Rugged and reliable rigid steel hydraulic torque wrenches are being used to replace traditional spanners for servicing milling machinery, enhancing safety and saving time.
Mackay Sugar has adopted the Enerpac S series torque wrenches for maintenance work on the milling train at its Marian Mill operation, near Mackay.
The same tools are suitable for other primary processing and mining and materials handling machinery tasks, eliminating backbreaking work and solving access problems for tools in confined spaces.
Maintenance engineer Ainslie Dutton said: “We had been using two people on a very large spanner, but to prevent accidents and enhance safety we’d been looking for a better way of doing this task. These concerns and the company’s insistence on safety pushed us to do something.”
The hydraulic wrenches are used for removing and retightening bolts that secure the seven-foot rollers in the milling trains that crushes the cane.
Each of the nine mills in the two milling trains has a set of three rollers arranged in a triangular formation. Each set is held in place by one cap on the top, secured by four bolts, and a cap on each side secured by two bolts.
The caps holding the rollers in place are removed every year for maintenance, and sometimes between the annual overhauls if breakdowns occur.
“When we were ready to look at the hydraulic torque wrench, Enerpac agents Cooper Fluid Systems came out to the mill and gave us a demonstration. It worked. We told them not to let the tool leave our site!”
Marian Mill has chosen the 1½ inch S series square-drive hydraulic torque wrenches with 11,000 foot pounds capacity, powered by an Enerpac electric torque wrench pump.
“We made some hexes with a 90 mm socket that adapts onto the wrench’s square drive. We have different size sockets for other bolts. Anchor points for the wrenches have been designed into the mill rollers,” Dutton said.
“During our maintenance program in the off-season, we can now tighten all of the mills in a day. We go up to about 3500 foot pounds when tightening the cap bolts. The torque wrenches save a lot of time, taking about five minutes per bolt. It took a lot longer before.
“The work was also back-breaking and we had limited room to move the spanner. Now the wrench just goes straight on, without any access problems.
“Maintenance on the milling rollers is now much better and safer. The leading hand is very particular about the tools he uses, but he says ‘this is the best bit of gear we’ve bought’.
“There’s no problem with the servicing of the equipment. Cooper Fluid Systems came out on site to help us set up the correct pressure and now it pretty much runs itself. I’d definitely recommend it to others.”
Enerpac’s versatile S series of double-acting square drive hydraulic torque wrenches weigh from 2.7 kg to 31 kg, with outputs of 1898-34,437 Nm.
The nose radius of the wrenches ranges from 25-63.5 mm, with the square drive ranging from three-quarters to two-and-a-half inches.
Features of the S Series torque wrenches include
- 360 degree click-on, multi-position reaction arm and push-button square drive release for quickly reversing the drive for final tightening or loosening. A fine tooth ratchet prevents tool lock on
- Compact high-strength nickel plated uni-body construction for a small operating radius. The robust design with minimal parts facilitates easy on-site maintenance without special tools
- Lightweight ergonomic design for easy handling, with an optimised strength-to-weight ratio and fast operation because of the large nut rotation per wrench cycle (35 degree rotation angle) and rapid return stroke
Enerpac also offers the W series of low profile hexagonal wrenches for low bolting clearance applications. These wrenches weigh just 1.4-5 kg, yet have precisely repeatable torque from 2712-20337 Nm.
In both the hexagonal and square drive wrenches, constant torque output provides high accuracy across the full stroke.
An in-line reaction foot ensures accuracy by reducing internal deflections in the hexagonal drives, while uni-body construction ensures accuracy in the square drives by reducing internal deflections.
The W and S series of hydraulic wrenches – complemented by Enerpac’s advanced pumping technology and more than 50 years of application expertise – are designed for maximum durability, reliability and safety, with rigid steel design and good power to weight ratios.
The wrenches address the needs of major areas of industry including mining and energy, infrastructure construction, manufacturing, pipelines, mobile machinery, tracked and heavy vehicles, craneage and fixed plant.