Up and coming dock-levelling manufacturer, REV Designs, recently completed the design and construction of three of the country’s largest scissor lifts ever produced with a capacity of up to 40 tonnes per lift.
The Springs-based manufacturer incorporated a host of clever designs to facilitate the heavy-lifting ability of the scissor lifts, which will be used in the saw milling industry. It also included the latest polymer bearings to enable heavy lifting with minimal wear and damage for and considerably longer service life and maintenance intervals.
According to REV Designs chief designer and founder, Ricardo Viljoen, the use of igus high performance polymer bearings ensures that the pivot points work smoothly with vastly reduced wear compared to traditional bearings and the added advantage of not requiring either lubrication nor daily maintenance.
Tough environment
“The bearings needed to be very strong to withstand the kind of forces that are placed on it in this hard-pushed timber processing environment. The bearings also have a distinct advantage in this kind of “dirty environment” with potential for the ingress of sawdust, woodchips and other debris that could snag lesser bearings.
“With this in mind, we chose to work closely with igus’ polymer bearing specialist, Juan-Eric Davidtz, who was able to match the right bearings for our requirements. Our design uses 33 bushes per lift and each one has specific operational requirements,” says Ricardo.
He adds that polymer bearings supplied by igus have become integral to nearly all new designs due to the bearings rugged and long-lasting abilities. That means that the bearings are able to last as long as the best materials used on the company’s lifting equipment, dock-levellers and other equipment.
Growing demand
The success of the bearings in the massive scissor lifts has also buoyed Juan-Eric, who says the company’s polymer products are increasingly being used in all kinds of industries and the timber industry is the latest one.
“We are an international supplier of motion plastics such as bearings, energy chains to protect cables and hydraulics, as well as speciality cables for different applications. Our motion plastics take things to a different level and usually result in machines and equipment using our products being more effective and long-lasting than those using traditional materials.”
Contact Ian Hewat, igus South Africa, Tel: (011) 312 1848, ihewat@igus.de, www.igus.co.za
