How heavy-duty buckets in Hardox® 500 Tuf make the toughest jobs easier

“When SSAB visited us to present Hardox^® 500 Tuf, we quickly realized it had great potential for our products,” says Fronteq’s CEO Birgitta Boström. “The timing was great since we were just about to develop Granit, a bucket that’s primarily focused on heavy work in quarries. We worked closely with SSAB during its development so that we utilized the material in the best way.”

Virtually all buckets from the company are adapted to the customer’s needs. This holds true for Granit, a new series of deep buckets for rocks like granite, with a capacity between 2 and 5 m³ (2.6–6.5 yd³). The company’s customers are demanding and expect high quality, so it’s only natural to use groundbreaking materials. Although Hardox^® 450 and Hardox^® 500 still play an important role, Hardox^® 500 Tuf provides a unique combination of their best features.

Fronteq sees great opportunities to simplify purchasing, handling and manufacturing by increasing the amount of Hardox^® 500 Tuf in its buckets. The fewer variants of steel, the better the production economy. The company had extensive experience of Hardox^® wear steel and was early to upgrade from Hardox^® 400 to Hardox^® 450. Fronteq’s site manager, Marco Lundahl, explains why they are now stepping up to Hardox^® 500 Tuf.

“This gives us several benefits. We get better purchasing economy and reduce the risk of having too large an inventory. The production also benefits from making more parts in the same material because we get shorter set-up times in the machines. We also get a better utilization rate of the plates – there will always be waste pieces that can be used for other details.”

Fronteq has been a qualified member of SSAB’s Hardox^® In My Body program since 2004. Its Granit heavy-duty excavator buckets are certified under the program, along with other attachments like grading buckets, cable buckets and trench buckets. Hardox^® In My Body represents a sign of quality that customers know well and ask for when ordering new buckets.

“It’s a great advantage to have SSAB as a partner. They are very professional and give us good support when we develop new products,” Birgitta Boström says.