Atlas Copco Power Technique complements its superior quality, reliable and efficient portable LED, metal halide, electric and battery-driven light tower range with an outstanding after-market service solution.

The construction industry is faced with several challenges, from potential fines if deadlines are not met and keeping operational costs as low as possible to optimising worker safety and adhering to ever-stringent environmental regulations.  To address these challenges, operators demand reliable and efficient performance from their machines and equipment.

Lighting plants are essential on most job sites, providing reliable and superior lighting and helping to extend working hours by ensuring that work can continue unhampered in a safe working environment after sunset or at pre-dawn.

“We have specially developed an after-market service to meet the needs of customers / operators and assist them to protect their investment and get the best out of their lighting plants,” notes Power Technique Service Division Manager, Douw van Schalkwyk. “Regular servicing at the correct intervals by skilled, factory-trained technicians using premium genuine parts will optimise the performance, reliability and efficiency of lighting plants and extend the units’ life cycle too. What this ultimately means for the customer / operator is across-the board cost and time savings for low total cost of ownership.”

Atlas Copco’s after-market solutions for light towers are focussed on two primary areas: Genuine parts and service.  Using genuine parts ensures that Atlas Copco’s light towers are maintained to factory specifications, thereby improving reliability and minimising operating costs. Atlas Copco offers the following under genuine parts:

• Atlas Copco Kits comprise sets of spare parts for the most common repairs and maintenance operations, all neatly packaged in one box.
• Metal halide bulbs (they consume less energy and offer predictable power)
• Paroil Engine Oils formulated, approved and recommend by Atlas Copco’s engine suppliers. Atlas Copco oils guarantee that the engines in construction machinery will continue to run smoothly between service intervals
• Atlas Copco Parcool coolants are designed to meet the requirements of modern engines. With improved cooling capacity one of the leading features, these coolants guarantee enhanced protection for extended component life-time
• Engine programmes offer a second life to engines that have reached end-of-life
• Atlas Copco lead acid batteries are developed to perform and last under extreme conditions and require minimum maintenance

Atlas Copco’s service solutions include Inspection and Service Plans, Overhauls and Upgrades. Inspection Plans involve an equipment audit that generates a detailed report on the equipment status as well as a checklist with recommendations that will facilitate future repair plans.

“Our Service Plans cover preventative maintenance and repairs carried out by our team of highly-trained technicians,” continues Van Schalkwyk. Completing the service offering are Atlas Copco Overhauls (giving the vital ‘organs’ of machines a second life by re-establishing the high quality and reliable standards of a new machine) and Atlas Copco Upgrades (advanced technical solutions).

Van Schalkwyk concludes, “By allowing us to focus on the service, maintenance and repair of light towers, which is our area of experience and expertise, operators are able to focus on their core business, leading to improve uptime and productivity, and ultimately profitability.”

 /Ends

Atlas Copco Group Great ideas accelerate innovation. At Atlas Copco we have been turning industrial ideas into business-critical benefits since 1873. By listening to our customers and knowing their needs, we deliver value and innovate with the future in mind.

Atlas Copco is based in Stockholm, Sweden with customers in more than 180 countries and about 37 000 employees. Revenues of BSEK 95/9 BEUR in 2018.

For more information: www.atlascopcogroup.com

Power Technique
Great ideas accelerate innovation. At Atlas Copco Power Technique, we turn industrial ideas into leading edge technology in air, power and flow solutions. Our passionate people, expertise and service bring sustainable value to industries everywhere.

Portable Air is a division within Atlas Copco’s Power Technique business area. The division designs, manufactures and markets a comprehensive range of mobile and energy-efficient compressors, handheld light-demolition tools and industry focused solutions, such as high-pressure boosters and quality air equipment. The products are used in a wide range of industries including construction, mining, oil and gas, and rental. The divisional headquarters are located in Antwerp, Belgium. Principal product development and manufacturing units are located in Europe, Asia, South America and North America.

Power and Flow is a division within Atlas Copco’s Power Technique business area. The division designs, manufactures and markets a comprehensive range of mobile and energy-efficient generators, light towers, and pumps. Along with associated accessories and connectivity solutions. The products are used in a wide range of industries including construction, industrial, mining, dewatering, and rental. The divisional headquarters are located in Zaragoza, Spain. Principal product development and manufacturing units are located in Europe, Asia, South America and North America.

Even as South Africa’s construction sector struggles through difficult cycles of low profitability and declining capacity, it needs responsible and sustainable companies to maintain momentum.

After almost nine decades in business, AfriSam’s legacy has been to demonstrate the value of good corporate citizenship, according to the company’s sales and marketing executive Richard Tomes. AfriSam began its journey as Anglovaal Portland Cement Company in 1934, with a cement plant in Roodepoort.

“The time since then has seen many changes and we are proud to have grown stronger, with our customers confirming that we are still their preferred choice,” says Tomes. “Even with the depressed state of the construction sector, our focus on quality and sustainability means that we can continue to serve the market to world class standards.”

Tomes argues that the extensive investment in cement plants, readymix facilities and quarries over the years laid the groundwork for AfriSam’s considerable contribution to the country’s infrastructure. As Anglo Alpha, it had become a fully vertically-integrated construction materials business in the 1990s through the strategic incorporation of aggregate producer Hippo Quarries and readymix company Pioneer Concrete. When the country re-entered the international community post-democracy, the company was acquired by the multinational Holcim group, further augmenting its access to world-class expertise and best practice.

“The learnings gained when part of the Holcim group were valuable in positioning AfriSam where it is today,” he says. “Our access to global research and the sharing of technical expertise further enhanced the expertise of many staff still with the business.”

He emphasises the large capital commitments which AfriSam has historically made in the country’s productive capacity. Often located in remote areas due to their need for limestone deposits, cement plants must be built for optimal longevity to justify the investment, he explains. These facilities – such as AfriSam’s Ulco and Dudfield plants – operate not just as production facilities but as integrated settlements.

“We have been able to serve the nation’s requirement for vital cement supplies by maintaining entire village environments at these sites, including schools, houses, churches and other services,” says Tomes. “These facilities must be carefully managed and maintained for sustainability, and to make it attractive for our staff to live and work there.”

There is also an ongoing commitment to education and training, to ensure that all plant is professionally operated and systematically serviced while creating opportunities for future generations.

Looking further ahead, AfriSam has taken a leading role in the sector to reduce carbon emissions. Aiming at producing carbon neutral products, the company has already made significant progress in offering the market a range of lower carbon cements. It is also considering renewable energy sources at some its plants, to reduce coal usage.

“We will continue to make a positive contribution in helping South Africa meet its commitments to the relevant global treaties and conventions on climate change,” he says.

The solid performance of Multotec’s pulping chutes at Ekapa’s diamond treatment operation in Kimberley over the past couple of years has opened the door to quicker and more cost effective fines scrubbing.

According to John Britton, Technical Consultant at Multotec, the two pulping chutes have achieved outstanding results, helping the customer’s facility to cost effectively increase the throughput of its Combined Treatment Plant (CTP).

“At our recent two-year inspection of the plant, we found that the wear rate on the ceramic lining of the wave generator was only 20 mm over that 24 month period,” says Britton. “Each chute was processing 380 tph of recrushed kimberlite product with 380 m³ of water, rushing down a 28 degree incline.”

Multotec’s patented wave generators use gravity to create a constant turbulent mixing action in the slurry flow that releases the mud, clay and slime sticking to the kimberlite particles. The chutes are positioned to receive material from the High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) interparticle tertiary crushing circuit. Multotec’s engineered alumina ceramic tiles give the chutes and wave generators  high wear resistance.

“The chutes exceeded our expectations in how well they separated the clay from the kimberlite ore and broke up clay balls in the material stream,” he says. “This has really demonstrated the long term capacity of our design to deliver results with hardly any maintenance or operator intervention.”

He highlights that the chutes are stationery structures which rely on the kinetic energy being created by the inrush of slurry flow over the wave generators. This makes the solution much simpler and less energy-intensive than traditional rotary scrubbers with motors, drives and gearboxes. The chute can also achieve its results much quicker, as the material flow passes through in just three to four seconds.

Ekapa CEO Jahn Hohne says he has been impressed by how well the chutes have performed as an alternative to a considerably more costly scrubber circuit and having delivered a 20% increase in throughput through the plant and making a positive economic contribution to overall efficiency. Hohne says he admired Multotec’s innovation capability and looked forward to even further improvements in the design.

Britton notes that, after conducting the wear inspection of the chutes, there were indeed constructive modifications that Multotec was planning. One of these related to the retarder bars, which slow down and divert the slurry flow.

“We believe we can achieve even better results if we remove some of the retarder bars and install another set of wave generators,” he says. “Our results suggest that this will get the ore material even cleaner, before it reports to the screen, the conveyor belt and finally the dense medium circuit.”

The success of the pulping chutes at Ekapa has led to considerable interest from other diamond producers in southern Africa, he notes.

Zest WEG, the South African subsidiary of Brazilian motor and controls manufacturer WEG, has progressively increased its level of local manufacturing over the past decade and now boasts six manufacturing sites – four in the Gauteng region and two in Cape Town.

A key aspect of this manufacturing drive has been the development of local suppliers by Zest WEG; an effort which has met with considerable success. “Building up our local supply chain is important, of course, in terms of meeting targets for black empowerment stipulated by the government and the mining industry, which is one of our main markets. Having said this, local sourcing is a value that is built into WEG’s culture globally and is nothing new for us,” says Eduardo Werninghaus, newly appoint Group CEO of Zest WEG.

Werninghaus notes that WEG started up in 1961 in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina which was then very undeveloped with the local economy relying primarily on agriculture. “WEG really had no choice but to develop local suppliers, given the distance of its factory from Brazil’s main industrial centres. This programme met with such success – and made such economic sense – that it has now become the standard practice for WEG companies around the globe.”

Commenting on the benefits of local sourcing, Werninghaus says that it gives Zest WEG enhanced control over the production process and helps keep down costs. It also allows short delivery times, as there is less reliance on global markets for parts and componentry, a huge advantage currently given the constraints of the global supply chain. He adds that it has also made a major contribution to Zest WEG achieving its current Level 1 B-BBEE status.

Zest WEG gives considerable assistance to emerging companies that it brings into its supply chain, upgrading their skills so that they are able to produce to the demanding standards of the WEG Group. “We’re a very aggressive company when it comes to manufacturing and very focused on efficiency and productivity. This same culture has been successfully instilled into our South African operations, including our local suppliers,” he says.

In Gauteng Zest WEG has two transformer factories. One is in Wadeville and the other in Heidelberg. Also in Gauteng, Zest WEG – through its WEG Automation division (previously Shaw Controls) – produces a wide range of electrical panels in Robertsham and E-Houses and other electrical enclosures in Heidelberg. In Cape Town, the company has two production facilities, one producing engineered gensets and the other focused on panel production.

Discussing how far local manufacture has advanced, Werninghaus says that the transformers can have more than 90% local content and panels and E-Houses close to 70% depending on the specifications.

“It’s virtually impossible to get to 100 % local content on any of the product lines we manufacture in South Africa, as there will always be certain things that have to be imported due to technical and economic reasons,” he comments. “Nevertheless, we are constantly looking for opportunities to replace imported componentry with locally produced parts so our level of local content will certainly increase further with time.”

South African motorists were sent into panic once again this past weekend as oil refineries were shut down due to a lack of crude oil.

This comes after Sasol Ltd declared force majeure at its second biggest refinery on Friday due to a lack of crude oil.

On Monday, Sasol said it will restart its refinery by the end of July.

The shutdown of the Natref refinery around 100 kilometres from Johannesburg has sparked concerns of petrol and diesel shortages in the country where 60% of fuel products are imported.

Sasol, however, said it did not expect any shortages.

Sasol is the only producer of petroleum products in South Africa through its two refineries – Secunda, with output of around 150 000 barrels per day (bpd) and Natref, around 108 000 bpd.

“The crude tanker has arrived in Durban and cargo dispatches are under way. Natref should start-up to run at maximum production capability by end July,” Sasol said in the statement.

The company, which owns the Natref refinery with a subsidiary of France’s TotalEnergies, said it does not “anticipate any fuel supply shortages to fuel stations, including our own”.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s Energy Department said the country will not run out of petrol and diesel.

The department’s deputy director-general of mineral and petroleum regulation, Tseliso Maqubela, said, “I don’t expect that diesel and petrol would be affected greatly, however, we are concerned about the impact this is going to have on the availability of jet fuel, particularly for the airports”.

Maqubela said officials would use this week to assess the impact of the move and what it would take to recover.

“There is the ability to import fuel in the country. We’ve always planned for such an eventuality but I think the impact on jet fuel, because this was something that was not expected, is something we’re going to have to look at,” Maqubela said.