Ball coupling without lubrication

Trailer couplings actually need to be lubricated every time they are used. This is very costly and time-consuming. "I know farms where someone has to service and lubricate every single bearing point on all machines once a week," reports Toni Milhahn, Product Manager and Sales Engineer at ROCKINGER Agriculture GmbH.

It is also important to ensure that the correct amount of grease is applied to the coupling. "Excessive quantities can lead to some of the lubricant getting into the soil or onto the crop. Too little leads to coupling damage," explains Marcus Reinländer, Head of Plant Production at Agrargenossenschaft e.G. Kirchheilingen.

The KS80 coupling with wear insert addresses precisely this problem. A so-called wear insert makes lubrication superfluous and prevents high costs for regenerating the coupling. For maintenance, the ball and coupling claw only need to be checked with a gauge. ROCKINGER recommends changing the wear insert once a season.

The insert consists of an iglidur high-performance plastic, which igus has developed especially for the ROCKINGER application. Like all iglidur materials, it contains the same basic components, including solid lubricants in the form of microscopically small particles that are distributed throughout the material. They are released in small quantities and thus lubricate the bearing point.

No more lubricating: for balers, loader wagons, manure spreaders, tippers and field sprayers, ROCKINGER Agriculture GmbH develops ball couplings called KS80 using a high-performance plastic of the iglidur series that igus developed specifically for the company. The coupling consists of a coupling ball and claw installed in the height adjustment.

As usual, the coupling claw is positioned on the ball head from above. It is secured against inadvertent decoupling with a hold-down device and creates a clearance-free connection. The special feature of this coupling only becomes apparent when you look into the coupling claw. It contains the wear insert made of high-performance plastic, the wear resistance of which has been proven in laboratory tests.

In a fatigue test, the inserts withstood two million load changes with a support load of 4.5t. ROCKINGER Agriculture GmbH calculates that if a third of the tractors in Germany were equipped with a KS80 and wear insert, around 8,300 couplings would require no lubrication. Eight tonnes of grease could be saved each year.

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