Big Plates Save Big Money

By Jenna B.

When it comes to annual maintenance, hardfacing can take a large piece of the budget. Not only can materials be costly, but labor and downtime associated with hardfacing can also add up quickly. So how do you combat this every year? By finding products that last longer and go on faster saving you time and money. For these situations, Rockmount has a solution, the Zeta Wear System.

Rockmount’s Zeta Wear System is available in plates, tiles, strips, and custom-made sheets. Made out of chromium carbide clad steel, Zeta Wear Plates, Tiles, Strips, and Sheets allow you to quickly and effectively hardface large surfaces making it one of the most economical ways to protect your equipment. With the ability to be cut or bent to fit and proven capability to outwear AR Plate 12-15 times to 1 and mild steel 30 times to 1, Rockmount’s Zeta Wear System is here to do the hard work for you.

Let’s read a couple true stories about Rockmount customers who are using Zeta Wear products.

Zeta Plate in the Coal Industry

– By Mark W.

The Zeta Sheet shown below was installed at a coal handling facility in April of 2005. Prior to that, they re-faced their flop gates once a year, which took approximately three days using a weld-in, hardened cast iron Durawear strip.

These were unreliable as they would break, clogging the equipment down the line from the gate and caused a great deal of difficulty and expense.

Since the Zeta Sheet installation in 2005, they have performed NO maintenance on these gates. The photo below is from 2009 after four years, 3.5 million tons of coal roughly 2 inches in diameter, and impact from the coal dropping 12 feet onto the gate.

Needless to say, they’ve saved a ton of time, money, and aggravation. My customer couldn’t be happier.

2024 Update – The plate shown above that was originally installed in 2005 is still going strong. 19 YEARS LATER!

Zeta Plate in the Rock Crushing Industry

– By Lyle D.

An account called to see if we could save him some money on wear plates. He was using AR plate on a rock crusher chute. He was having to replace the AR plate every four months. After talking to us, he got a 3′ x 5′ x 1/2″ custom made Zeta Sheet.

Two years later, he asked me to order another plate for him. His original plate was not worn out yet but had lasted him so much longer than what he was using, that he wanted to be sure to have another one of ours when it came time to replace the first plate. Four years after that I stopped by the pit to get him some Polaris AAA and some chop saw blades. He said he had just put in the second plate the week prior. That means he didn’t need to replace the original Zeta Wear Plate for SIX YEARS.

Zeta Wear Plate made a believer out of me and my customers. When your customers try Zeta Plate, they will be believers too! – Lyle D.

Since I knew how often he had been replacing the AR Plate (remember, every four months) and how long ours had lasted (right at six years), I called around to get current pricing on AR Plate so I would know exactly how much money we had saved these guys.

In the amount of time our first plate lasted, they would have purchased 18 AR Plates. So:

• 18 – 3′ x 5′ x 1/2″ AR Plate at ~$600/Ea = $10,800
• 1 – 3′ x 5′ x 1/2″ Custom Zeta Sheet at ~$3,200 = $3,200
• $10,800 – $3,200 = $7,600 in savings

$7,600 saved just on the cost of the plate!

That doesn’t factor in the tens of thousands of dollars it would have cost them in downtime to shut down the crusher and replace the AR Plates each time they wore down. Also not factored in is the rod and materials that would need to be purchased to install the 17 additional plates or the labor to clean the chute to prep it for the new plate, cut out the old plate, and install the new plates.

A Rockmount customer wins again!

The Zeta Wear system can be used for outfits both big and small. From small farms or landscaping companies to large manufacturing facilities, Zeta Wear products could save you some big bucks when it comes to long-term hardfacing products.

If you want to see how Zeta Wear Plates, Strips, Tiles, or Sheets could help your business save labor, headache, or downtime, give us a call today!