KVX Bolt-on Technology: An innovative design

KVX GET is a “system”, where the Lip and other GET components work together to bring you unique benefits.

1. Unique welding free solutions!

Adapter repairs and poor tooth retention can constitute a significant ongoing expense, not to mention the damage caused to adapters or fixed plant when a tooth is lost. The KVX system can completely eliminate these adapters and retainers as well as the associated welding on the cutting edge, due to the bolt-on technology.

Customers no longer have to mount, repair or replace adapters, retainers or profile bars. A bolt-on system that really lasts!

  • Significantly reduced risk of GET loss
  • Less risk of significant repair and downtime-related site costs due to lost GET parts damaging other plant
  • KVX conical-neck, high performance bolts are tightly torqued into a threaded plate (the lip on excavators or the underlying GET components on loaders and shovels). They have a grip like steel and withstand the toughest terrain.
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KVX Installation Procedures

The bolt-on technology is especially highly appraised…:

  • For underground, where you are not allowed to weld due to explosion risk.
  • In cold areas or other areas, where preheat for repair welding is limited. With KVX you don’t need to preheat to change teeth, adapters or wear plates. This can be a very attractive competitive advantage. You can also avoid the potential problems with weld cracks after welding in cold conditions.
  • Skilled welders are often difficult to find, so with KVX Bolt-on GET customers can reduce their need for skilled welders.
  • In high-production applications it’s also quite often the case that there simply isn’t the time available to correctly prepare and re-weld buckets and GET, meaning welding can be rushed or not done at all, leading to a vicious circle of downtime, poor reliability and risk.
  • At high altitudes, where welding can present unique challenges, KVX’s Bolt-on solutions will also reduce or even eliminate these.

2. Self-sharpening teeth and wear plates

Ground Engaging Tool (GET) components, by design, are wear parts… THEY WEAR! KVX have based their GET engineering around this basic principal.

Unlike competitive systems, which get blunter over time, KVX Lips and GET components actually utilize natures own wear characteristics to often provide better and better digging performance the more they wear. KVX gets sharper with wear!

All bucket teeth wear back towards the bucket Lip and loose penetration, however KVX teeth can actually get sharper when used correctly. Not requiring the protrusion, expense and maintenance of adapters, KVX teeth have considerably more wear material available than traditional cast teeth and can be worn much further back to the Lip due to this wear-sharpening design, which balances the reduction in protrusion much more efficiently than adapter systems can.

The KVX design reduces carry back in sticky material. As the internal surface of the lip/bucket has no elements protruding up from the lip there are no areas where sticky material can start to build up. We have seen examples where the change to KVX’s smooth internal floor design has reduced 40 % carry back to next to nothing.

It is possible to dramatically increase your production thanks to the following advantages of the unique KVX design:

a) Recessed bolt heads

  • Better penetration & productivity
  • Less hang-ups during dumping (faster more efficient material ejection reduces cycle time as well as carry back)
  • No exposed nuts or other components inside the bucket

b) Threaded lip and/or GET components

  • Positive retention throughout wear life
  • More useable wear material (no mounts or plough bolt heads to wear off)
  • Elimination of troublesome nuts, washers, adapters, shrouds, locks and retainers
  • Excellent protection for underside of lip & bucket (minimal bucket underside wear)
c) KVX bolts

  • Far superior GET retention than both plough bolt systems & pinned/locked systems
  • High strength, enhancing impact resistance & allowing fitment of longer-life components which protrude further in front of the Lip than conventional bolt or pin/lock systems can retain

d) Excellent penetration

  • Thinner frontal GET/lip profile provides superior productivity, less strain on the machine, superior fuel efficiency, reduced strain on driveline and powertrain components and less wheel spin/tyre wear.
  • Increased loading capacity due to slimmer frontal profile, better penetration and smooth internal floor, which proves dumping speed and efficiency

3. KVX teeth & wear plates: 4 components in 1!

  • Being under-slung., components get thinner and maintain sharpness as they wear back to the Lip.
  • The GET components also serve as excellent replaceable protection for the underside of the Lip AND bucket. This can save customers a large amount of money and time spent on bucket underside protection.
  • Bolted directly to the Lip, KVX teeth eliminate the expense, bulk and maintenance of adapters.

4. KVX bucket lips

Of equally unique and important consideration is KVX’s “Let It Wear” philosophy for bucket Lips (particularly as regards construction and utility class systems).

Conventional bucket Lips need to be constantly “protected” to ensure adequate life and maintain structural integrity. This “protection” (shrouds, front protectors, internal and external liners, etc.) plus associated labour and downtime, constitutes an insidious but significant ongoing maintenance expense, and the structural integrity of the Lip is reduced every time a weld is laid. Adapter expenses (repair and replacement) also often constitute significant ongoing costs as well.

KVX have eliminated these huge drawbacks through practical and original design, replacing all of the above with a slow-wearing “zero-maintenance” Sagitta Lip. Not only is the Lip “set and forget”, but the intelligent design means that both “tooth” and “Lip” penetration actually improve as the Lip wears, and tooth life is also extended!

KVX acknowledge that lip replacements on larger class machines are sometimes undesirable due to logistics and welding complexity. We therefore offer lip protection systems for larger systems in certain scenarios.