Has anyone ever used chocky bars for a high wear area? I have a land plane for smoothing an oval track that even when hard-faced the runners/skids tends to wear out rather fast. Saw them in an equipment shop and seems like they would be a simple solution. Cat, Hensley and a few others have them as well. https://www.blackcatwearparts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/910-Chocky-Bars-Wear-Buttons.pdf
I thought this thread was gonna be about candy bars.
Do you have pictures of your drag?
Used to use similar wearbars to build up the front side of subsoil rippers that ran in hard packed sand, they really wore well.
If only you just drip chocolate on the skids for wear protection. When it no longer tasted like chocolate it was time to replace it. Mind you some candy is so hard you break your teeth on it. Candy cane wear strips... I like it! It's like the one below. I usually have the front lifted slightly so the back end of the wear strips carry the weight but wear out fast. They get a little warm too but the track is a 1/4 mile long and 65' wide so do several miles when levelling it at 5-6 MPH. I used some UTP 711B on the high carbon runners but still had fairly rapid wear. I thought the chocky blocks would be easier and last longer than trying a higher chromium hardfacing rod. Tungsten carbide might be better but would be cost prohibitive if had to buy a 5KG box. Soil is sandy clay and very abrasive. https://www.machinefinder.com/ww/en-US/machines/6674733
There is a company down here that offers scraper blades with a spray on carbide instead of hardsurfacing. It may be fairly cheap to go down that road with some 1/4” bar and tack on the bottom without raising your other blades up to high?? The candy cane sounds like the best idea....or peanut brittle. Either ought to last a while.
Peanut brittle could work. Rock hard coating with very coarse peanut matrix. Not good if you have a peanut allergy.
There is a place by the name of Ford Steel located near Pittsburgh, Pa. That is where I get mine from.
How does it compare with hardfacing?
They have the chocky bars. Way better than hard facing. I put some of the bars on a dragline bucket 12 years ago. You can still read the logo and the part # on them. Definitely worth the investment if it is a high wear area.
Have you tried Hardcro63 from ARCTEC. Buildup a cushion of ARCTEC 60 first and then some 63 on top . The 63 cracks to relieve stress but wears really well . Used to build up Churn drilling bits with it. In saying that ,those chocky bars do look pretty handy
Would wear tile be an option? Havent tried this in anything but i hear it is a long term solution to any wear. It cannot take large rock impact or it will shatter. Guys tell me if we do this once it will last the life of the machine. We tried the spray carbide on excavator teeth. It was fairly cheap. Our typical life expectancy on j450 size teeth is about 2 weeks. The spray carbide added a week. We have been buying cat, esco, Hensley, or romac teeth. Blackcat would only last 1 week. We have been using rubber belting in hoppers that would wear hardox out in about a week. Real cheap solution. The belting typically lasts 5-6 months.
Very high wear area. Doing 5 or more miles at a time at 5 MPH is a lot of abrasion. I think I only need the chocky bars for the rear of the skids. If I recall they are about $35 or so for the smaller ones. From what I've been able to find, the chocky bars outlast hardfacing by quite a bit and are real simple to install. I'd just cut off the back 9-1/2" of the wear bar and weld the chocky bar in its place. Hardfacing isn't difficult but is time consuming and I'd have to build up the existing skids to size before applying the hardfacing in a couple layers. Don't think rubber would work on a skid constantly sliding on the ground and wouldn't be very slippery. In a hopper I could see rubber working as long as it didn't get cut from sharp material. The hard surface on the chocky bars is about 9/16" thick so is quite a bit thicker than you could do with hardfacing. Black Cat are cheaper teeth but I'll see who all carries the chocky bars. The chocky bars all look very similar looking at the specs. I think they are worth a try.
Looks interesting Dave. Thanks for sharing!
Do you have a picture of where you would be placing them? And dimensions?
We use them all the time on excavator/front shovel buckets. What do you need to know..?
They can be placed anywhere and apparently last 3 to 6 times longer than AR500 plate. In post 5 there is a picture of the landplane I think they would work good on. Just seeing if anyone has experience with them compared to hardfacing. They are quick and simple to install. I'd need some about 1" to 1-1/2" wide. https://www.bendtechgroup.com.au/the-power-of-the-chocky-bar/
Let us know how they work!
Titan Supply about 10 minutes from where I live can get Hensley chocky bars. The CB40 (40mm wide) were $18 each so a I ordered a couple to try out. I think they were about 1/2 the price from where I originally saw them. Will take about 2 weeks to get them but I've probably got 2 month's before the snow is gone to use them.
I use chromium hardfaced bars that I order from IMPCO in Madisonville, KY. Ask for Barry - he's the one that turned me onto this stuff. 3/8 on 3/8 will be 3/8" chromium carbide hardsurface on top of 3/8" hot rolled plate. Several thicknesses are available. The hot roll is easy to weld on and the chromium layer seems to last forever. I use this stuff on the skids of my cutterheads and internals of the heads. I have yet to wear through any portion of the hard layer. Even when working in a rocky county, places where I could watch the skid "evaporate" a little each day, the chromium bars just stay shiny and show no wear. Great thing is, these parts can also be bent or rolled to some extent. I know they come from a mill in Alabama and they stuff is not cheap, but it sure is cheaper to do it once and be done for a decade.
It's these guys. We used their chromium carbide wear plate on the last job - it's good kit. They can supply it pre-rolled to fit things like dozer blades and grader moldboards provided you give them details of the bend radius you require. https://www.alabamahardsurfacing.com/history.html
Trimay wear plate is local and I used to work at a place that did chromium carbide overlay on pipe used for oilsands slurry, extremely abrasive. For the small strips I need I don't think it would be cost effective to have them custom made. The high hardness hardfacing is limited to 2 layers, some only one layer. I could manually hardface the runners but couldn't get the thickness of the chocky bars. It would take a lot more time and be more expensive to do. The chocky bars are also easier to replace when they wear out. Grind a few welds and weld new ones on. If I hardfaced them and they wore out, I'd have to grind any remaining hardfacing off and that's never fun. For $36 I'll see how the chocky bars work. If they wear out too fast I'll see if Trimay has some small cut offs I could purchase. https://trimay.com/products/wear-plate/
Usually ground engaging tools have 450-500 Brinell hardness. However choky bars, buttons have 700 Brinell. They really help to protect bucket bottom and side plates. Usco (ITR) ones have good price.
Chocky bars are excellent in extreme wear areas. We use em all over buckets and on dozer blades, we have tried hensley but it doesnt last in the tough stuff if you can get it in your country try WEST - TRAK their stuff is incredible and lasts at least double or triple the lifespan of other wear parts.