Forestry or agricultural equipment is capital intensive and needs to operate continuously in rugged environments to maintain profits. X3 Innovations has a history of providing thermal processing services which ensure individual components meet performance expectations.

Gears/pinions

Large agricultural and forestry machines can be extremely expensive and as a result, reliability is of the utmost importance. These machines must be able to operate continuously when needed, with minimal downtime for repairs. The gears and pinions used in these machines must therefore be able to operate under harsh conditions for long periods of time. The gear teeth are susceptible to wear from the continual rubbing of one tooth against another and the constant loading and unloading makes them susceptible to fatigue failure.

X3 Innovations uses different techniques to increase the life of gears such as carburising and nitriding which increases hardness at the tooth surface only (for wear) but maintains the original toughness in the core of each tooth. Typical treated parts include:

• Spur gears
• Helical gears
• Sun gears
• Ring gears
• Bevel gears
• Pinion gears

Harvester components

There is nothing more important than keeping harvesters up and running during harvest times. Unexpected breakdowns and repairs cost time and money, so each component must be reliable and long lasting. Some components in contact with abrasive crops require an extremely hard wearing surface and may need more than one surface treatment.

X3 Innovations boriding process produces hardness of up to 2800 HV, ensuring the components do not wear out prematurely. Other processes used on harvester components include carburising, carbonitriding, ferritic nitrocarburising, marquenching and quench, and tempering. Typical treated parts include:

• Cages
• Knife guards
• Concave bars
• Cross bars
• Separator parts
• Poppet

Forestry harvester heads

Harvester heads are a key component of the timber harvesting industry. Industry advances are yielding harvesting equipment with higher throughput and increased worker safety. These modern harvesters are remotely operated and able to quickly fell, strip, and cut a tree. Robustness and reliability are central to the harvester design.

Through thermal processing treatments we are able to minimise component weight without compromising wear resistance, toughness, or product life. Our services include a variety of heat treatment processes ranging from treatment of pistons, induction hardening saw blades, to carburising hydraulic rotators.

• Pistons
• Saw blades
• Pins and wear parts
• Wood rollers
• Hydraulic rotator

Pelletising dies

Pelletising dies operate in extremely harsh conditions, as forces are transferred from the die face through the bearings to the roll support shaft. Wood pellets, pressed by vacuum hardened wood pelletising dies, are made from pressed sawdust and shavings. These dies require wear resistance and toughness. The animal pellet food industry requires dies with a long lifetime of high performance.

These dies are processed in vacuum hardening furnaces with additional steps taken to maintain shape integrity after heat treatment.