WearCheck Zimbabwe

Location :

Condition monitoring specialists WearCheck was originally launched as an oil analysis operation in 1976 by husband and wife team Lesley and Wally Crawford, and Gary Brown. Their initial test portfolio comprised six elements, viscosity, water, fuel, sludge and debris analysis, with no automation. The company employed 10 people and processed less than 500 samples per month.

Today, WearCheck is a member of the International WearCheck Group (IWG) and is the pre-eminent oil condition monitoring service on the continent, processing in excess 600 000 samples per annum.

The IWG is an association of independent laboratories around the globe, dedicated to oil and wear particle analysis. This relationship with the IWG allows for the ongoing exchange and updating of advanced technical information, and the ability to offer a worldwide service.

Many industries benefit from WearCheck’s services, including mining, earthmoving, industrial, transport, shipping, aviation and electrical operations - through the scientific analysis of used oil from oil-wetted components. WearCheck’s expansive network of ten laboratories spans the African continent and beyond, including Isando in Gauteng, Pinetown in KwaZulu-Natal, Middelburg, Lumwana mine and Kitwe in Zambia, as well as Ghana, Mozambique, India and Dubai (in partnership with Precision Machinery), with additional offices in Namibia, Cape Town, Rustenburg, Steelpoort and Port Elizabeth

WearCheck has a unique achievement – we are the only oil analysis company in Africa with ISO 9001 quality certification and ISO 14001 certification for our environmental management programme, as well as being accredited with the ISO 17025 laboratory centric quality management programme.

WearCheck has been awarded preferred supplier status by several Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), and, along with WearCheck’s global partners, is the laboratory of choice for Shell lubricants. WearCheck also has a partnership with ABB Limited, Zurich - a global leader in power and automation technologies. These partnerships are in line with worldwide trends in outsourcing specialist services.

The development of WearCheck’s reliability solutions division embraces the latest approach to proactive maintenance - the search for ways to extend the life of components to prevent premature failure, thereby boosting general plant health. The underlying philosophy is that any good proactive maintenance programme boosts both plant availability as well as plant reliability.

Services
Oil analysis is as important for maintenance engineering as blood testing is for medicine. It is the scientific analysis of all types of lubricants and transformer oils, coolants, greases and filters and is an established method for predictive and preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance programmes are essential for optimising operational efficiency and performance of mechanical and electrical systems. WearCheck offers many services for predictive and preventive maintenance, including competitive pricing and short turnaround time. Analyses are carried out at state-of-the-art, custom built, automated laboratories with interpretation and reports being completed by qualified staff.

The company's capabilities include:
• Viscosity
• Density
• Distillation
• Flashpoint
• Water (by Karl Fischer)
• Appearance / colour
• Wear metals
• Particle contamination
• Dissolved gases
• Total acid and base numbers
• Moisture
• Dielectric strength
• Visual colour
• PCB analysis
• Ruler test
• Copper and silver corrosion
• Thermography

Continued investment in new pH, glycol and co-ductivity technology has ensured that all equipment in WearCheck's laboratories is state-of-the-art, matching or surpassing its local and international counterparts. The ever-increasing range of advanced equipment in these custom built laboratories includes:

• Inductively-coupled plasma spectrometers
• Fourier transform infra-red spectrometer
• HIAC and PAMAS (GmbH) particle counters
• ISL Houillon viscometers
• Gas chromatographs
• Rotary particle depositors
• Particle quantifiers
• Microscopes
• Image processing systems
• Distillation and flashpoint apparatus
• High performance liquid chromatography systems
• Karl Fischer titration
• Dielectric strength testers

A high degree of automation in the laboratories ensures reliability of results and has virtually eliminated time-consuming paper work.

Other WearCheck services include:

Telephonic and on-site support
Advice including in-depth investigations and troubleshooting by WearCheck's qualified diagnosticians.
Suppliers of a wide variety of different sample kits and accessories such as sampling valves and extraction pumps.
Regular technical publications and conferences,
A comprehensive training programme, offered both on-site and at WearCheck's offices
WearCheck Online is a web based service which allows customers to receive their WearCheck results on the Internet and to manage their oil analysis programme from their own computer. It also permits two-way communication, enabling customers to use the system to submit information to WearCheck, ensuring that it is immediately integrated into the system. WearCheck Online employs drop-down menus to view results, to print reports, tables and lists, and to create charts and graphs.
Reports are communicated either by e-mail, fax, telephone or by post.
There are several options to speed up the delivery of samples to the laboratory and more than 95% of all samples are processed within 24 hours of the sample reaching the laboratory.

No reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.