DRILLING EQUIPMENT
WINCHES – 1
These winches look ordinary but they have features that make them much better than others. We started using this design in 1996. We have made hundreds of them. We had a different type before that, they were not bad either. These designs come from a lot of experience.
“The solutions are simple…after you have already arrived at them. But they’re simple only when you already know what they are“ (Robert Pirsig)
Here is a picture of our most common winch 2000 foot capacity with 3/16 wire. They have a very heavy drum, to prevent the drum spreading or cracking from the pressure of the cable.
One of the most important features is the alloy steel splined hub that is bolted to the drum. This hub can quickly be replaced when the splines wear out. On may other winches, when the splines wear out the drum has to be re machined. This can cause a lot of down time, or even lost holes. On a lot of winches there is only a key in mild steel that has to hold all the torque and shock. Also both ends of the drum are supported by bearings that are re greaseable, and self aligning. Some other winches do not have re greaseable bearings. Others have no bearing at the motor end, which puts much more load on the motor shaft. Some winches require careful shimming and alignment of the drum to prevent shaft wear. Do you think the driller is going to do that?
This winch can easily be rebuilt with new bearings in less than an hour. The bearings normally last for years anyway, because they are regreaseable. I know there are some other winches where special tools are required and rebuilding can take almost 8 hours. When a winch with non regreaseable sealed bearings is used underground in a mine where the water is acidic often the bearings will not last one year.
We can make this winch with larger or smaller drums as well, depending on what you need.
The hidden feature of this winch is in the hydraulic motor. The motors we use have a built in cushion valve. This prevents shock loads from breaking the hydraulic motor shaft. This is a feature I have never seen on any other wireline winch. It should be a feature of every winch. It is fine to tell the driller to be careful not to stop the winch to fast, but we know that won’t work, so we use the built in cushion valve. Then the driller can do what he wants, and the shaft is protected from breakage.
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