With the holidays soon to be over, we are all in demolition mode. We are taking down our Christmas trees, holiday decorations, wreaths and more, packing them up, and storing it all away. Unless you are a severe  over-achiever, you hopefully do not need any heavy equipment for this lightweight form of demolition. Hopefully.

Heavy demolition is a different story. Demoing buildings abuses construction equipment to the point they are destroyed.

Add an operator with little training and the situation is far worse.  Your investment is mishandled resulting in expensive downtime with a major repair bill.

Getting this bucket with bent sides, broken teeth and the bottom caved in back into shape requires the toughest steel available if you want it to live. You can see the plate that had been added in the bottom didn’t hold up any better.

Someone asked, “Do you want to replace the beat up steel with AR400?” The equipment manager replied, “No. We need the right stuff so it will last. I’ll call our JADCO rep and have him measure it up. That way we know it will fit when we repair the bucket.”

The Initial Option Was To Use Thicker Wear Plate

Certainly heavier wear resistant steel will provide greater impact resistance when using the bucket like a hammer.  However the extra weight will create additional issues.

The Best Wear Plate For Demolition Equipment Is JADCO QT Plus ^® Which Has Been Proven With Up To 3 to 5 Times Wear Life Over Commodity AR400

By keeping the same ½” bucket bottom, we are not adding to the weight.  The additional toughness and resistance to deforming will add years to the equipment life.

They selected ¾” x 4” bottom and side wear bars rather than the 1” for further weight savings.

So how tough is JADCO’s QT Plus?

Forming QT Plus requires serious tonnage applied with a press brake. Most fabrication shops have small press brakes of 250 tons pressure or less.

JADCO has TWO quantity 1,000 ton press brakes to form the steel.

Say your local fabricator has a press brake that can bend 1.5″ thick A-36 mild steel. Locally that is often considered a sizeable press brake.

This will explain how different QT Plus ® wear resistant steel is by comparison.

QT PLUS ^® REQUIRES FOUR TIMES THE FORCE TO MOVE THE SAME THICKNESS AS MILD STEEL. THIS MEANS YOUR LOCAL SHOP BENDING 1.5″ MILD STEEL CAN ONLY FORM 3/8″ THICK QT PLUS !

Forming QT Plus requires serious tonnage applied with a press brake. Most fabrication shops have small press brakes of 250 tons pressure or less.

You Might Wonder At This Point If It Is Better To Buy A New Bucket

New buckets are designed to sell at a low price, not how long they can withstand demolition abuse. 

JADCO’s QT Plus ^® delivers greater performance IN YOUR WEAR APPLICATIONS than the various AR400 steel plates you have used previously. 

Being able to create wear resistant steel having the same hardness through the entire thickness of the plate; requires precisely controlled chemistry and careful heat treating

Then Why Doesn’t Every Steel Company Make Their Wear Materials Last As Long As JADCO QT Plus?

The required attention to detail at the steel mill in Pennsylvania is actually available to anyone.

Yet most steel wear plate distributors choose to limit the proper quantities and percentages of these essential elements for the goal of a lower price.

They are planning to always sell you more of the same underperforming steel in a few months, happily stealing more of your hard earned profits.

For over the last 41 years JADCO has focused exclusively on delivering consistent, longer equipment life for our customers. 

Now you understand why we are able to deliver better results to our customers.  We think differently by strictly focusing to improve your current results.