Calculating Expander® System´s cost benefits in forestry and logging
Find out how switching to Expander can help lower the total cost of ownership for your heavy-duty forestry equipment.
If your forestry or logging operation relies on heavy-duty machinery, then you know that each machine’s total cost of ownership (TCO) affects your bottom line.
The TCO for forestry equipment with pivot pins – such as harvesters, harvester heads, forwarders, and skidders – is especially affected by pivot pin maintenance. The lifecycle of a pivot pin is a critical factor, and one also multiplied by the number of pins in a machine. For traditional pin designs, upkeep and repair create obvious expenses, like regular replacement or routine lubrication. But others are not so obvious.
THE COSTS TRADITIONAL PIVOT PINS ADD TO YOUR TCO
Hidden expenses in traditional pivot pin maintenance accumulate over time and significantly increase the TCO of machinery.
- When the pivots of a machine with traditional straight pins wear, movement becomes less efficient, and productivity gradually declines.
- Worn traditional pivot pins eventually seize, and the equipment is unusable until the pin can be removed and replaced.
- Any unplanned downtime for pivot pin maintenance lowers output.
- Removing a seized pin and repairing the wear it created in the pivot’s lug holes to install a replacement is time-consuming, labor-intensive work. In worst case scenario, lancing out the pin with all its associated risks, usually in combination with using hydraulic tooling and full line boring, including rough cut, welding and line boring back to tolerance.
Switching to the Expander System avoids all of that, as well as a major drawback to using traditional straight pins in heavy-duty machines for forestry.
PIVOT PIN MAINTENANCE ON-SITE OR IN THE FIELD
Unlike traditional pivot pin designs, our pivot pin assemblies can be easily removed and installed, often with basic hand tools. Once the Expander System is in a machine pivot joint, you can typically adjust or replace it on-site. So, forestry equipment operating in the field usually doesn’t have to be brought to a workshop or repair facility for pivot pin maintenance with Expander.
LIFECYCLE COSTS: EXPANDER VS. TRADITIONAL PINS
We calculated pivot pin maintenance expenses for both Expander and traditional pivot pins, across the same timeframe for some of the most common heavy-duty machines in forestry. We then assessed immediate total costs (with and without downtime) and total lifecycle costs (also with and without downtime).
You can download our lifecycle cost calculations via the links below and see for yourself how the Expander System lowers the cost of ownership.
