2007 RIMEX Rim Still Going Strong

Rimex TSR (Taper Secured Radial) are the strongest, longest lasting Wheels and Rims in the industry. In Australia, regular NDT of Earthmover Wheels 24” and above is carried out requiring companies to keep extra spares to cover the periods when wheels are sent away for inspection. When Rimex entered the industry in Australia test periods as low as every 5000hrs were the norm. The downtime this created by continually needing to remove wheels every 12 months (not to mention the CapEx needed to buy spares to cover) was phenomenal. 

Back in 1997, to the chagrin of our competition, Rimex immediately set out to change this by asking for 15000hr test periods for our MES series of wheels and 30000hr test periods for our TSR series of wheels. There were some immediate gains from this, that saw Rimex quickly become the desired wheel supplier across the mining industry: 

1. Safety – having to remove the tyre and wheel from the machine less often means the fitters are in the line of fire less often. Taking a wheel and tyre off mining equipment is one of the more dangerous applications on a mine site. 
2. Less Capital Expenditure – having longer test periods meant scheduling large numbers of rims for testing at the same time was no longer required. Scheduling could be spread apart meaning less spares are required to cover the rims being sent for inspection. 
3. Productivity – instead of trucks being down for 8-12 hours once a year while wheels are removed for inspection – the number is reduced to 8-12 hours every 3 -5 years depending on which series wheel were being used. A 24 hr gain of usage would pay for the extra cost of the stronger wheel many times over. The ROI is basically one year for most wheels.  

Fast Forward 27 years and now most suppliers have chosen to imitate Rimex’s lead in increasing test periods, however Rimex has not stood still. We have always advocated safely increasing test periods and when you test over 10,000 rims annually for this long, constantly monitoring testing results and training during inspections, an understanding of how far test periods can be extended takes shape. 

In the ensuing period Rimex has extended test periods and End of Life (EoL) hours continually of wheels based on size, machine, condition and age to name a few. We are currently working with major companies to have initial test periods on our TSR range of wheels at 50000 hrs with EoL set at 120000hrs. We didn’t just guess these numbers, we proved it with constant testing and monitoring of hours, coupled with destructive testing of sections that required replacement. This gave us a very good insight into what NDT results meant. 

We have now had multiple TSR rims coming back over the years with 70000+ hours with all the original base and parts passing NDT testing. Last month a 2007 Rimex manufactured Cat 789 IGLR/TSR assembly came into our Muswellbrook facility with a recorded 87000+ hours of service life-more proof that Rimex’s TSR products are the longest lasting, safest wheels on the market and shows our test and EoL recommendations are based on regular testing and results data. 

With results like this, the extra expenditure to buy TSR is easily paid back by the first test period and multiplied several times over by not having to continually replace sections.