Tips on Selecting the Right Excavator Bucket | Volvo CE

To coincide with the launch of our new EC200E excavator, I thought it would be helpful to provide a quick overview of excavator buckets, especially for any new excavator owners out there.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit G-Top.

When it comes to selecting buckets, the options can seem limitless. That&#;s because excavators can tackle a diverse range of projects. There really is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to utilizing excavator buckets across different jobsites &#; even across a range of projects on the same site.

Three of the biggest considerations to keep in mind when selecting a bucket are:

1. The quality of the bucket and its features
2. Bucket size
3. Matching the bucket to the application

Whether you&#;re well-versed in excavator buckets or still learning, you&#;ll find value in these tips. That&#;s because the consequences of using the wrong bucket can be significant. If you don&#;t have the right bucket for your specific application, you&#;ll likely see lower productivity and fuel efficiency. You could also have premature wear of the bucket.

Bucket Quality

All buckets are not made equal, so you&#;ll want to do your homework to ensure you get the best bucket for your needs. One thing to look for is features that promote durability and reduced wear, such as wear strips that protect the bucket&#;s sides and back, and side cutters that protect the bucket&#;s cutting edge and improve penetration.

And don&#;t forget about what&#;s on the edge of the bucket to engage the ground and the material. If you don&#;t have the right edge or teeth, you won&#;t be able to do your job the way you want. For example, general purpose buckets typically have teeth, which is great for excavating. But if you&#;re doing grading or landscaping work, Volvo offers a bucket with a bolt-on edge to help give your work a smooth finish. For extremely compact material, on the other hand, you may need pick-point teeth. Also look at the tip radius &#; a short tip radius produces enhanced break-out force which reduces wear on the bucket and a long tip radius offers greater bucket capacity.

Volvo recently launched an all-new premium tooth system that not only increases productivity and fuel efficiency, but is also more wear resistant and much easier to fit, thanks to a hammer-less pin design. The teeth feature a new locking system that has a reusable locking pin, which locks into place simply by twisting it a quarter turn. You just place, push and twist &#; that&#;s it. With a system like this, you won&#;t always be in the market for a brand-new bucket.

Picking the Right Size

There are a lot of factors that go into picking the right size of bucket, including:

• Application: I&#;ll get into applications in greater detail below, but you want to maximize your bucket size for the application so that you can get more work done quicker. You can go too big, though, and hurt your productivity. A bucket that&#;s too large can slow cycle times, especially when moving high-density material. Also, digging a 24-inch trench using a 36-inch bucket would, obviously, be counter-productive.
• Material Type and Density: The material you&#;re working with and its density factor into how much you can actually pick up, which in turn affects the bucket size. As noted above, having too much of a high-density material in your bucket can hurt cycle times.
• Excavator Specs: The excavator&#;s size, configuration, desired reach and other specs help determine bucket size. It stands to reason that you wouldn&#;t put the same size of bucket on a 14-ton excavator as you&#;d put on a 75-ton machine. At Volvo, we have bucket sizes listed for our machines to ensure proper sizing is simple.
• Haul Truck Capacity: In order to fill up trucks as quickly as possible in the fewest number of passes, match the excavator&#;s productivity and bucket size with the capacity of the truck. You&#;ll get more done in less time, lower fuel consumption and reduce wear on your machines.

Matching Your Bucket to the Application

Matching your bucket to the application will save you time and money. So, let&#;s go through some common bucket types and how they&#;re used:

• General Purpose: General purpose buckets (some simply call them digging buckets) are designed for use in a large variety of ground conditions for all digging jobs. They easily handle materials such as topsoil, clay, sand and dirt, as well as tougher grounds with gravel and loose stones. They&#;re designed with teeth for efficient excavating and higher digging forces. On general construction and excavation sites, digging buckets are most common. And depending on the application, the bucket might have additional wear components to handle heavy or abrasive materials.
• Heavy-duty: Reinforced heavy-duty buckets provide productive digging in compact materials like blasted rock, hard-packed clay and stone. They can also handle gravel, ripped basalt, shot granite, high-silica sand, sharp rock and other dense materials. Volvo buckets are manufactured using high-strength AR400 steel. Abrasion Resistant (AR) steel is extemely hard and makes for more durable, impact-resistant buckets. The bucket has an all-round heavier and tougher build than the general-purpose version. Heavy-duty buckets are typically used in applications like rock quarries for loading and rehandling. They allow operators to fill haul trucks as quickly as possible in the fewest number of passes.
• Ditching/Grading: Ditching (or grading) buckets have smooth edges designed for ditch maintenance, landscaping, backfilling and slope shaping and are optimized for filling, soft material digging and moving material around. You&#;ll see them used a lot in road construction. They&#;re also ideal for work done in a creek bed &#; drain holes allow water to filter out, removing added weight. Ditching and grading buckets tend to be wider, and with a flat cutting edge, they&#;re ideal for landscape finishing work and utility projects.

Customization and Quick Coupler Options

Buckets can also be customized with different types of teeth, side cutters, additional guarding, even different shapes to improve penetration. In Florida, for example, we&#;ve customized buckets with a spade nose, which is like a flat tooth. It creates a flatter edge which helps with the type of soil they dig in.

Volvo buckets are available as a direct fit or with Volvo quick coupler interfaces. If you&#;re planning to switch out attachments often, buying buckets with universal quick couplers is important so your operators can switch out attachments fast and easy, on any brand of excavators you&#;re running. If you only run Volvo equipment though, our dedicated S-type couplers are the best option for enhanced performance, including better breakout forces and capacities.

Learn more about Volvo buckets here, and if you have additional questions, just post a comment below.

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Unsure what bucket tooth you&#;ve got on your bucket? Use this guide to find out.

There are several ways to determine your bucket tooth fitment style and size. Most of our customers are not sure about the types of bucket teeth they should purchase or use, so we recommend some methods to guide them for better application.

Normally, investment casting manufacturer will cast the part number of a bucket tooth directly outside the surface of the tooth. If you can&#;t locate it or make it out, then follow our guide below.

I. Side pin or Top pin

SIDE PIN

There are many side pin bucket tooth fitment styles. By far the most popular is the Cat J-Series. We also stock Komatsu bucket teeth.

Here&#;s how to tell which is which.

Want more information on Bucket Teeth Material? Feel free to contact us.

CAT J-SERIES

Cat J-Series pins run horizontally through the tooth and adapter.

J-series has a pin and separate retainer. The pins have a recessed groove at one end to seat the retainer that is inserted into the adapter.

J-Series adapters have a recessed area on one side of the nose that retainer is inserted into.

KOMATSU

Komatsu bucket teeth have an integrated centre-ring pin and retainer that looks like this.

Komatsu adapters is different from Cat J-Series, they have no recessed area for a retainer on the nose.

TOP PIN

ESCO CONICAL

ESCO Conical bucket teeth have a vertical pin system. The hole is on the top and is rectangular shape with a square top and rounded bottom.

The pins and rubber retainers look like this:

The top end of the tooth tends to have a rounded shape that fits into a concave counterspace on the adapter.

II. Machine size

Once you have identified the fitment style, the next step is to confirm the fitment size. The quickest way to narrow down where to look is to use the machine size. The correct size adapters should be fitted to a bucket that is designed for a specific machine size. Correct advice isn&#;t always followed but it is a good start to help identify your fitment size.

Here is a chart that matches the correct machine tonnage with fitment sizes:

Tonnage 4-6 7-8 7-10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30 35-40 45-50 50-60 Cat
J-Series J200 J225 J225 J250 J300 J350 J400 J460 J550 J600 ESCO Conical 18 22 25 30 35 40 45 50 Komatsu 200 (205) 200 (205) 200 (205) 300 (207) 400 (208) 600 (109) 600 (109)

III. Pin and retainer size

The most accurate way to determine your fitment size is to measure your pins and retainers because they are manufactured to more exacting measurements than cast teeth.

Since you know what fitment size matches your machine tonnage you can view the product listings for the pin and retainer in that size.

Each product listing has a table of measurements that reference a diagram in the product image gallery.

Check that the measurements of your pin/retainer closely match those listed to confirm your fitment size. If the measurements differ, then check the measurements of pin/retainers for the fitment sizes to see if you find a better match.

IV. Tooth pocket size

If you&#;re still unsure, or you want to double-check your result, you can measure the interior pocket opening of your worn/other teeth. The pocket is the area that the adapter nose fits into. The interior pocket is subject to minimal wear during the life of a bucket tooth. This makes it a good location to compare measurements.

Measure the height and width of the top opening of the pocket and compare with the table of measurements on a product listing. If you find a close match then you&#;re looking at the right product.

V. Success!

If you feel confident that you&#;ve identified your tooth then you can send the part number of bucket teeth to us for quoting first. Then start your ordering once our price is reasonable.

If you&#;re still unsure, our engineer can recommend a right type for your application, and our samples can be provided for inspection.

 

Are you interested in learning more about Komatsu Bucket Adapters? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!