As the usage of excavators continues to rise across various construction and engineering projects, ensuring the optimal performance and longevity of their components becomes paramount. Among these components, bucket teeth play a crucial role in excavation efficiency. Proper selection, operation, and maintenance of bucket teeth can significantly enhance productivity and reduce operational costs.

1. Selecting the Appropriate Bucket Teeth
   Choosing the right type of bucket teeth is essential for efficient excavation. The selection should be based on the specific working conditions and materials encountered:

   • Material Compatibility: Different teeth designs are suited for various materials. For instance, rock chisel teeth are ideal for rocky terrains, while flare teeth are better for loose materials like sand and gravel .
   • Durability and Strength: Opt for teeth made from high-quality materials that can withstand the stresses of excavation, ensuring a longer service life and reduced downtime.

2. Maintaining Proper Digging Angles
   The angle at which the bucket teeth engage the ground significantly affects their wear and the efficiency of excavation:

   • Optimal Penetration Angle: Ensure that the bucket teeth penetrate the ground at an angle close to perpendicular. This minimizes stress on the teeth and prevents premature wear or breakage.
   • Avoid Excessive Swinging: Refrain from swinging the excavator arm side-to-side while the bucket is engaged in the ground, as this can cause undue lateral stress on the teeth and adapters, leading to potential failures .

3. Regular Inspection and Timely Replacement
   Consistent monitoring of bucket teeth condition is vital for maintaining excavation efficiency:

   • Inspect for Wear and Damage: Regularly check for signs of wear, cracks, or deformation. Uneven wear patterns may indicate improper usage or alignment issues .
   • Replace Worn Components: When teeth or adapters show significant wear (typically a loss of 10–15% of their original size), replace them promptly to prevent further damage and maintain optimal digging performance.

4. Ensuring Secure Attachment
   Proper installation and secure attachment of bucket teeth are crucial for safe and efficient operation:

   • Tighten Fasteners: Regularly check and tighten bolts or pins securing the teeth to prevent loosening during operation.
   • Correct Alignment: Ensure that teeth are correctly aligned with the bucket to distribute forces evenly and reduce uneven wear .

5. Routine Cleaning and Lubrication
   Maintaining cleanliness and proper lubrication extends the life of bucket teeth and adapters:

   • Remove Debris: After each use, clean the bucket teeth to remove soil, rocks, and other debris that can cause abrasion.
   • Lubricate Moving Parts: Apply appropriate lubricants to moving parts to reduce friction and prevent corrosion, especially in harsh working environments .

By adhering to these best practices in selecting, operating, and maintaining excavator bucket teeth, operators can ensure enhanced performance, reduced equipment wear, and increased overall productivity on the job site.

With the continuous upgrading and improvement of mechanical equipment, more and more industries are turning to these advanced machines to assist in operations. Among them, excavators are one of the most practical and widely used. The bucket teeth, being a critical working part of an excavator, play a vital role. If the bucket teeth malfunction, a significant portion of the machine's functionality becomes unusable. Therefore, maintaining excavator bucket teeth is of great importance.

1. Cleaning and Protection
   After regular use, it's important not to hastily store the bucket teeth away or blindly seal them. The best practice is to clean and protect them properly first. One key point to note during cleaning is the removal of any contaminants, dust, or impurities. Additionally, make sure that all corners and edges are cleaned thoroughly. This ensures optimal working conditions for the next use.
2. Inspection and Maintenance
   After daily operation, it is also essential to inspect the bucket teeth. Given their frequent contact with different soil types, wear and even damage are inevitable. Therefore, problems should be identified and addressed in a timely manner to allow for proper repair and maintenance, ensuring continued performance and reliability.

By following these maintenance guidelines, the damage to bucket teeth can be greatly reduced, helping to lower operating costs and increase efficiency and profit.

High manganese steel or low-carbon alloy steel inherently possesses excellent strength and toughness. When used for excavator bucket teeth, these materials meet the strength and toughness requirements. If surface hardening techniques are further applied to them, the bucket teeth can achieve not only high wear resistance but also retain good plasticity and toughness.

Currently, the main surface hardening methods include hammer peening, shot peening, explosive hardening, and hardfacing. Among these, hardfacing is more widely used in countries such as Russia and Germany. The materials used for hardfacing mainly include WC cemented carbide and Ni-, Mo-based high-chromium white cast iron. This method can be applied both to the manufacturing of new bucket teeth and to the repair of worn-out ones.

Generally, hardfaced materials do not require additional heat treatment. However, if the welding quality is poor, the hardfaced layer may peel off during use. Moreover, researchers, based on the characteristics of composite materials and the performance requirements of excavator bucket teeth, have developed insert-type bucket teeth and electroslag cast bucket teeth using different processes. The aim is to form a wear-resistant layer on the surface while maintaining high plasticity and toughness in the core. The main advantage of this method is its simplicity, but it also demands high process quality.

In addition, with the advancement of surface engineering technologies, methods such as thermal spraying, plasma spraying, and laser cladding have also been successfully applied to excavator bucket teeth, significantly enhancing their performance.

Bucket teeth are crucial components of an excavator and are also the most vulnerable to wear. They consist of a tooth base and a replaceable tip, connected by a pin. Since only the tip wears out, replacing it is sufficient, making the quality of the bucket teeth critical for cost-effectiveness.

Manufacturing Process

Bucket teeth are mainly produced via casting, including green sand casting, shell mold casting, investment casting, and forging.

• Green sand casting is inexpensive but results in poor surface finish and performance.
• Forged teeth are more durable but expensive and limited in variety.
• Shell mold and precision investment casting offer a balance between cost and performance, widely adopted in the market. We use shell mold and water-glass investment casting for optimal results.

Failure Analysis of Bucket Teeth

1. Failure Modes: Vary depending on working conditions, involving different degrees of wear and impact.
2. Stress Analysis: Different excavation phases apply different forces on the teeth.
3. Process Analysis: Samples taken from front and back surfaces were tested for hardness after polishing.
4. Microstructure Analysis: Metallographic studies show a matrix of dark fine lamellar structures, with inserts composed of white blocky ferrite and dark pearlite or bainite.
5. Performance Evaluation: Wear resistance tests using MLD-10 equipment show our materials outperform quenched 45# steel under low-impact abrasion conditions.

Recently, the SANY SY870E electric large-tonnage excavators were delivered in batches to a major coal mining operation! As a flagship model in the transition to green mining, the SY870E brings zero emissions, low energy consumption, and exceptional performance to support customers’ sustainable upgrades. With astonishing economic advantages, it’s spearheading a new wave of mining equipment revolution. Compared with traditional diesel models, the SY870E reduces total operating costs by over 40%, ensuring that every dollar is spent where it matters most.

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Intelligent Zero-Carbon Mining, Shaping a Greener Future

SANY Smart Manufacturing — United for Green

As a global leader in equipment manufacturing, SANY embeds the “green gene” deep into its DNA. From in-house development of core components to breakthroughs in all-electric mining solutions, we continually raise industry standards with technological strength and innovation. The launch of the SY870E marks not only a milestone in SANY’s dual-carbon strategy, but also a firm commitment to making mining cleaner and the world more sustainable.

Looking ahead, SANY will continue to innovate with purpose and partner with stakeholders worldwide to blueprint the green mine of tomorrow — reducing every gram of carbon emissions through cutting-edge technology and protecting every inch of our beautiful planet with extreme efficiency.