceeding 600 BHN. This makes them more than capable of withstanding the constant abrasion found in mines.
The tough inner core is designed to absorb impact and resist deformation under heavy loads. When you combine these qualities together, you have the recipe for dragline pins capable of withstanding both the abrasion and impact loading that they experience.
Types of Specialized Pins Offered by Tricon Wear Solutions
Tricon Wear Solutions has developed a wide range of specialized components for the mining industry. When it comes to specialized pins, we have three main types: our Special Treated Pins, Induction-Hardened Pins, and Super-X Pins. Each of these pins has its own unique benefits.
Special Treated Pins
Our Special Treated Pins set the benchmark in terms of durability and performance. They’re manufactured from vacuum-degassed, calcium-silicon injected Ni-Cr-Mo steel, and undergo a series of heat treatments: quenching, tempering, and stress relief. This proprietary treatment process allows us to create a pin with a 400+BHN hardness through the full profile of the pin, giving good wear resistance, excellent impact strength and a predictable wear profile.
Induction-Hardened Pins
Our Induction-Hardened Pins are designed for applications that require a deeper surface hardness. These specialty pins go through a state-of-the-art heat treatment process to create a pin that’s incredibly hard and wear-resistant while retaining a robust inner core. Our customers utilize our Induction-Hardened Pins in bail pins, mandrels, spindles, and other areas where durability is paramount for maintaining operational integrity.
Super-X Pins
Super-X Pins are designed for the most severe impact and wear. Their tough inner core is paired with an incredibly hard, heat-resistant surface through our proprietary process. This means that our Super-X Pins provide the highest levels of resilience under the most extreme conditions, ensuring that critical equipment remains functional even in the most demanding of situations. The unparalleled resilience of Super-X Pins makes them a common choice for use in dragline bucket connections and other areas where repeated heavy impacts are common.
Applications of Specialized Pins in Dragline Equipment
The team at Tricon has worked hard to ensure that our specialty pins can operate at a high level in almost any environment. That’s why customers worldwide rely on our pins to securely connect critical components like the booms, buckets, and chains in their draglines. However, our pins aren’t just suited for draglines. They can be a great addition to any piece of equipment that operates under high levels of abrasion and impact, like excavators, bulldozers, and loaders.
Manufacturing Excellence: The Tricon Difference
At Tricon Wear Solutions, we are dedicated to providing our customers with the highest quality specialized pins for dragline equipment. Our commitment to manufacturing excellence ensures that our pins are built to last, even in the most demanding mining environments. With our wide range of specialized pins, we have a solution for every application. Whether you need pins for dragline booms, buckets, chains, or any other component, Tricon Wear Solutions has you covered.
If you are looking for a way to improve the efficiency of your mining operation, contact Tricon Wear Solutions today. Our team of experts will be happy to help you find the right specialized pins for your dragline equipment.
