Abrasion Resistant Materials P/L (A.R.M*) manufactures Tungsten Carbide Hardfacing utilising proprietary welding techniques to apply Tungsten Carbide to various wear parts like Dragline adapters. This creates an alternative maintenance management strategy that reduces costs by improving the standard of performance typically experienced with cast wear parts and plate style wear parts.

Mr. Tim Falkenhagen, Managing Director of A.R.M* explains - "The previous experience gained during my years running construction site maintenance of large fleets of heavy equipment allows a certain understanding of the problems that occur when operating in abrasive mine sites. I remember having to change ripper boots every 15 minutes on a 455 Komatsu that was trying to rip cemented Limestone. It's this depth of experience which makes it easier to assess the particular problem and to often change the part shapes to a better wearing shape which ensure we deliver cost reducing options."

It this sort of thing when combined with an excellent performing product which has enabled A.R.M* to become one of the largest manufacturers of Tungsten Carbide Hardfacing in Australia in just 3 years.

We are also 100 percent focused on Tungsten Carbide Hardfacing as this is all we do. Our commitment to product quality and customer service is perhaps best demonstrated by the statistic of having never lost a wear life trial.

I don't see that changing either unless diamonds suddenly become the same price as Tungsten Carbide.

As the manufacturer of a premium Tungsten Carbide Hardfacing , we continue to innovate and set higher standards in terms of both wear rates and overall cost reductions. One example is where we changed the tip to adapter wear ratio on one Dragline from 5:1 to over 30:1.This has delivered around $80,000 p.a. in cost reductions at one coal mine with one Dragline. The multiplier affect here is obvious.

When you lower the replacement part consumption rate (by increasing the total wear life of critical components) the whole maintenance equation begins to change in area's like : the number of maintenance staff required, warehouse inventory stock on hand, freight costs, equipment productivity, equipment availability, the number of big ticket items like buckets required to shift say 14.0 Million BCM p.a.

Implementing the A.R.M* Maintenance Strategy is not difficult because you only need to make two decisions.

First , change the company specification for purchase orders on high cost / large volume wear parts to the A.R.M* Hardfaced option. This could include : large bulldozer cutting edges, grader blades , face shovel tips , wheel loader bucket parts & Dragline bucket wear parts.

The second action necessary to implement the A.R.M* Maintenance Strategy is to request suppliers to stock the particular A.R.M* option that suits your needs. Whether this is for hard rock mining, underground mining or even bucket wheel excavator tips . Many of these parts are also common between mine sites like the 16G/H serrated cutting edges or the V81 series face shovel tips.

Make these two decisions and costs will be reduced. We have for example one market sector where we have projected an 18.0 million dollar increase in revenue per annum due to a change to A.R.M* Hardfacing.

We have proven this many times in applications like : coal mines, quarries, dredges , sugar mills, gold mines, iron ore mines, hammer mills , compactors for road building and the list goes on."

Some specific examples of A.R.M* Innovations include :

"A.R.M* is an abbreviation of the company name Abrasion Resistant Materials."