Birrana™ Enhanced Wheel Groups
Our Birrana™ brand is synonymous with product innovation and service excellence. The Birrana™ brand stands for unparalleled expertise in the design, manufacture and rebuild of brakes, final drives, differentials, axles and suspension systems for Caterpillar and Komatsu mobile mining equipment. Birrana™ mobile mining enhancements and innovations are now available globally. Our core business is remanufacturing and improving wheel groups for Caterpillar and Komatsu mobile mining equipment.
In order to achieve these improvements and offer distinct value to our customers, our dedicated team utilize proprietary Birrana™ technologies such as;
The Birrana™ Control Fit wheel bearing assembly, which includes:
- Flexible spacer
- Hardened spacer
- Proprietary bearing design and specifications as well as our proprietary bearing fit and preload adjustment
H-E Parts Mining divisions also offer proprietary Birrana™ contamination control innovations which include:
- Isolation seal
- Contamination guards and contamination control attributes
Other offerings include:
- Engineered gear design and manufacture
Birrana™ Control Fit
Birrana™ Flexible Spacer
The Birrana™ flexible spacer is available for both front and rear wheel groups. It fits over the spindle in between the wheel bearing cones and acts as a spring to provide a lateral clamp force on the bearing cones. This assists in preventing cone rotation on the spindle and reduces associated wear. Use of the Birrana™ flexible spacer means bearing pre-load is maintained and wheel bearing life is improved
Birrana™ Hardened Spacer
The hardened spacer is splined to the spindle to prevent movement and provides a hard surface behind the outer bearing cone in the rear wheel groups. The hardened spacer has an anti-fretting surface treatment and minimizes wear or fretting on the anchor gear. This reduces the likelihood of wear particle contamination and maintains bearing pre-load while improving the overall wheel bearing life.
Birrana™ Proprietary Bearing Design and Specification
Birrana™ wheel bearings are made from premium clean steel for long fatigue life. Superior surface finishes are employed where required to reduce the incidence of thin film lubrication and increase bearing life. Additionally, in critical applications, special heat treatments are specified to provide significant debris resistance, while modified profiles on rollers and races prevent premature bearing failure by reducing stress concentrations under load.
H-E Parts bearings are also designed using:
- Textured rollers that further improve oil film thickness
- Surface treatments that provide debris resistance
- Crowning that distributes load more evenly
Wheel Bearing Pre-Load
Incorrect bearing pre-load setting is a common cause of premature wheel bearing failure. Birrana™ has a proprietary wheel bearing pre-load setting process that is accurate, reliable and repeatable. It is not affected by inconsistencies in bolt torques, bearing fits or housing dimensions. Wheel bearings can only achieve their full potential life if pre-load is set correctly and maintained for the life of the bearing. Excessive pre-load and loss of pre-load are known causes of early bearing failure.
Birrana™ Thicker Fret Resistant Retainer Plate
Birrana™ retainer plates are available for select front and rear wheel groups. They are thicker than the OEM plates with countersunk bolt holes. Plates for front wheel groups also have a larger outer diameter which increases the contact area for the outer bearing cone.
Birrana™ retainer plates:
- Are hard with anti-fretting surface treatment
- Reduce wear or fretting on the retainer plate
- Ensure bearing preload is maintained
- Ensure wheel bearing life is improve
Birrana™ Contamination Control
Birrana™ Isolation Seal
When fitted to both wheel groups the isolation seals effectively divide the rear axle into three separate compartments. This separation eliminates cross contamination between the wheel groups and the differential. A failure in an axle compartment is confined to that compartment and will not damage the rest of the driveline components. The separation allows oil samples and magnetic plug samples to be more meaningful as they reflect the condition of the sampled compartment only. Used in rear wheel groups, the isolation seal assembly is fitted to the inside of the spindle and has a rotating section that seals on the half shaft.
Birrana™ Contamination Guards
Designed for rear wheel groups, this assembly consists of a series of ‘super magnets’ positioned inside the end of the wheel hub and two metal plates that are attached to the anchor gear and wheel hub. The super magnets collect wear debris out of the oil and the plates form a labyrinth arrangement. The labyrinth arrangement allows oil to pass but keeps any wear particles generated in the planetaries away from the wheel bearings.
Birrana™ Contamination Excluder Seal for standard CAT 793 rear wheel groups
Many CAT wheel groups have the potential for mud to pack between the brake and wheel hub around the outer mechanical face seal, which can cause premature failure. The Birrana™ Contamination Excluder Seal works by preventing mud packing in the area immediately around the face seal. This prevents contamination and damage to the face seal and the seal ramps, allowing the face seal to last longer.
Benefits:
- Easy installation, installed with no modification of any housings
- Increased life of face seal
- Increased value from wheel groups achieving full life before needing to be repaired
- Cost savings from less maintenance on the wheel group
- Developed by highly trained, experienced H-E Parts engineers
- Reduced down time for machines, improving production
Gear Design and Manufacture
Gears and cutters are designed with crowning and tooth tip and root profile modifications as required to improve tooth bending strength, eliminate interference, and optimize tooth contact under load. H-E Parts proprietary designed software developed in-house is used for determining gear geometry and calculating gear rating/capacity to ensure the gears are manufactured to the highest required specifications. Gear ratings are based on real-world field performance and bending and rolling/ sliding contact fatigue test data for real world materials. Finite Element Analysis is used to model the stresses in all components to ensure acceptable fatigue life.