The Hasenöhrl company was founded in 1960 by Otto Hasenöhrl. After more than five decades, the Hasenöhrl Group, with all its areas of activity, is one of the most modern in its sector. Managed by Com. Ing. Karl Hasenöhrl, the company is still a pure family business.

Strategically, the company focuses on moderate and constant expansion, long-term customer loyalty, highly motivated employees as well as a sustainable approach to the environment and the conservation of natural resources. At several locations, demolition materials are processed and made available for re-entry into the raw materials cycle.
In St. Pantaleon, the apron feeder chain to the crusher had to be replaced in 2019. This is how the contact between Mr. Gerhard Greindl (Head of Fleet Management at Hasenöhrl) and Mr. Gerhard Mittermayr, the responsible chain application engineer at FB Ketten, came about.

Tailor-made chain solutions also for older plants

FB Ketten specialises in customised chain solutions. From the company headquarters in Kufstein in Tyrol, 10 chain application technicians support and advise customers in Austria, southern Germany, Switzerland, France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, as well as in Slovenia and South Tyrol.
Customer benefit plays a central role in this. The FB chain technicians always strive to provide their customers with the most cost-effective solution that is optimally adapted to the application.
A large warehouse for conveyor and roller chains and a few selected special chains in Kufstein ensures a fast supply of spare parts.

No spare parts ? No problem.

In the case described at the beginning, the manufacturer of the system, which was built in 1999, was no longer able to supply spare parts. In addition, there were some points in the existing chain that Mr. Greindl would like to optimise. At an on-site meeting, Mr. Greindl and Mr. Mittermayr discussed all points and also checked the existing drawings on the system for correctness. This provided a good basis for further optimisation of the apron conveyor chain.

Why complicate things when they can be simpler?

Mr. Gerhard Mittermayr thought the same thing when he examined the existing chain. Specifically, one of the problems was that the possibility of relubrication via grease nipples was no longer given. Positioned at the end of the chain axles, they were constantly exposed to the falling concrete rubble and were thus damaged.
One consequence of this was that the seals of the flanged rollers of the chain were worn out by the dry running in combination with the abrasive dust from the conveyed material.
Due to the contamination, the flanged rollers showed considerable wear at an early stage.
The chain was repaired repeatedly over the years, but this was extremely difficult, time-consuming and cost-intensive due to the complicated design.
FB Ketten proposed to simplify the design of the chain considerably.
The possibility of relubrication should still be given, but the grease nipples in the axles were positioned in such a way that they are better protected.

In addition, the decision was made to dispense with the sealing of the collar rollers and instead to use a particularly wear-resistant material for the collar rollers with heat treatment optimally adapted to the application.
On the one hand, this saves costs and on the other hand, it simplifies maintenance on the chain in the future.

As a treat, Gerhard Mittermayr was able to certify that the existing transport plates were still in excellent condition. The new chain was now designed in such a way that the plates could be reused, taking the optimisations into account. Thus the cheapest and thus the optimal solution for the Hasenöhrl company was found.
The new chain was manufactured at FB Group’s own FB Ketju factory in Lappi, Finland. High-quality conveyor chains for heavy-duty applications across all industries have been produced there since 1912. Through targeted investments in the latest technologies, the high quality standards of FB Ketten can always be maintained.

Material and installation from a single source

The chain solution was installed in January 2020 by FB partner company Stefan Lachtner Maschinenbau from Rainbach am Inn in Upper Austria. This enabled Mr. Gerhard Greindl to minimise the interfaces and obtain practically everything from a single source.
”The cooperation between FB Ketten and the assembly partner Stefan Lachtner from Rainbach am Inn worked super well. On the whole, the process went smoothly and due to the local proximity and on-site support, Stefan Lachtner and FB Ketten were able to respond very quickly and well to our needs. To this day, the system is running without any problems and to our complete satisfaction,” Mr Greindl summarises the project in retrospect.