Implementing a good condition monitoring programme has been proven to save money for customers, as it helps to avoid debilitating, unplanned equipment failure and assists in ensuring uninterrupted productivity, ensuring components operate at optimum efficiency and that necessary repairs can be planned for convenient times.

Taking this into account, one of condition monitoring specialist WearCheck’s unique selling points is that the company “presents a complete all-under-one-roof solutions hub”, which MD Neil Robinson says “eliminates the necessity for customers to approach numerous companies for various condition monitoring needs”.

He adds that WearCheck is also addressing the lack of access to world class condition monitoring services in remote areas of Africa.

Part of achieving this, Robinson explains, is the company’s established laboratories near industrial and mining hubs in several countries – Namely South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Dubai and India.

As it stands, the company boasts laboratories across the continent, which are all controlled and managed from Durban and operate off a single Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), which allows fleet managers to use all the data more effectively for maintenance decisions.

WearCheck has further also vaulted the challenging lack of infrastructure on some sites by creating world-class laboratories in converted shipping containers.

“Ensuring consistently accurate test results is critical, therefore each mobile laboratory remains connected to the WearCheck South Africa LIMS, which ensures quality control,” Robinson states.

Over and above its laboratory capabilities, the company also employs a wide range of condition monitoring techniques, including oil analysis, transformer oil analysis, water analysis, asset reliability care (ARC), lubricant-enabled reliability (LER) as well as advanced field services.

“Through techniques such as such as vibration analysis, balancing, rope condition assessment, acoustic emission and so on, WearCheck’s team of scientists, technicians and diagnosticians can assist customers to ensure that major, unscheduled equipment failure is avoided. This saves both time and money for industrial operations, and boosts productivity,” Robinson elaborates.

WearCheck serves customers in a range of industries, including mining, automation, manufacturing, wind turbines and power generation, earthmoving, industrial, transport, shipping, aircraft and electrical operations.

Commenting on the bounce back in economic activity, Robinson is optimistic about what the future may hold – especially following the company having processed 72 188 samples in May this year -  a record high number for the company for any given May month since inception.

OUTLOOK

WearCheck recently acquired sister company Setpoint Water, which is now part of WearCheck’s service offerings.

“We are currently integrating the water analysis services into our company to ensure a smooth flow of services,” Robinson comments.

Additionally, the company is currently launching LER services in the form of its Lubrigard product offering, which are considered bespoke lubricant management services and are in demand.

The company is also looking to continue growing its offerings in Africa and India, with another lab planned for the West Bengal region in the east of India.

“We also want to increase our training offerings - we already provide oil analysis and MOBIUS (Vibration analysis, balancing alignment and other) training courses, but will be including transformer oil analysis training as well.”

CONDITION MONITORING IN MORE DETAIL

WearCheck scientifically analyses used oil from mechanical and electrical systems, transformer oil, water, fuel, greases and more, effectively processing over 800 000 samples a year.

WearCheck also offers comprehensive monitoring programmes for transformers and wind turbines, using dissolved gas analysis, furan analysis and other spectrographic methods.

Additionally, the company’s LER technicians offer advice and products to enhance an operation’s lubricant management system, and assist companies to develop and implement bespoke LER programmes.

“LER encompasses all lubrication-related activities that improve equipment reliability and asset optimisation, such as the design and construction of lube rooms, on-site lubrication surveys, lubricant storage, handling and dispensing, as well as filtration,” Robinson notes.

He adds that WearCheck’s ARC division offers services such as reliability solutions (balancing, vibration monitoring, alignment and more) and advanced field services (rope testing, technical compliance and non-destructive testing (NDT).

“The company’s leading team of ARC technicians has amassed more than 100 years’ experience in proactive maintenance techniques such as advanced vibration analysis, infrared, NDT, alignment, balancing and more on more than 10 000 machines.

WearCheck’s newest service is water testing, during which laboratory technicians select the relevant tests for the water sample depending on the needs of the customer, be they for determining drinking water purity, assessing the safety of borehole water for agricultural use, or checking the contamination levels of wastewater.

Robinson explains that technicians identify what is wrong with the water and advise customers on the possible consequences of using or discarding such water.

“Water analysis is conducted using various accredited techniques such as photometric, electrometric, colorimetric, gravimetric, ICP-OES, ICP MS and enzyme substrates. These techniques obtain the best possible results in chemical and microbial analysis of effluent/wastewater, drinking water, processed water, surface water and groundwater.”

ELECTRA MINING 2022

WearCheck looks forward to welcoming visitors to its stand at Electra Mining from 5 to 9 September at Johannesburg’s Nasrec Expo Centre.

WearCheck is at stand A26 in hall 6.

For more information, please visit www.wearcheck.co.za, or email support@wearcheck.co.za  or call WearCheck head office in South  Africa on +27 (31) 700-5460.