Capital Equipment News October 2016

BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO HEARTS OF MACHINES

The challenging operating landscape across sectors such as mining, construction and even transport, is prompting several fleet owners to look at ways of breathing new life into their pieces of equipment through critical engine rebuilds. Operations director of Metric Automotive Engineering, Andrew Yorke, explains how the company, together with its Reef Fuel Injection Services and IPD Parts businesses, has created a one-stop shop for all things reman, from engine rebuilds through to re-injecting new life into fuel systems. By Munesu Shoko.

will find the same equipment as ours. Our second competitive edge is our product and industry knowledge. There is a vast amount of experience on the floor. The other advantage is that we have sev- eral salvage repairs that we can offer that have been developed over many years. For instance, every time an engine block comes for remanufacture, there is often a need to machine some of its block height to expose a new gasket sealing surface. But at some point, the block height falls below minimum specification and you have a problem. That’s a major component to replace and the cost is huge and often makes rebuilding an engine unviable. We have processes in place that allow us to rebuild that block height, there- by extending the component’s life further than originally expected. It’s those capabil- ities that add value for our customers. It’s not just the standard automotive machining practices. There are additional add-ons and we concentrate on those major components in salvage repairs because they are the ones that will cost the customer a lot of money if they need to be replaced. However, our biggest competitive edge is our commitment to quality and service, and that keeps customers coming back. Main- taining our ability to offer this level of quality and service requires continuous expenditure on equipment and staff. This means that that we are not always the cheapest. However,

components over a period of time. It’s amarket where everyone is running cost-cutting campaigns and we see a lot of it. We help contribute to those cost-cutting measures by making sure that the engineering necessary is done properly. We look to offer customers long-term cost savings. Q: Just how competitive is this market, considering that some dealers and OEMs have their own local reman centres, and what is your competitive edge? AY: It’s an incredibly competitive industry. Our first competitive edge is the continual investment into our equipment. You can visit any top component remanufacturing facility anywhere in the world and you

Munesu Shoko [MS]: With current tough operating conditions, many fleet operators in the mining, construction and quarrying industries are opting to lengthen the lifecycles of their equipment through engine rebuilds. Have you seen increased demand for your services in this regard? Andrew Yorke [AY]: In those industries, the expectation is to achieve several engine lives out of one engine. No one buys a piece of heavy equipment expecting to have one engine life. The trend is that during the lifecycle of that piece of plant, the engine will be rebuilt several times. That is the industry norm. As a result, we see a lot of return customers and we work on the same

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