We had an interesting inquiry a few weeks ago. A sawmill maintenance manager in the U.S. Northeast was using UHMW carriage wheels and they were wearing out extremely fast. We ended up referring them our parent, Redwood Plastics, to look into a solution – and they didn’t have to look far. Redwood offers a type of plastic developed specifically for sawmill carriage wheels called Tuffkast 020.
What is Tuffkast?
Tuffkast is a proprietary copolymer material that combines the resiliency of polyurethane with the load bearing capability of cast nylon. However, Tuffkast has improved wear capabilities over regular nylon 6, is more resistant to moisture, and performs better in cold temperatures. Tuffkast 020 was designed as a response to the poor performance of other plastics in carriage wheel applications. Nylon did OK, but Tuffkast’s unique properties made it such an attractive choice as a material. In fact, we’re not even sure how long carriage wheels made of Tuffkast 020 will last – the first install has been running for four years without the wheels needing replacement yet! The one “catch” about using the material is that the rails the carriage runs on must be new or machined to eliminate burrs and deformations. Failure to do so would make the wheels fail prematurely, so proper track maintenance is a must.
For more information on Tuffkast click the picture below:
