New rams for old
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Phil Reed looks at three companies equipped to offer a service in various types of hydraulic equipment used in the tipping industry
Hydraulics reconditioning — Telehoist's approach IN The Cheltenham-based manufacturer Telehoist offers a factory remanufactured service for power take-offs, pumps and hydraulic rams.
Items for remanufacture are returned to Cheltenham and stripped and inspected. Telehoist where possible reworks damaged parts to original manufacturing tolerances. If this is not possible new parts are used.
All components are then re-sealed, reassembled and tested and passed for sale as a Telehoist Remanufactured Unit.
Versatile APA hydraulic repair U Hydraulic power is universal in its application, so specialists in this field are able to handle a wide variety of equipment. APA Hydraulics, a three-man operation, is typical of many specialists. This company is building up a business in the load handling sector.
As part of this activitiy it specialises in the repair and maintenance of lorrymounted cranes — especially Hiab and Atlas units. Complementary to this are APA's other activities which include the manufacture of clam shell, brick and scrap handling grabs for lorry-mounted and other types of hydraulic crane.
The three partners in the APA business
are all ex Steiner cranes. With this background they reckon to be able to fix most types of vehicle and other types of equipment hydraulics. Besides the hydraulic activities involved in this type of work, APA also carries out a great deal of heavy steel fabrication work such as the making up of new crane booms to replace damaged items. This self sufficiency in fabrication is also matched by the company's in-house hydraulic ram manufacturing ability.
The APA ram manufacturing facility is also used in the production of the company's grabs, These include 3, 4 or 5-tine units suitable from lorry to really heavyduty crane applications. Among the heavier duty units manufactured by APA is a very powerful hydraulic grab which can crush cars in its tines. For lorrymounted crane applications the company produces individually designed clam shell and brick handling grabs.
Mobile work benches are not a new idea, however. APA Hydraulics reckons to have improved on the idea with its new heavy-duty unit. The company has launched a mobile bench which is claimed to offer a solid working platform combined with the benefits of mobility.
The APA mobile workbench has a tricycle wheel arrangement, the single front wheel being steerable via the bench's
pull/guide handle. This allows the bench to be easily manoeuvred around. When the bench is required as a static work platform the steering wheel is retracted by pushing the pull/steering handle backwards. This action causes the bench's pivoted wheel to be raised. The front end of the bench is then supported by two fixed steel legs. This arrangement gives a very solid working platform, APA claims.
The APA mobile bench is said to have a maximum working capacity of around 255kg (5cwt). As standard, the bench is supplied with a Record heavy-duty engineer's vice. The £195 + VAT bench has a work surface which measures 1.5 x 0.615m and stands 0.86m high. It is an all-steel welded unit and comes finish painted with a lockable lower storage area.
Restoring rams for more lift • To the outsider tipping rams would appear to be a remarkably unsophisticated piece of kit. Simple engineering which you fit and forget. How tipper operators wish that this were true. But, the humble tipper ram has to work in an environment which is very hard. A mixture of dirt, abuse and sundry mechanical vibrations and high loadings all conspire to give the tipper ram a tough life.
In the UK the tipping ram business is dominated by Edbro, a company which has retained market leadership despite the influx in recent years of Continental competition. Edbro itself does not recondition rams or associated hydraulic componentry, preferring instead to leave this operation to its distributor network.
Prominent among Edbro's agents with a major reconditioning business is Tipping Gears & Engineering Ltd, Blaydon, Tyne and Wear. This family run business was formed 26 years ago by Ted Hazlehurst and his wife Elizabeth. With the assistance of their son, Patrick, the three Hazlehursts manage a well equipped Edbro distributorship.
Besides the company's major parts and reconditioning business, it is a large stockholder of new Edbro equipment. Currently the company holds some 120 new ram kits and 250 pt-o/pump sets in stock to service demand from bodybuilders in the Northumberland, Durham and Cumberland areas.
As a specialist Tipping Gears & Engineering has seen a marked change in their business with the introduction of Edbro's displacement ram design. Compared to the old bore seal rams which were the norm the newer design requires far less down time spent in re-sealing.
"Whereas in an intensive operation bore seal rams would require new seals after 12 months, the latest Edbro displacement designs have reached seven years before attention is required," comments Ted Hazlehurst.
Besides the tipping ram assemblies, the company is actively involved in the reconditioning of power take-off assemblies and pumps associated with tipping gears and other lorry-mounted hydraulic work including skip loaders, hydraulic cranes and coal bagging equipment.
The company's concentration on hydraulics alone has allowed it to develop modifications of its own to extend equipment life and improve performance. About 50% of its work on power take-offs and pumps can be attributed to normal wear and tear, the remainder caused by consequent damage as a result of hydraulic problems.
In a normal pump overhaul the company reckons to completely strip and clean all components. As a matter of course new seals, plunger springs and non-return valves are fitted. Al] the pt-o gears and bearings are examined and replaced as required.
"We fit a pressure relief valve on the pump, where applicable to prevent damage," says Patrick Hazlehurst. This modification plays a large part in protecting the pump should hydraulic problems develop.
A reconditioned pump from Tipping Gears & Engineering works out at about two thirds of the cost of a new item. As part of the company's service it also offers an approximate two-hour turn-around on the customer's own unit for really urgent cases.
A tipping control valve assembly is also available from the company. The reconditioning process for this item includes new 0-rings and new control valve pintle. Again this reconditioned unit is around a third of the price of a new one.
All items reconditioned by Tipping Gears & Engineering are tested on specially designed and built rigs. As befits a company involved in hydraulics, the works are scrupulously clean.
Ted Hazlehurst reckons that there is such a wide variety of pt-o pumps available that this precludes his company from keeping service exchange stocks of these units, However, he feels that the speed that these items can be reconditioned mitigates the lack of se units.
"Also", he comments, "by reconditioning customers own units it saves us from getting involved in the acquisition of expensive core stock".
Customers bringing a pt-o pump in for repair can be told within a quarter of an hour what the extent of the damage is and the likely cost of the repair. This service is used by large numbers of the company's customers who bring items in and have them repaired while they wait.
Tipping rams where they just require re-sealing are relatively easy to overhaul needing only the specialised C-spanners to undo the individual ram sections. Where a ram is bent, more extensive work is required. No attempt is made to repair damaged ram sections; these are replaced with new. However, when a ram bends it will generally pull the nut and lock it, which makes it very difficult to remove without damaging the lower section. The trusty Edbro C-spanner is reckoned to be one of the best available but for undoing nuts on damaged ram sections the company uses a 20:1 reduction tool.
Other work in reconditioning rams in cludes replacing the stud section on the top ram of bore seal units. This is achieved by cutting off the cap, welding in a new stud section and rewelding the cap back on to the rams.
Besides its work on reconditioning tipper ram assemblies, the company has worked up a considerable business in overhauling skip loaders. This is particularly popular with councils. With the reconditioning process the skip loader assembly can be made to last the life of two chassis.
"We can restore a skip loader to new standards of working performance for about 40% of new cost, a factor that makes it very attractive to local authorities", Ted Hazlehurst comments. Skip loaders, which undergo the Tipping Gears & Engineering overhaul procedure emerge with fully rebuilt hydraulics, all moving parts re-bushed as required and refurbished steel work. This includes the straightening of side lift arms at the company hydraulic press, re-welding and fabricating as required. Although the company prefers to stick with Edbro units, it can recondition most makes of skip loaders.
"With our hydraulic experience we can handle most makes and we have the contacts to get the parts for most equipment makes," comments Patrick Hazlehurst. An indication of this is the company's regular work on a public utilities' fleet of Italian Effer lorry-mounted cranes. Hydraulic cranes have in general terms provided the company with a useful amount of business, as do bucket loaders and hydraulic coal baggers.
Tipping Gears & Engineering is able to repair these things though for these widely disparate equipment makes and types they do not stock spares.