Caterpillar Upgrades Dipper Door Snubbers On Its 7495 Electric Rope Shovel

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The two yellow objects on the shovel of this Cat 7495 are the wet disk snubbers. They keep the dipper door from slamming open or shut. (Photo courtesy of Caterpillar.)

The dipper, or bucket, on a Caterpillar 7495 rope shovel has a hinged door on the bottom. After the dipper picks up a load of ore, rocks, and/or dirt, and the operator maneuvers it over the dump body of a haul truck, the dipper door opens to drop the payload.

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Cat’s new snubber design is longer lasting and maintenance- and adjustment-free. (Image courtesy of Caterpillar.)

The job of the two snubbers, shown in yellow in the accompanying photos and illustration, is to resist sudden motion to keep the dipper door from slamming open or shut too abruptly. In effect, they act like a gas- or oil-damped door closer attached to a door you walk through. They keep the heavy door from swinging against the dump truck body or the dipper structure and causing damage.

Cat has come up with a new, improved snubber design that lasts longer and requires zero adjustments or maintenance. Let’s take a closer look.

A Better Snubber

Cat’s new snubber is a wet disk design containing an oil-immersed clutch pack. You can retrofit a pair of them to both latched and LatchFree dippers, or order them along with a new Cat 7495, 7495 HF, or 7495 HD.

The previous snubber design required daily maintenance and didn’t last nearly as long, Cat says. The new unit is sealed, and will last for 12,000 hours before you’ll need to rebuild it—the same as the dipper itself, the company says.

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The big Cat 7495 power shovel is a cost-effective ore loader for mining rich deposits. (Photo courtesy of Caterpillar.)

You can rebuild the new snubber three times before it will need to be replaced entirely. Cat says that the new design is easier and more straightforward to rebuild, too.

The Cat 7495

Cat’s 7495 rope shovel, also known as a power shovel, is a large electric digger designed to move ore and overburden (waste or spoil) on lucrative mining sites. Most of its variants have a dipper payload capacity of 120 tons (109 metric tons) and up to 82 cubic yards (62.7 cubic meters), except for the 7495 HD at 90 tons (82 metric tons) and up to 79 cubic yards (60.4 cubic meters).

The 7495 comes in rope crowd and Hydracrowd editions, which absorb the stress of digging with ropes or a hydraulic cylinder, respectively. Cat entered the rope shovel market in 2011 with its purchase of manufacturer Bucyrus.

CraneTrader.com is the top resource for finding new and used rope shovels, categorized under lattice boom crawler cranes. Meanwhile, MachineryTrader.com is your best bet for most new and used Cat construction equipment.

Source: Caterpillar