Serrated Cutting Edges

[Northart]

Here's a brochure from Caterpillar. :usa

Form PEDP2104-02.

Has lots info on cutting edges for graders. Literature says, "There are more than 70 Cat Motor Grader cutting edges available...............":)

2nd two pictures are of a gravel road going to Alaska DOT shop in Talkeetna, graded with serrated cutting edges.

[Northart]

Here's what State of Alaska DOT uses . :usa All winter, on blacktop roads, gravel roads, airport blacktop runway, and parking areas.

[Northart]

Serrated Cutting edges come in different widths, 1 1/2" and 2" .

The Caterpillar GraderBit system can be arranged differently. Wide,narrow openings or solid.

[Grader4me]

Great information Northart! Great pics of what the serrated blades will do. I'm sure it will be very useful for those that have never used them before. Good stuff.

[surfer-joe]

Great Lakes Paper (and others) used serrated edges extensively in northern Ontario on bush roads in winter time. I used the Cat "Grader Bit" system quite a bit maintaining haul roads in coal mines in West Virginia and Kentucky.

[72V]

I'd never used anything but regular solid cutting edges before last year. Now I use the conical John Deere style rotating bits. They work pretty good for road maintenance. There is never a crown to contend with in the blade, just individual bits to replace when they break or fall out. My only issue with them is that they tend to separate the bones out on 1.5" and bigger crushed rock when I make the final passes.

[Northart]

Here's another kind of application used by a contractor, for haul roads in winter.

[Grader4me]

I agree that the rotating bits do a great job with gravel road maintenance. It chews up and blends the material very well. The only time that I've used these in the summer was when the roads were hard and dry, and very difficult to get a cut with straight blades. I've tryed them in the winter for scarfiying but only on the gravel roads. With the regular serrated blades you could get away with giving some chipseal roads a light scratch(if built up with ice) but with the rotating bits it was out of the question. They would gouge right into the road.
I also had to switch blades continually in the winter time from straight to serrated as I went from scarfiying (gravel roads) to cutting snowpack on the paved roads. Easier to switch using the regular serrated blades as they were lighter. At times I would switch a couple of times during a storm.

[Cat140G]

Thanks for the pics Northart. Looks like you're ready for anything mother nature throws at you. Looking at some of those pics, it looks like the serrated blades are thicker than the cutting blades. I think we've finally got the bigwigs talked into buying some serrated blades. Thanks again.

[MKTEF]

Nice pics by the way Northart!

All graders doing work on public roads are equiped with a constant pressuresystem here around.:)
Then u can adjust the blade pressure so that the carbide bits dont tear up the asphalt.
Your bits then last for a very long time. Some might have them trough the whole winter.
Price here is around 10$ each....

Its also very important that the bits rotate, if not they wear in one spot, dont rotate and breaks or get worn down very quick.
We pure just a smal amount of antifreece on them in the morning, and u get no problem at all.

I have only seen a presure system like ours in the 24M graders.
I think it is a addon system offerred by Cat to the 24M.

I posted some pictures in another tread around here..

[Northart]

Hello MKTEF,

Are you talking about "FLOAT" where the levers are pushed forward or a electric switch is activated to release all hydraulic pressure, so the blade just floats over the surface, in constant contact, with the surface.

Going too fast, in float, with a heavy snow load under it, allows the blade to start rising up . Example, blade tilted too far forward,a heavy snowfall, wet snow,etc. This leaves some snow and ice behind that eventually builds a thick snow and ice pack, that then, must be removed in the spring, during breakup.

Years ago this was normal, to allow snow and ice pack to build up, but now they are putting sand and salt mixture on the roads to keep bare pavement showing.

Maintenance procedures are changing through the years.

[Grader4me]

I'll jump in for a sec here. Northart, the float system that you and I are used to is not the same as MKTEF is describing. The "constant pressure system" that he is refering to is on the new Volvo graders. In float position you can adjust the pressure on the moldboard to fit the application that you are doing. This would prevent the blade from riding up as you describe. With this system if you hit anything hard the pressure will release.

I think that I'm on the right track with this. I'm sure that MKTEF will explain it to you in more detail.

[Northart]

Hello Grader4me,

Maybe it's something I have not heard of .

Well, Caterpillar has one also, ME the Operator, I constantly monitor and adjust the blade contact. LOL :)

So, if this a "trip" for "Iron in the street" , much like the spring loaded pickup plows, I could see the usefullness, of it.

The old mechanical graders had the shear pins for that purpose.

Far as relieving the Operator of control of the blade ????

HHmmnn , pretty soon it will become robotic! LOL :)

[Grader4me]

Actually here is a thread where MKTEF was describing this system to us and we asked him lots of questions. Enjoy :)

http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=3407

[Diagonal Brace]

Nice machine Northart. I love how shiny the wing is. Does it have an extention on the end? Also love the ripper/ice buster attachment.

[Northart]

Hi Grader4me,

Hey this is a great place to visit.:)

Learn all kind of stuff, available nowhere else. :drinkup

I checked out your saved older thread, most interesting.

Hey, I'm of the old school now, trying to save my hard earned skills , from being stolen by robotics ! LOL :)

Pretty much like the Air Force Fighter Pilots. Opposing unmaned a/c like the Predator and other unmaned a/c.

But , the price of this new stuff (equipment) is going to bommerang, nobody be able to afford it. Much like the F-22 Raptor Fighter . Just limited numbers.

Even Operator Training now is getting to be absolutely necessary, because of the complexity and cost.

Seem like the simple stuff survives time.

Our future junkyards won't have much of this electronic age equipment, compared to the antiques of yesteryear. :drinkup

Well, just bring it on, the new technology, long as I'm able to keep up. :drinkup

[MKTEF]

Reseived a bunch of carbide bits and holders today.:)

Mounted the system on the grader i use for winter maint.
The others is planned for Sudan, so they got another setup.:cool:

It was late this evening so it got a little dark in the pics.
I'll see tomorrow if i can get some pictures around lunch when it is at its brightest.;)

I'll also take some of the holders and bits to show this type from Sandvik.
Brochure is posted earlier though.

Did some testing later this evening, and they shure bites. This is the most effective setup i've tried so far. They nearly dosen't need any downpressure, i am nearly adding positive not get a to big "bite".
They just eats down into the ice. When u look at the bits u understand way, they are like spikes with a real sharpened point edge.:)
And all of them rotate as u use them.
We will se how long they last when i touch the asphalt.... :rolleyes:

[06bowtie_guy]

MKTEF, I'm a mechanic underground in a nickle mine and on our grader for roads we run that exact setup. Those buttons seem to last good. As you said they rotate as you go so wear is good. Our biggest issue is the edge of blade wearing from rubbing the rock walls. Have little blade extentions so just replace and go again. Operators seem to like this setup more than the traditional flat blade previously used. As time goes on and they don't want to stay in the hole we just run a bead or two vertically and then the button fits back in like new. :drinkup

[MKTEF]

Nice to hear that some has tested, and found them worth the price to use...:)

Here is some pics of the setup.
The bits have a ring of thin metal around a flange on the pin that goes into the holder. Thats all that keeps them inside the holder.
U just knock them in with a hammer and a cup that fits onto the base.:)
Here i got 2x 4 foot and 2x 3 foot holders.

[AK20]

Greetings to Northart, another AK DOT guy here...I work for DOT Northern on the Haul Road. Anyway, we run the serrated blades as well for most snow removal and to "scratch" some of our hills, some of which exceeding 10-12% grade for traction. We also use what we call "button bits", pretty much the same thing MKTEF has there with a couple differences. We mainly use our button bits for ice-paving the highway up here, 60,000 gallons or so of water a mile, mix with dirt and tada - instant sandpaper that lasts all winter, for the most part.

[Northart]

Hello AK 20,

I live just a couple miles from the AK Talkeetna DOT shop. I don't work for them , I work out of Local 302 Operating Engineers.

I visit Steve Hanson over there quite a bit . Just to see what they are doing and talk shop.

I worked all up and down the Haul Road at various times, during the years. Worked the Dalton Hwy, 36-48 mile last.

Which Camp do you work out of?

Good to see, more Alaskans on the HEF BB. :)

Welcome aboard, AK 20 ! :usa

[AK20]

Oh gotcha, saw your location and the pics of the state blade there so I figured...anyway! I work out of the Chandalar camp, Mile 239, base of Atigun Pass.

[Grader4me]

Greetings to Northart, another AK DOT guy here...I work for DOT Northern on the Haul Road. Anyway, we run the serrated blades as well for most snow removal and to "scratch" some of our hills, some of which exceeding 10-12% grade for traction. We also use what we call "button bits", pretty much the same thing MKTEF has there with a couple differences. We mainly use our button bits for ice-paving the highway up here, 60,000 gallons or so of water a mile, mix with dirt and tada - instant sandpaper that lasts all winter, for the most part.

Welcome to the forum AK20! So is your job operating the Grader? Can you explain the procedure for ice paving the highway? More or less from start to finish? Nice picture! Beautiful country out there.

[AK20]

Welcome to the forum AK20! So is your job operating the Grader? Can you explain the procedure for ice paving the highway? More or less from start to finish? Nice picture! Beautiful country out there.

Thanks for the welcome, good to be here. For DOT we pretty much have to run everything, not really one person runs the same thing every day. Example, this week at work I ran the grader the whole time, my last shift I ran a tractor pulling a 8,5000 gallon water tanker for icing. So pretty much we all run graders, dozers, track hoe, tractor-trailer, compacters, front-end loaders, snow blowers, etc. It's a camp job, 1 week on 1 week off, we fly in since most of us live over 300 miles from the camp.


As for our icing procedures, I'll do my best to explain...also, the History Channel came up a couple months ago and filmed us in action, supposed to air this year in a new program called "Tougher in Alaska", so watch out to that if your really want a good explanation.

First thing, were using a 14H with those button bits like MKTEF has pictured above. We will make a couple passes over the road usually from the center out, the object is scratch up some fines and snow and kick them into windrows running down both shoulders, we usually do between 1-4 miles at time. The blade will prep a little first thing while the tankers our loading and hauling, then as time permits through the day. So after you have your lanes prepped your ready to go, we just go from mile marker to mile marker to make it easy, trying to get 8 loads a mile @ about 8k gallons = 64K gallons total, give or take. So start your water tanker at the beginning of the pass dumping water, the blade basically grabs the windrow off the shoulder and brings it to wards the center of the road. The next load will be in the opposite lane, this time the blade takes the windrow from the center going to wards the opposite shoulder he started in. Then you work your way back across in the opposite direction, your not really using a lot down pressure as you don't want to cut the road, just feathering the material in with the water. You go back in forth across the road a couple times, then cap the area off with a high speed pass from water tanker to keep everything in place...mind you your average speed with the grader and tanker working is 11-15 mph(5th or 6th gear in the grader) to keep the water from freezing as you go. It's super easy to do, just hard to explain very well, if you have any other ?'s shoot.

The pictures you can kind of see what I'm talking about, if you look around the Caribou.

[Grader4me]

Great explanation. I understand completely. I have never heard tell of that procedure before. Very interesting to say the least. I'll watch for it on the History Channel. Thanks again for taking the time to explain it to me. :) I will look forward to more of your posts...and pictures..

[AK20]

No problem, I'll try to get some pictures of some finished road when I go back up to work next week.