Customer case
New Hardox® 500 Tuf wear steel helps heavy-duty bucket manufacturer Winkelbauer get tough on wear
June 25, 2019 6 min read
Case details
Winkelbauer GmbH in Austria is a leading supplier of heavy-duty buckets and other construction equipment for the European market. The company is an early adopter of SSAB’s new wear-resistant steel grade Hardox® 500 Tuf. Upgrading to this material allows Winkelbauer’s customers to load more and extend the service life of their equipment.
Hardox® 500 Tuf is an abrasion-resistant (AR) steel that makes the perfect fit for the high-performance buckets manufactured by Winkelbauer. Hardox® 500 Tuf is the first 500 Brinell (HB) wear plate with properties on a par with structural steel. It delivers high strength, extreme hardness and guaranteed toughness in a single wear plate. The material offers a 70-100% longer service life compared to conventional 400 HB AR steel, and it features improved dent protection.
“We’re now telling our customers, you have two favorable options: Use Hardox 500 Tuf to make the bucket lighter, while the service life remains as long as you’re used to from a Winkelbauer bucket. Or use Hardox 500 Tuf in the same dimensions as before to get a considerably longer service life and reduced costs thanks to longer service intervals,” says Winkelbauer’s CEO Michael Winkelbauer.