In tough soil, rock excavation, and crushing operations, core hardware components of excavators, loaders, and hydraulic breakers are subjected to continuous impact from sharp rocks, abrasion from soil and sand, and heavy wear. These conditions often cause component wear, deformation, or breakage, severely affecting operational efficiency and equipment lifespan. Wear strips and plated hardware serve as critical protective components. Through specialized material selection and advanced surface strengthening techniques, they provide long-lasting abrasion resistance for vulnerable equipment parts, making them essential for maintaining continuous operations and reducing maintenance costs in harsh soil and rock conditions.

Wear strips designed for these operations prioritize high impact resistance, abrasion resistance, and toughness, targeting equipment parts such as buckets, bucket lips, track plates, and chutes that directly contact rocks and hard soil. Main materials include high-strength wear steel strips, ceramic-metal composite strips, and select polyurethane wear strips. High-strength wear steel strips undergo quenching, tempering, and surface strengthening, achieving a Brinell hardness of 500–600 HB, excellent toughness, and resistance to rock impacts without cracking, making them ideal for bucket lips, side edges, and other heavy-duty wear areas. Ceramic-metal composite strips, with a metal base and ceramic particle wear layer, reach hardness levels of HV1800+, effectively resisting sharp rock abrasion and scraping, suitable for chutes and liners. Polyurethane wear strips are used for guiding rails and auxiliary parts, reducing friction and wear.

Wear strips are manufactured using laser cladding and overlay welding techniques to precisely control wear layer thickness and distribution, ensuring perfect alignment with equipment hardware. Modular designs allow rapid on-site installation and replacement, significantly reducing downtime. These wear strips achieve 4–6 times the lifespan of traditional components, fully meeting the high-intensity demands of tough soil and rock operations.

Plated hardware is mainly applied to precision components such as pins, bolts, hydraulic pistons, and gears, providing integrated wear, corrosion, and friction protection. Key processes include PVD physical vapor deposition, thermal spraying, and chemical plating, with popular coatings including tungsten carbide hard alloy, CrAlN, and diamond-like carbon (DLC). Tungsten carbide coatings reach HRC58–65, suitable for pins and hydraulic breaker hammer heads, resisting rock impacts and abrasion. CrAlN coatings are heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant, protecting engine and hydraulic hardware in high-temperature rock operations. DLC coatings offer low friction, ideal for precision gears, bearings, and moving parts, reducing wear and preventing seizing.

These wear protection components must meet strict performance standards. Wear strips undergo impact and abrasive testing to ensure they do not peel or crack under heavy impact and abrasive conditions. Plated hardware requires strong adhesion, verified through crosshatch and salt spray testing, resisting corrosion from soil moisture and contaminants. Their application significantly reduces replacement frequency, decreases unplanned downtime, and is estimated to cut total operational costs by over 45%, ensuring efficient, stable operations in tough soil and rock environments.