Every piece of heavy machinery — cranes, excavators, mining trucks — has joints held together by metal pins. These pins wear out, break, and jam, costing operators a fortune in repairs and lost working time. Bondura built a pin that expands to fill the joint perfectly, leaving zero wiggle room. The result is a pin that lasts over a decade instead of three years, with no breaks, no jams, and no damage to the joint itself.
Heavy machinery operators lose massive amounts of money when pivot pins break, jam, or wear out joints. Standard pins last only three years on average, causing unplanned downtime, expensive repairs, joint damage, and safety risks to personnel. A single day of downtime can cost a mine €162,300 or a port crane operator €31,500.
Bondura developed and validated BTPin — a patented expandable pivot pin that fills the joint bore with zero tolerance space, eliminating play, vibration, and wear. The Phase II project delivered a final product optimised and validated for onshore applications in mining, quarrying, port cranes, and construction, including adjusted BTPin system design and complete product documentation.
If you are a mining operator dealing with machinery downtime from broken pivot pins — this project developed the BTPin system that eliminates pin breaks and joint wear entirely. Standard pins last three years on average before failing. BTPin lasts at least a decade. Based on the project data, mines could save €162,300 per day by avoiding downtime losses from joint failures.
If you are a port crane operator dealing with costly unplanned maintenance shutdowns — this project developed an expandable pivot pin that fits joints from 10mm to 500mm diameter with zero tolerance space. Port crane operators could save €31,500 per crane per day by eliminating downtime caused by pin failures. Over 12 years, BTPin costs €888 versus €16,062 for standard pins.
If you are a construction company losing productive days to equipment breakdowns at joint points — BTPin is a drop-in replacement or retrofit upgrade for any articulated heavy machinery. Constructors could save €16,000 per site per day by avoiding downtime losses. The pin needs only occasional tightness checks, drastically cutting maintenance labor costs.
BTPin costs €888 to purchase, install and maintain over a 12-year period. A comparable standard pivot pin in the same machinery over the same period costs €16,062. That is roughly 18 times cheaper over its lifetime.
BTPin is compatible with all types of articulated heavy machinery, both in new manufacturing and as retrofit upgrades to existing equipment. It can be scaled to fit any joint with diameters from 10mm to 500mm.
The BTPin technology is patented and owned by Bondura Technology AS, a Norwegian SME that has been commercializing pivot pins for the offshore sector since the early 1990s. The company website is bondura.no for direct procurement inquiries.
Bondura has been selling pivot pins commercially to the offshore sector since the early 1990s. This EU-funded Phase II project specifically adapted, tested, and validated BTPin for onshore applications in mining, quarrying, port cranes, and construction. The final product was optimised and validated as part of the project.
BTPin can function for at least a decade in heavy machinery. It needs only occasional checks for tightness. Standard pivot pins last three years on average before breaking, making BTPin at least three times more durable with significantly less maintenance overhead.
Savings depend on your operation scale. Based on the project data: machine manufacturers could save €504,000 in OPEX costs, port crane operators €31,500 per crane per day, mines €162,300 per day, and construction sites €16,000 per site per day by avoiding downtime losses.
The Phase I feasibility study (completed before this project) verified a complete lack of competitors for BTPin in onshore applications. The technology operates in the industrial fasteners market, which was worth €68.1bn in 2017 and growing at 5% CAGR.
This is a single-company project by Bondura Technology AS, a Norwegian SME that received €1,093,750 in EU funding under the SME Instrument Phase 2. The 100% industry consortium with no academic partners signals that this is a commercially driven effort, not basic research. Bondura has been in the pivot pin business since the early 1990s, and this project focused on expanding their proven offshore product into onshore markets. For a business buyer, this means you are dealing with an established manufacturer with decades of domain expertise, not a startup or lab spin-off.
Bondura Technology AS is based in Norway. Contact them directly via bondura.no for product inquiries and pricing.
Want an introduction to Bondura's team to discuss BTPin for your fleet? SciTransfer can arrange a direct meeting — contact us for matchmaking.
