Reduced air consumption meets light weight

Atlas Copco has launched the RTEX breaker, which it says has the breaking capacity of a 30+ kg breaker while using half the compressed air and weighing 25% less.

The breaker has the performance of top class 30 to 35 kg breakers but weighs only 25 kg.

Measured according to EN ISO 28927-10*, the three-axes hand-and-arm vibration is below 5 m/s². Under these conditions an operator can work up to eight times longer than with conventional breakers, according to the safety guidelines.

This is thanks to the constant pressure chamber on the top of the breaker which serves as advanced pneumatic suspension. The tool is more compact than a traditional breaker, which makes it easier to work with in constrained areas and gives a more ergonomic working position. Stiff handles and the Sofstart function make it very easy to control the power of the RTEX.

One feature of the product is that it offers 50% less compressed air consumption for the same breaking capacity. This means that a compressor only half the size is needed, or that two breakers can be used on a compressor that previously powered only one breaker.

This has been made possible thanks to a new working principle invented by Atlas Copco engineers Olof Östensson and Thomas Lilja from the company’s Construction Tools Innovation Centre in Kalmar, Sweden.

Olof said: “In a conventional breaker air is discharged each time the acting piston moves up or down. In the RTEX we discharge the air only once – on the piston´s return stroke. Then the constant pressure from a chamber on the top of the RTEX pushes the piston down.

“The pressure on top of the acting piston is constant and therefore does not generate vibrations as on conventional breakers, so there is no need for vibration damping. To achieve this, we moved the valve from the top of the breaker to the bottom.”