Design of bucket teeth

Abstract: For many years, buckets have been equipped with teeth to help penetrate, gouge and breakout materials. The teeth also works as wear parts and can be replaced when they are worn down, and thus increase the service life of the bucket. The first teeth were made like a one-piece design and to replace such tooth required both cutting and welding which was very time consuming. Today’s modern teeth consist of an adapter that is welded on the bucket and a tooth with a locking system that makes it easy to replace the tooth when needed. The teeth on the market today are cast, which means that the hardness cannot be guaranteed through the whole cast and the hardest tooth is measured to be around 500 HB.   SSABs brand Hardox is the toughest steel on the market. It is extremely wear resistant and has a three time longer service life than ordinary steel. To increase the use of Hardox the possibility to manufacture bucket teeth of three or more plates are examined.   This thesis has applied a product development process to mainly develop concepts of the locking system that holds the adapter and tooth together. The locking systems main requirement is to be hammerless, meaning that it is not hammered in, due to the high risk of injury and longer assembly time. Apart from, the geometry of the tooth will be developed to give a better wear resistance.   The result is a tooth with at least twice as long service life than the cast competitors and two concepts of locking system. Both locking systems meet the requirement of being hammerless and the sustainability is ensured with calculations of shear force. The geometry of the tooth is design to be self-sharpening, which allows it to stay sharper throughout its service life. Wear test using DEM analysis assure a positive outcome.