WHAT’S NEW: HOSE ASSEMBLY MADE EASY

Aeroquip (Canada) Inc. has introduced MatchMate Plus, a trademarked crimp hose assembly system that includes a new one-piece global fitting and other enhancements to its popular Match Mate system. The new one-piece fitting replaces a two-piece design, speeding hose assembly replacement and reducing costly downtime.

(Aeroquip recently demonstrated this in Toronto with a seminar in which untrained people were briefed on the new system and then asked to put together hoses and fittings. All the participants assembled four separate hoses and fittings in less than three minutes. Most, in fact, were able to complete the task in slightly more than two minutes, a participant from this publication among them).

Because replacements can be assembled so quickly, the MatchMate Plus system minimizes hydraulic equipment downtime caused by worn or damaged hose assemblies.

Four hose styles are available — single-wire braid, double-wire braid, 4-spiral, and a new, flexible, high-pressure hose — and only two fitting designs, which reduces the potential for confusion considerably. The new one-piece global hose fittings, the “plus” in MatchMate Plus, handle higher pressures, are capable of tighter bend radii, and are available around the world. The Through-The-Cover (TTC) hose fitting designs include TTC for medium-to-high pressure impulse applications and TTC-12 for very high-pressure hose.

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Dry Lube Sheave

T.B. Wood’s Sons Co. has introduced its “Pro” dry-lube sheaves. The variable-speed sheave offers permanently lubricated bearings, which eliminate maintenance of any kind. Rugged flanges resist belt wear in abrasive and less severe atmospheres. The sheaves are available in capacities from 2 to 30 hp at 1,750 rpm.

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Aluminum jack

Enerpac, a unit of Applied Power Inc., has introduced a 50-ton aluminum cylinder that meets ANSI B30.1 test standards and ANSI B30.1 design specifications.

Manually positioning a regular steel cylinder is a tough job. The lighter weight aluminum cylinder is substantially lighter than a steel one and, therefore, more easily maneouvred.

The cylinder comes with a steel base, and the entire cylinder and plunger is hard-coat anodized for durability and corrosion-resistance.

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Superfrac

ICI Explosives Canada has launched Superfrac, a new “energized” line of detonator-sensitive emulsion explosives.

The workhorse of the new, 2-grade series is Superfrac 4000. The more powerful Superfrac 7000 is ideal for shaft sinking, where maximum advance is sought, the company said.

Superfrac 7000 is seen as a safe, effective alternative to nitroglycerine.

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Blind boring machine

The Robbins Company has unveiled its new BorPak, a laser-guided, blind boring machine. According to Robbins, BorPak provides the steering maneouvreability of a raise climber with the speed, safety and economies of a raise drill.

The machine can bore multiple small-diameter shafts or a series of slot raises and is best suited for bottom-up drilling. The laser-guided system eliminates the need for a pilot hole and drill steel.

BorPak is mounted on a track or crawler and controlled hydraulically from outside the shaft. The cutterhead, housed inside a launch tube, butts against the face of the tunnel.

It works like a miniature tunnel-boring machine, worming its way up the shaft by the use of packers that hold the machine in place.

Current specifications are as follows: raise diameter, 1.0-2.0 m; raise angle, 30-90d; raise length, 20-200 m.

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