Customer case

Quick coupler manufacturer gets hooked on Hardox® round bar

June 09, 2020 6 min read

Case details

Product Hardox® Round bar

Country Sweden

Company Cerapid-Serameko

Industry Yellow goods and construction

What happened when earthmoving equipment and attachment manufacturer Cerapid-Serameko decided to try Hardox® steel round bar in its hydraulic quick couplers? Customers turned heads their way. After that, the company never looked back.

Cerapid started producing buckets for construction machinery back in 1988.Today, the Swedish company manufactures asphalt and tarmac cutters,levelling buckets, trenching buckets, deep-digging buckets, and hydraulicquick couplers and quick hitches for top-name equipment manufacturers.

Since the company’s beginnings, high quality and reliability have been ahallmark of its products.

“We want to exceed customer expectations for our products and supply ahigh standard of service in case anything should happen,” says Håkan Sahlin,CEO of Cerapid. “Our goal is to do everything a little bit better.”

Case details

Product Hardox® Round bar

Country Sweden

Company Cerapid-Serameko

Industry Yellow goods and construction

Steel round bar a success in new excavator bucket

So, it was only natural that Cerapid was the first company to use Hardox® steel round bar in a new excavator bucket.

“We were already using Hardox® 450 in nearly all of our products. By using Hardox® round bar, we achieve the same quality in our attachments as in the rest of the bucket and in the quick coupler. This gives us a sharp increase in quality that customers will definitely notice,”Sahlin says.

Less wear and tear, guaranteed

Thanks to the extreme wear resistance of the new round bar material, there is less wear and tear on the excavators, so they can operate for longer periods between service overhauls. It also lessens the risk for unscheduled downtime.

For Cerapid, Hardox® round bar hits the sweet spot – hard enough to withstand abrasion and penetration yet tough enough to resist cracking. Sahlin’s company had tried using cold-drawn S355J2, SS 2142 (S420N) and SS 2511 (16NiCrS4) as well as different induction-hardened shafting bars. He wasn’t impressed with the results.

“No steel bar really lived up to our expectations,” Sahlin continues. “The standard products were too soft, and harder steel grades tended to crack too easily. Combining hard and soft steel in parts that wear down on each other always leads to the soft steel being worn out faster. But by using Hardox® round bar, we have hard steel versus hard steel, which guarantees less wear and tear.”

Hardox® steel round bar for quick couplers helps save time and money

Excavator operators have to keep an eye out on the quick coupling between the attachment and the bucket. If wear creates too much slack, the operator will have to get out his tools and fix it. Some of the wear can be compensated by using shims. But if the wear is too substantial, the bucket attachment must be replaced.

Cerapid’s buckets are known for their long lifespan, something which its customers appreciate. Christer Nätt, one such customer who runs a contracting business crushing rock in a Swedish quarry, is impressed with Hardox® round bar. “I expect Hardox round bar in the attachment to save us both labor and money in the future,” he says.

Profitable to repair

Buckets used in tough environments like mines or quarries are exposed to massive wear and tear. Over time, most of the exposed parts are worn down. But according to Sahlin, the construction and choice of bucket material make it profitable to repair and rebuild the company’s products.

During a rebuild, Sahlin discovered a totally new way of using Hardox® round bar: parts of the grid at the bottom of the bucket were worn out and the side plates had to be reinforced.

Other benefits of the high-strength steel round bar

The shape of the Hardox^® round bar has three clear advantages in Cerapid’s bucket:

The round profile does not wear out as fast, since all wear and tear is distributed over a larger surface compared with conventional steel plate with the edge cut 90 degrees.
Hardox^® round bar maintains all the good qualities of the material while the edge of the steel plate can be affected by the heat from the cutting.
When the new profile is fitted less filler material is needed during welding, and the weld joint will not affect the strength of the design.

In addition, CNC machining of Hardox^® round bar was simple and straightforward.

Order trial material

Cooperation with SSAB for customer success

“We have a great cooperation with SSAB,” Sahlin says, “and our contacts are important because we always strive to be at the forefront of product development. The chain of innovation is also helped by our close contacts with our customers.”

Although Cerapid provides standard products, most of their products are custom-made to meet their customers’ special requirements. SSAB provides design and fabrication expertise that helps companies like Cerapid make sure their customers get the most out of Hardox^® wear plate in their equipment.

“We deliver equipment to large companies like Volvo and Caterpillar but also to many smaller contractors.They all expect the best possible quality from us. And we deliver on that promise. We also invest in steel that we believe in. Hardox^® round bar makes our excavator buckets even better.”