Rock tool cuts labour needs while boosting safety with Enerpac torque wrenches
Enerpac S series torque wrench
A huge hydraulic hammer maintenance and repair organisation in Australia has more than halved the time taken for bolting tasks while improving safety and precision by introducing Enerpac's torque wrenches.
Rock Tools and Equipment - the rig-mounted hydraulics division of Atlas Copco Construction and Mining located in Seven Hills, NSW – sells, services and repairs construction and quarrying equipment including hydraulic hammers up to 7 ton.
Previously the repairer tightened tension bolts on machinery with manual torquing equipment, which was time consuming, labour intensive and very energy sapping.
“It use to take a few people a whole day’s work” says Dave Madgwick, equipment manager, Rock Tools and Equipment.
Having introduced the rigid steel Enerpac S11000 torque wrench to Rock Tools, Madgwick is impressed that the wrench can operate quickly while requiring only one person to function.
“We are very happy. One man can now do the job in a couple of hours without breaking a sweat. Previously this took a few blokes a whole day of slow, hard work” says Madgwick
The Enerpac S series Hydraulic Torque wrenches are powerful and precise yet simple to operate, with a 360º click-on, multi position reaction arm using a push button square drive release enabling easy tightening and loosening.
“It’s now a simple easy process that is safer, saves time, money and labour, we have become much more efficient” says Madgwick.
The Enerpac S series are a versatile double-acting square drive hydraulic torque wrench, weighing between 2.7kk to 31kg, with outputs of 1898-34,437 Nm. The nose radius range is between 23-63.5mm, with the square drive ranging from three-quarters to two-and-a-half inches.
Enerpac territory manager NSW, Darryl Lange says the single 360º hydraulic swivel manifold increases wrench and hose manoeuvrability, making it ideal for maintenance and repairs of hydraulic hammers which Rock Tools does as well as use with a number of other applications.
Enerpac’s torque wrenches can be used in a variety of applications including mining and energy, infrastructure construction, manufacturing, pipelines, mobile machinery, tracked and heavy vehicles, cranes and fixed plant.
“They are compact and robustly designed with minimal parts enabling easy on-site maintenance without the need for special tools” says Lange.
The nickel-plated wrenches provide good corrosion protection and proven durability in harsh environments. To achieve an accurate stroke, Enerpac torque wrenches have a robust steel uni-body construction that reduces internal deflections.
Ensuring the continued quality, durability and reliability that Enerpac products have become accustomed to, every prototype was put through finite element stress analysis, photo-elastic modelling, rigorous cyclic testing and strain gauging.
“Now we wouldn’t consider reverting back to our old slow method, this is the only way to go” says Madgwick
Complementing the S-series, Enerpac also offer the W-Series of low profile hexagonal wrenches for low bolting clearance applications. These wrenches weigh just 1.4-5kg, yet have precisely repeatable torque from 2712-20337 Nm.
31-Jan-2008