excavator is a large and powerful machine used for industrial activities such as digging up the ground, destroying hard objects, or removing heavy things. Attached to the end of its long arm, there is a container named bucket, and a row of bucket teeth is mounted evenly at the end of the bucket. The bucket teeth are a combination of a tooth-like tip and a tooth seat, which are connected by a pin. The former usually called bucket teeth, and the latter called tooth adapter.
It is common sense to choose the right excavator and loader bucket teeth type with the best shape to adapt for the different working condition. There are various types of excavator bucket teeth, including but not limited to standard long (STD), rock chisel (RC), tiger long (TL), heavy duty long (HD), twin tiger (WTL), penetration (PT), rock penetrator (RP), flat penetrator (SYL) and so on… Since the bucket teeth are divided into different types depending on the working environment, there are also various shapes of bucket tooth adapters. Such as bottom mount tooth adapter, flush mount tooth adapter, tooth bar adapter, bolt-on tooth adapter and so on…
Bucket teeth are an important wear part on excavators. In order to maximize the performance and lifespan of the bucket teeth, they must be matched to the corresponding tooth adapters. Otherwise, the bucket teeth will fall off or break prematurely, even if using the right type of the bucket teeth for the working conditions. So how to choose the right tooth adapter? Generally, you will only need to consider the adaptor you are installing when you are building a brand-new bucket or changing your tooth system. The reason is that an adapter usually can be used with many different bucket tooth profiles if they are specifically designed for this adapter. Therefore, only when the size and profile of the bucket teeth is decided, the right adapter can be chosen.
During the working of the excavator, the bucket teeth tend to wear the most, so it is common to replace only the bucket teeth, not the tooth adapter. However, when you start consistently losing or breaking bucket teeth in operation or find that new bucket teeth have excess movement on the tooth adapter during installation. You will know it is time to replace the teeth adaptors. Without fixing or replacing the tooth adapter in time, worn tooth adapters can lead to a vicious cycle that puts more stress on other bucket teeth and tooth adapters.
As for the material of the tooth adapter, low alloy steel is used in casting and forging process, which with main elements C, Si, Mn, Cr, Al, etc. In addition, in order to improve strength and wear resistance for better performance, some trace elements such as Mo and Ni will be added, too. On the other hand, it’s important to make sure that the tooth adapter is softer than bucket teeth themselves, because the harder the metal is, the more difficult it is to weld. A good weld is very significant when installing a tooth adapter.