Sandvik has released a patented mechanical heel shroud system for loader buckets in underground and surface hard rock mining applications, allowing bucket heel shrouds to be changed out quickly and safely without gouging or welding. Described as a new concept in mechanical wear part, Sandvik Shark’s Mechanical Heel Shroud (MHS) is “significantly quicker and safer to change out, resulting in reduced downtime and fewer bucket repairs,” the company says. Installing the MHS onto a loader bucket – and it is adaptable to any brand of loader bucket – requires the one-off fitment of a special base plate, which is designed to last the life of the bucket.

The Mechanical Heel Shrouds are then attached to the base plate using Sandvik’s ‘One Bolt System’. This is a simple seven-stage process using standard fitters’ tools, with no welding required. Once installed, wear levels can be visually monitored.

According to Rob Parker, Sandvik Shark’s Asia-Pacific product manager, the new MHS system is significantly safer than conventional heel shrouds. “Once the initial conversion to the base plate has been done, no welding ‘hot work’ – including permits – is required to change shrouds,” he said. “And because the MHS locks are accessible from the bucket sides, there is no need to work under the bucket.”

Parker said the MHS also resulted in considerable time savings. “Change out times are improved by about 85%,” he said. “Typically to gouge off a set of 14 heel shrouds, prep and weld on 14 replacement shrouds requires two 12-hour shifts. In contrast, to remove and replace 14 Sandvik Shark Mechanical Heel Shrouds takes on average, 15 minutes per shroud, or about three and a half hours.”

Change out intervals are also longer due to the high quality SS3000 steel used for the shrouds – the same as used on other Sandvik Shark mechanical GET systems.

“This results in considerable time savings in bucket maintenance; because our Mechanical Heel Shrouds don’t have to be welded, we can use our harder material spec – giving a longer service life and fewer change outs per bucket,” said Parker.

For the left and right hand front positions on the bucket, the new shrouds are available in two versions, a standard and an XL version.

The XL has an additional 40 mm of wear material forward of the locking bolt to better handle increased impact and abrasion from side-wall collisions in underground work.

Parker said that in developing its MHS, Sandvik Shark had to come up with a completely new mechanical attachment system.

“Heel shrouds are subject to a unique set of forces from many directions, and so required a different locking mechanism to that used on our Sandvik Shark BPII lip system,” he said.

“However, we did apply the same Sandvik Shark philosophy of designing GET to improve safety and reduce cost-per-tonne of production through smart mechanical attachments designed to increase bucket life and reduce downtime.”