CAT R2900G Hinged Fenders
This project was born out of an inefficient and costly maintenance issue on underground mine sites. Many sites were experiencing difficulty with accessing the boom arm lift cylinders, located behind the front fenders of CAT loaders such as the R2900G, which are often damaged during operation.
During the event of a break-down or scheduled replacement, a crane would be required to remove the whole fender assembly to allow access for the maintenance or replacement to take place. This was especially inconvenient in a break-down scenario during operation, leading to extended machine downtime and maintenance in a potentially unsafe area.
Another issue found with the fixed fenders is difficulty in re-fitting them after they have been removed for maintenance. Getting the fenders to line back up with the mounting holes can often be a difficult process, forcing further delays and sometimes requiring new fenders to be purchased and fitted.
Our underground parts team worked closely with a site to solve these issues.
Damaged R2900G front fender
SOLUTION DEVELOPMENT
Drawing from Bend-tech’s experience in designing and manufacturing replacement parts for both underground and surface machines, an innovative design made it through testing and was trialled.
The hinged fender allows maintenance teams to simply fold-out the fenders to access the lift cylinders, without requiring the fenders to be removed. This design significantly reduces machine downtime while also ensuring safer maintenance on the boom arm lift cylinders, particularly during a break-down. Other key benefits include:
- Fenders are supplied with OEM spec mudflaps and rated lifting hooks.
- Bend-tech use a double hinge mechanism, meaning bolts are not required to be removed for the fender to hinge correctly.
- Double pin design to eliminate sagging, using stainless pins with greasing points.
RESULT & FEEDBACK
The CAT R2900G Hinged Fender is now used by multiple underground sites and Bend-tech are in the process of developing this design to suit all Caterpillar, Sandvik and Epiroc loaders. Here is what a valued client had to say about this project:
“To start with the customer service from Bend-tech is one off the best I have had always easy and quick to respond with quotes and fast in shipping the product out to the customer. The R2900 hinged front fenders are of high quality from the welds down to the paint job and we have never had a issues with fitting the fenders the only thing that we have had to do is drill hole in the right hand guard to fit rubber flaps as per customer request. I will be using Bend-tech in the future.”
For our full range of underground machinery products please visit our website or download our brochure.
