NEWS

AUST MINING REVIEW

The Gender Equaliser –

“Women on Boards has welcomed BHP’s revision of its ambitious target for a 50/50 gender split by 2025 as being more realistic. The mining giant will now push for 40% female representation across its 80,000-strong global workforce by 2025.” https://www.womenonboards.net/en-au/news/40-gender-target-more-realistic-for-bhp

As the global mining industry moves towards a more inclusive working environment, many more females will enter mining at all levels. In doing so, manufacturers will need to work towards gender equalisation when it comes to the provision of tools in the industry. This will entail designing lighter tools, being more task-focused and allowing an individual with a smaller stature to perform the task of a larger co-worker.

The Snap-on Pow’rench series of tools provides a step in the right direction to cater for this shift. A function of mechanical mine maintenance is dealing with large hard to remove fasteners. In most cases, the average fitter uses leverage to overcome resistance, resulting in back strains or other injuries. The use of sizeable Heavy Breaker Bars as a method of leverage will achieve the desired result however this often means you also end up with broken bolts and stripped fasteners. By increasing the length of leverage, you lose the sense or feeling of resistance which causes damage to the equipment being worked on and increases the overall length of time to complete the task.

The Snap-on Pow’rench provides a tool that is not excessively heavy, is compact in size and allows for agility (feeling) through the handle to ensure damage is not occurring. Most importantly, it removes the need for the use of large, heavy, cumbersome breaker bars and permits an individual of any size or strength to perform the task usually undertaken by larger and beefier mechanical fitters.

So let’s talk numbers; the PHTPW2000100, the largest unit, comes with a 1” square drive and can produce 2000 ft.Ibs of rotational torque or 2,711 Nm. In layman terms, this means if you had the wrench attached and had a metre long handle, you would need to apply 276 kgs of downward force at the tip of the bar to produce the resultant torque at the drive head. Hence, the reason why historically we have used long heavy breaker bars. The force required is halved for each extra metre from the pivot point however, the further you are removed from the pivot point, the less feeling you have and the subsequent damage you may be about to achieve.

We all have seen some heavy lads working on large mobile equipment, but I don’t know too many that come in above 135kgs. The large Snap-on Pow’rench is 24” in overall length or 21 ½” from pivot point to overall length, so to achieve a rotational torque of 2711Nm, you would need to apply 426kgs of downward force.

This is where the Pow’rench magic takes over. The wrench is designed to work as a progressive ratchet, with very little applied force being required to achieve the desired outcome. Every 30 degrees of handle rotation allows the internal ratchet to click a cam claw over until the cam releases its internal hammer striking an inner mandrel, providing vast rotational torque to the socket.

The largest Snap-on Pow’rench, as described above, weighs 10.45kgs without any impact sockets attached. It’s not a lightweight, but it’s not a behemoth either for what it achieves. Any person who can lift 15kgs can operate this wrench and therefore can undo any secured fastener requiring less than 2700Nm of torque to remove, or the equivalent of 426kg of force.

Not too bad for something that looks like your average ratchet.

The Pow’rench comes in three models

PHTPW50050

½” Drive produces a maximum of 500ft.Ibs or 677Nm of torque. It is 12” or 304mm in length and weighs 6 Ibs or 2.72 kgs. The maximum downward force required is 39Ibs or 18kgs.

PHTPW80075

¾” Drive produces a maximum of 800ft.Ibs or 1084Nm of torque. It is 16” or 406mm in length and weighs 11 Ibs or 5 kgs. The maximum downward force required is 50Ibs or 23kgs.

PHTPW2000100

1” Drive produces a maximum of 2000ft.Ibs or 2711Nm of torque. It is 24” or 608mm in length and weighs 23 Ibs or 10.45kgs. The maximum downward force required is 75Ibs or 34Kgs.

Snap-on Auto-SPLITTER is a double-acting hydraulic nut splitter.

For any fitter, corroded fasteners are a nightmare. Having to arrange a hot work permit, complete a JSA organise the Oxy set, transport it to the job, not to mention having to do the task in the middle of our Australian Summer. This doesn’t even start covering the flashes and molten metal dropping inside your work boot.

The conventional single nut splitter only does half the job. Working on large fasteners over 36mm means all your tools are heavy and awkward, and single-sided nut splitters mean you are required to split the first face and rotate the splitter 180o and conduct another split.

The Snap-on double-acting hydraulic nut splitter performs the single action double face split, cutting the nut on both faces in one clean single hydraulic action. There is no tool rotation, no realignment, just one simple, clean-cut ensuring the nut falls away from the thread with no thread damage.

Features and Benefits

Cuts through the largest frozen nuts in just seconds, with virtually no risk of injury or accident
Cutting chisel is easily calibrated, so only the nut is cut with no damage to bolt or stud threads
Fast setup – goes from toolbox to ready-to-use in less than 5 minutes
Hands-off operation – reduces the danger to the operator or nearby equipment
9 models available for cutting fractional and metric sizes and nuts of virtually any shape. It can also be used on stainless steel
Fits most API and ANSI flanges and virtually all valve bonnets
Remove nuts without the hassle of torches, hammers and chisels
The double cutting model eliminates the need to reposition the nut splitter at 180 degrees from the first cut to break the nut from the stud, reducing operator effort and saving time

Product Range

AS105DC

Stud Dia 5/16 – ¾ (M8 – M20)
ATF 11/16 – 1-1/4 (16 – 36)

Weight 20 (9)

AS200DC

Stud Dia 7/8 – 1-1/8 (M22 – M30)

ATF 1-7/16 – 1-11/16 (36 – 55)

Weight 21 (10)

AS204DC

Stud Dia 1-1/4 – 1-3/8 (M33 – M36)

ATF 1-13/16 – 2-3/16 (46 –60)

Weight 61 (28)

AS210DC

Stud Dia 1-3/8 – 1-1/2 (M36 – M39)

ATF 2-3/16 – 2-3/8 (55 – 65)

Weight 62 (28)

AS308DC

Stud Dia 1-3/4 – 2 (M45 – M52)

ATF 2-5/8 – 3-1/8 (65 – 90)

Weight 95 (43)

AS314DC

Stud Dia 2– 2-1/4 (M52 – M56)

ATF 3 – 3-5/8 (80 – 90)

Weight 100 (45)

AS404DCDA

Stud Dia 2-3/4 – 3-1/4 (M72 – M85)

ATF 3-3/4 – 4-1/4 (95 – 110)

Weight 206 (94)

Snap-on 18v CTM Cordless Torque Multiplier is specifically designed to improve performance and data traceability in safety-critical and heavy industrial operations. The CTM is ideally suited for all applications where conventional electric or pneumatic power is not available or simply in situations where the removal of hoses and cables is highly desirable for workplace safety.

POWERFUL DUAL-SPEED TORQUE

CTM1000 (250-1,000 ft. lbs.)

CTM2000 (500-2,000 ft. lbs.)

CTM3000 (750-3,000 ft. lbs.)

ACCURATE RESULTS

The Snap-on CTM is a transducer controlled battery powered torque tool designed for accurately applying torque to threaded fasteners. The unique ‘intelligent joint sensing’ technology continually measures the joint during tightening and, when necessary, employs dynamic braking to avoid torque over-shoot due to motor inertia, consistently achieving highly accurate results of ±3% of setting.

SAFETY

The CTM ‘safe to start’ button (which needs to be pressed at the same time as the trigger) ensures hands are safely positioned at start up.

Once the tool is running, the operator can relocate their hand securely to the supplied secondary handle.

TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION

The Snap-on CTM allows two-way communication via Bluetooth or USB cable, downloading up to 3,000 time and date stamped readings or live streaming data from the tool. It is also possible to upload information

to the device, such as tightening sequences.

To manage this data, tools are supplied with complimentary software. As an added benefit, data can be output in CSV format to communicate directly with customers’ own data management systems. In addition, the CTM can communicate with smart devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, which enables the ability to gather tightening data specific to a known set of GPS coordinates. When working in safety critical applications, such as mining infrastructure, this enables the CTM to provide invaluable traceability data.

AUDIT MODE

The new CTM is also equipped with an ‘Audit Mode’, which offers the ability to perform a check on pre-tightened bolts. Most electric tools if applied to a tight bolt will further tighten it. So, even if the bolt was fastened correctly, the test will destroy the original tightening integrity.

Under ‘Audit Mode’ the CTM will run at a speed that allows it to stop almost instantaneously once the set torque is achieved. If a bolt is found to be loose then the tool will tighten it to the desired level, recording the angle of turn required to do so.

For more information on any of these dedicated Snap-on Tools for the Mining Industry, please contact;