Excavator bucket manufacturer ChangWoon goes for 100% Hardox® 500 Tuf to save weight and extend service life

ChangWoon has been quick to adapt its own patented bucket design to the performance potential that comes with Hardox^® 500 Tuf, using only this steel for both wear resistance and structural strength. The steel’s combination of high hardness and high toughness makes it a perfect material for light, strong and durable excavator buckets. Naturally, having one steel for different parts has both logistic and processing benefits. It improves yield and speeds up production when bending and welding the steel.

Many of ChangWoon’s customers work with hard, abrasive materials. And the harder the material, the more important it is to carefully select the bucket’s steel. If a bucket’s structure is made of relatively mild steel like A36, grade 50, A514 or S355 steel and exposed to highly abrasive materials, its service life will be cut short and costs for repair and downtime will be high.

In traditional buckets, the steel has to be beefed up with a so-called wear package for protection and longer service life. But this kind of bucket isn’t optimized for its task. It has a lot of deadweight due to the combination of a less wear-resistant steel and additional wear parts.

With Hardox^® 500 Tuf, excavator bucket manufacturers can build buckets that are both stronger and lighter than traditional buckets. This is because the steel is hard yet tough enough to function as a structural steel. ChangWoon reduced the steel thickness by 2 mm (0.079”) while maintaining or even increasing the bucket’s wear life, in some cases by as much as 400%. They could also save 17% weight or 90 kg (198 lbs.) in a 0.6 m3 (0.785 cu. yd.) bucket.

Being a member of the Hardox^® In My Body brand program is a proof of ChangWoon’s dedication to continuous development and quality. Its buckets are designed and manufactured according to the program’s strict specifications, using genuine Hardox^® wear plate.

“Hardox^® 500 Tuf and Hardox^® 500 have excellent weldability and formability, which helps to bring higher performance and more sustainable quality,” says ChangWoon’s president Mr. Kang-Jun Lee. The company is certain that the membership supports its strategy to reach a leading position on the market.

ChangWoon has a solid reputation in the South Korean construction business. The company started in 2013 as a manufacturer of structural bridge components. In 2018 ChangWoon introduced its own line of excavator buckets made in Hardox^® 500 and Hardox^® 500 Tuf. The buckets have gained praise from customers in South Korea and abroad.

ChangWoon works closely with its customers to collect feedback from field operations. This drives the development process forward to optimize the performance of Hardox^® wear steel in a bucket’s different parts.