Agree with the comments from Justinn & Edward T. Would like to add a couple additional comments. When your in house maintenance personnel straigtened the bent rods by heat, not only will it weaken the rod but there is a much better than 50% chance the rods are not perfectly straight. The end results the rod will bend easier and seals will fail causing oil leakage and "excessive down time" especially on 15 year old units.
The pantograph of reach units are a point of high maintenance andis usually caused by operator errors or abuse. Newer units have been some what improved in this area but any "good" operator can take the machine beyond it's design limits.
Can anyone provide for the specs of RD3000. Thanks.
for the fork cylinder rods to bend means they are coming loose from the locknut and or the stop cushions are bad, and the hydraulic pressure is set way too high. (or crap is falling into the area or getting hit. if the pressure relief is set correctly, they should stall out before bending, even if mis adjusted for length..
for the pantograph bending, I automatically blame operators for not retracting the pantograph completely before turning. usually when pulling out of putting something in the racks.
Give a thought to how many pounds torque are on that pantograph when the wheel is in a tight turn, and the corner of the forks are pushing against the building or a rack with 100 thousand pounds sitting on it.
in any case, driving with the pantograph all the way retracted should cut down on the damage.
are they breaking the end of thr rod or the bracket on the pantograph (scissor)
if its the rod end try replacing them with new
anytime you bend metal out of it original shape it weakens it
heat weakens metal too in most cases
id watch you operators
make sure they arent pushing loads across the floor maybe catching an expansion joint
make sure theyre not bumping walls or entering pallets violently (slamming against it)
if one unit wa doin it it might be the machine
if theyre all doin the same things i tend to look at the operation and practices of the operators