Direct contact
Massimiliano Casini-Cherici +49 (0) 7303 - 92874 - 26 casini-cherici@ttv-gmbh.de
The forestry engineering sector is experiencing dynamic development, with the challenges of the future increasingly lying in the fields of semi-autonomous and autonomous driving technology.
In hard-to-access forest areas or on steep terrain, the autonomous driving systems with state-of-the-art on-board hydraulics provide first-rate support for drivers.
tv has specialised in significantly increasing the service lives and temperature resistance of cutting-edge drive units and functional components in the field of forestry engineering, with its development of customer-specific seals and slide bushings. According to a statement from Managing Director Harald Nitzschke, ttv is also offering drawing-based production parts from CNC processing in any defined quality.
According to surveys by the Kuratorium für Waldarbeit und Forsttechnik e.V. (German Center for Forest Work and Technology - KWF), 2016 saw a decline in the purchase of new machines in almost all machine classes in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In Germany, for example, around 9% fewer heavy machines were purchased for professional forestry applications than the previous year, and the same applied in the Austrian market, which suffered an even steeper decline.
The reasons for this are complex, and it appears that there is a trend for increased automation.
The requirements in the field of forestry engineering are clear: Increased productivity, more output increasingly intelligent solutions with assistance systems for the operators of forestry machinery. There is no magic solution here though, as it is also important to ensure a very good price-to-performance ratio in an extremely competitive world market.
The variety of products used in forestry engineering is huge, and these range from harvesters, forwarders and combi-tractors right through to special forestry tractors.
This wide variety of products and the high strains put on the technology call for maximum quality and individual solutions, both from the machine manufacturers and from the suppliers of components and assemblies on the market. These high demands also mean that the number of engineers employed in agricultural and forestry engineering has almost doubled over the last 5 years, making it an increasingly interesting profession with excellent career opportunities, including the chance to work abroad.
Despite only being small components, seals and slide bushings are often crucial for the service life and functionality of today's machines and vehicles. In recent years, ttv has designed a wide range of different solutions that have lead to significant increases in service life and temperature resistance.
Sector
Forestry
Problem
Seized drive unit on the forestry tractor.
Project
To re-design the sealing solution in the further development of drive unit parts.
Usage
Drive unit on the feed, transmission gear unit and connection gear unit.
Requirements
Developing a sealing solution to improve service life. The huge external impact caused by wood and plant residues combined with water and sand leads to the premature failure of common standard shaft sealing rings. Even additional radial and axial dust lips were only able to achieve the desired service lives to a limited extent in the initial series of tests.
Approach
Comparative simulations followed by initial sample test runs of different radial seals (WDR AS, WDR AS9, combi-WDR, cassette, mechanical face seal). The on-site evaluation and assessment of the results of these test runs and decision-making together with Technical Purchasing.
Result
A ttv 24 cassette with adapted material is used, which in addition to the advantage of quick and easy assembly and replacement in the event of a revision, has also achieved a service life improvement of over 28% when being used directly by the operator.
Advantage
Service life improvement of 28.9 %.
