Hydraulic industrial tools specialist, Enerpac, has introduced a lifting system for safer excavator maintenance. Based on Enerpac SCJ-series Cube Jacks, it enables lifting and holding of the entire cab, boom and arm, allowing the undercarriage to be safely removed.

During maintenance of the excavator’s swing drive and bearings, the undercarriage unit must be separated from the upper body cab and arm to give access to the swing motor and multiple sets of planetary gears. Until now, this would have involved at least two service engineers jacking up the body and holding it on stands – a time consuming and hazardous practice.

The Enerpac cube jack lifting system offers a safer, CE-certified approach to removing the undercarriage. It comprises two pairs of cube jacks providing coordinated hydraulic lifting of loads up to 25 t per jack to a height of 2 m. Two cube jacks are positioned under a lifting beam at the rear of the excavator, while the other two are located under the arm’s bucket lugs. Each pair of cube jacks is connected to a hydraulic pump to synchronously lift and lower the excavator body and arm.

“The excavator lifting system has been developed in collaboration with a leading excavator maintenance company looking for a safer CE-certified approach to removing the undercarriage. It automatically self-locks so that engineers can work safely under the raised cab without the need for secondary jack stands,” said an Enerpac spokesperson. “It has been well received especially for its safety, secure load holding, precision lifting and lowering, and quick and easy set-up, which make it attractive to users and customers alike.”

Enerpac cube jack technology has been employed in many industrial lifting applications. The SC-series Cube Jacks use a base lifting frame and self-aligning, lightweight steel cribbing blocks to provide high-capacity and stabilised lifting –offering a safer, controlled and more efficient alternative to climbing jacks with wooden cribbing.

Lloyds witness tested to 125% of maximum working load, the incremental cube jack lifting system is self-locking to support the load as each cribbing block is manually added or removed, instead of being held by hydraulic pressure. Once the mechanical lock engages, the lift cylinder retracts, and another cribbing block can be added or removed.