Built to Last - Part 1

Manufacturers can be reluctant to show how well their products stand up. Our goal was to show the component wear compared to the estimated number of loads and amount of feed mixed in a Cloverdale mixer? We want to show the wear patterns on the floor, side walls, auger and frame. This will continue until we have a failure on one of these components.

Cloverdale offers a standard 5 year or 5,000 load warranty on the side walls, floor, auger and frame. These are the areas of a mixer that are expensive to repair and add to the overall cost of operation once you purchase a mixer. Augers are bolt in replacement components, but are part of our 5 year or 5,000 load warranty. The following photos from a dairy operation, show the wear patterns at 5,018, 8,171, 9,963, 12,469, 15,876 and 19,264 loads through a 1100 Cloverdale. This mixer was put into service in the summer of 2015. There are too many variables to determine what you can expect on your feeding operation. Therefore, we are showing wear patterns on a mixer that is more than 14,000 loads beyond the 5,000-load warranty.

First Check Dec. 20th, 2016
5,018 loads, 125,000,000 pounds of feed.

Check Sept. 5th, 2017
8,171 loads, 189,107,910 pounds of feed.

Check Jan. 11th, 2018
9,963 loads, 221,107,910 pounds of feed.

Check Jul. 9th, 2018
12,469 loads, 265,857,910 pounds of feed.

Check March 1st, 2019
15,876 loads, 348,107.910 pounds of feed.

Check Oct. 28th, 2019
19,264 loads, 429,419,910 pounds of feed.

A – Side View 5,018 loads, 125 million lbs. of feed.

A1 – Side View 8,171 loads, 189 million lbs. of feed.

A2 – Side view, 9,963 loads, 221,107,910 lbs. of feed.

A3 – Side view, 12,469 loads, 265,857,910 lbs. of feed.

A4 – Side view, 15,876 loads, 348,107,910 lbs. of feed.

A5 – Side view, 19,264 loads, 429,419,910 lbs. of feed.

B – Auger flighting w/optional hard surfacing, 5,018 loads, 125 million lbs. of feed.

B1 – Auger flighting w/optional hard surfacing, 8,171 loads, 189 million lbs. of feed.

B2 – Auger flighting w/optional hard surfacing, 9,963 loads, 221,107,910 lbs. of feed.

B3 – Auger flighting w/optional hard surfacing, 12,469 loads, 265,857,910 lbs. of feed.

B4 - Auger Flighting w/optional hard surfacing, 15,876, loads, 348107,910 lbs. of feed.

At 9963 loads you can see the auger is wearing below the hard surfacing, but still has significant metal thickness. At 12,469 loads, there is more wear, but the hard surfacing remains intact. At 15,876 loads, wear is progressing, but the hard surfacing remains intact.

D – baffle edge, 5,018 loads, 125 million lbs. of feed.

D1 – baffle edge, 8,171 loads, 189 million lbs. of feed.

D2 – baffle edge, 9,963 loads, 221,107,910 lbs. of feed.

D3 – baffle edge, 12,469 loads, 265,857,910 lbs. of feed.

D4 - baffle edge, 15,876 loads, 348,107,910 lbs. of feed.

The baffle edge is reinforced with a stainless steel guard. The photos show the baffle is intact with some wear and the progression of the floor wear.

E – leading edge of the door, 5,018 loads, 125 million lbs. of feed.

E1 – leading edge of door, 8,171 loads, 189 million lbs. of feed.

E2 – leading edge of door, 9,963 loads, 221,107,910 lbs. of feed.

E3 – leading edge of door, 12,469 loads, 265,857,910 lbs. of feed.

E4 - leading edge of door, 15,876 loads, 348,107,910 lbs. of feed.

The door edge is a great indicator of side wall wear. It tends to show the most wear because of the feed constantly pushing on the R.H. edge of the door during unloading. At 8171 loads, the door edge remains square, but starts to lose its square edge at 9963 loads. At 12,469 loads, the square door edge is worn away, but it is still attached to the floor, and does not have a sharp edge. At 15,876 loads, the door edge is now a sharp edge, but still attached to the floor.

G – No indication of frame or walking tandem damage after 8,171 loads 8189 million lbs. of feed.

G2 – No indication of frame or walking tandem damage after 9,963 loads, 221,107,910 lbs. of feed.

G3 – No indication of frame or walking tandem damage after 12,469 loads, 265,857,910 lbs. of feed.

G4 - No indication of frame or walking tandem damage after 15,876 loads, 348,107,910 lbs. of feed.

G5 – No indication of frame or walking tandem damage after 19,264 loads, 429,419.910 lbs. of feed.

Auger failure. Photos at the bottom of the report.

The left-hand door edge (Photo A) is showing edge damage and some separation from the floor. The right-hand door edge (Photo B) is attached to the floor but showing significant wear. The door guard is intact and has probably stopped side wall and floor separation. The side walls (Photo C) are showing significant wear on the bottom 18 inches. Side walls are still attached to the floor and there is no bulging of the side walls. The welds are wearing off the wall panels.

The stainless-steel baffle guard (Photo D) is worn but is still intact and has not separated from the floor. This is a high wear area, but the photo does a good job of showing how stainless steel can increase overall side wall life. All these photos seem to indicate very little floor wear.

The auger flighting has collapsed (Photo E) and separated (Photo F) from the tube wall. This auger started with optional hard surfacing which remained intact, however the flighting thickness is greatly reduced (Photos G and H) where it was not protected. The plow wing mounting bracket remained intact, but there was a great deal of wear before the bracket. Plow wings are replaceable and the photo (Photo I) shows the plow wing removed.

Our proprietary “TMR” steel and hard surfacing of the auger edge increased flighting life until there was an auger tube collapse and flighting separation. The goal is to increase the life of the flighting to match the life of the auger tube. This eliminates the costs of welding new auger flighting on used augers.

Repairs:

The old augers were removed, and new ones were installed. The optional ¼ inch thick by 36” tall stainless-steel liner will be installed.

Conclusions:

Our 5 year or 5,000-load warranty on the side walls, floor, auger and frame is unique to the industry. The goal was to show that this is a reasonable expectation. There are some conclusions and suggestions that can be offered especially for high use applications. Users that mix ten or more loads per day.

  1. Hard Surfacing the augers probably increased the flighting life enough to match the normal wear of the auger tube. The goal is to get both the flighting and auger tube to wear out at the same time. Thicker auger flighting is available, but it is not available in our proprietary “TMR” steel. It’s not clear that the optional ¾ inch thick auger flighting lasts longer than our standard 5/8 inch “TMR” steel. The optional thicker auger flighting does not appear to be worth the extra cost. It’s not unusual on other mixers for the auger flighting to be replaced once during the life of the auger. On high use mixers, we recommend you hard surface our standard augers if you are concerned about wear. This is certainly more cost effective than replacing the flighting once during the life of the auger tube.
  2. Our normal side wall steel is a step up from industry standards and offers longevity well beyond our 5,000-load warranty. If you want increased life for a high use application, consider ordering the factory installed stainless-steel liner. Our liners are ¼ inch thick by 36 inches tall and not the standard 3/16 inch by 30 inches. This should give you considerably more side wall life.
  3. There does not appear to be enough wear on the floor to make any additional recommendations for high use mixers.
  4. There does not appear to be enough wear on the stainless-steel baffles to make any additional recommendations for high use mixers.
  5. There was no indication of frame or walking tandem damage. Unless you are mixing higher than recommended load weights, we would not make any changes for high use mixers. If you are using higher than recommended loads, contact us for a custom frame, axle and wheel options.

The two major benefits of feeding with vertical mixers was the ability to feed almost any type of feed and the increased longevity over reel and horizontal auger mixers. Over time producers used their mixers to feed more and more livestock. Mixers that were designed to feed one or two loads per day, no longer match what producers need. We hope that this nearly 4 ½ year test, gives you a better idea of what to expect from Cloverdale.

(Photo A)

(Photo B)

(Photo C)

(Photo D)

(Photo E)

(Photo F)

(Photo G)

(Photo H)

(Photo I)