Ball coupling without lubrication

Trailer couplings actually need to be lubricated every time they are used. This is very costly and time-consuming. "I know farms where someone has to service and lubricate every single bearing point on all machines once a week," reports Toni Milhahn, who works in product management and as a sales engineer at ROCKINGER Agriculture GmbH. It is also important to ensure that the correct amount of grease is applied to the coupling. "Too much can lead to some of the lubricant getting into the soil or onto the crop. Too little leads to coupling damage," explains Marcus Reinländer, Cable Plant Production at Agrargenossenschaft e. G. Kirchheilingen.

The KS80 coupling with wear insert addresses precisely this problem. A so-called wear insert makes lubrication superfluous and prevents high costs for the regeneration of the coupling. For maintenance, the ball and coupling socket only need to be checked with a gauge. ROCKINGER recommends changing the wear insert once a season. The insert consists of an iglidur® high-performance plastic, which igus® has developed especially for the ROCKINGER application. Like all iglidur® materials, it contains the same basic components. These include solid lubricants in the form of microscopically small particles that are distributed throughout the material. They are released in small quantities and thus lubricate the bearing point.

No more greasing: For balers, loader wagons, manure spreaders, tippers and field sprayers, Rockinger Agriculture GmbH has developed ball couplings called KS80 with a high-performance plastic from the iglidur® series, which igus® developed especially for the company. The coupling consists of a coupling ball and a drawbar socket, which are installed in the height adjustment.

As usual, the pulling pan is positioned on the ball head from above. It is secured against unintentional uncoupling by means of a hold-down device and creates a clearance-free connection. The special feature of this coupling only becomes visible when you look into the towing socket. This contains the wear insert made of high-performance plastic, whose wear resistance has been proven in laboratory tests.

In a fatigue test, the inserts withstood two million load changes - with a drawbar load of 4.5 tonnes. The company does the maths: If a third of the tractors in Germany are equipped with a KS80 and wear insert, this means that around 8,300 couplings can manage without lubrication. Eight tonnes of grease per year could be saved.

More about customised components made from iglidur® materials