Maintenance contract successes
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| March 2001 Colliery Dust Control of Springs has further consolidated its position as No 1 supplier of dust suppression equipment for continuous miners to the South African coal mining industry. CDC first attained undisputed leadership in this market in the mid-90’s through gaining the bulk of the market’s acceptance of its three-fold dust suppression system comprising the unique CDC wet fan scrubber box, a spray fan system and water-powered air movers operating in complementary fashion to achieve high dust suppression efficiency. It’s equipment was the first with which collieries were able to achieve the minimum dust count levels of 5 mg/cu m or less as laid down by the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME). In addition to constantly improving the designs and performance of its equipment and extending the range of equipment it supplies to the market, CDC has put a great deal of effort into developing and providing a range of backup services to ensure that all dust suppression equipment is kept in tip-top shape for maximum performance. A key focus in this effort has been the expansion of its contract maintenance service in which the customer signs over to CDC’s service division full responsibility for maintenance and repair of the dust suppression equipment on the CM’s. This service encompasses not only providing maintenance backup on equipment supplied by CDC, but on all the dust suppression equipment in use by the mine, regardless of make or supplier. Collieries making use of this option have seen remarkable and rapid improvements in dust counts, reduced overall costs and increased coal production levels as a direct result of the rigorous maintenance procedures that CDC’s maintenance staff apply. Users have seen dust counts plummet from 20 mg/cu m and more before the maintenance & repair contract was put into effect to below 5 mg/cu m shortly after it was put in place. In addition, collieries’ costs have dropped as a result of reduced expenditure on repairs and spares and less downtime, with more coal being produced at less cost. CDC’s maintenance technicians work alongside the mine’s own machine maintenance personnel, resulting in better communication and co-operation between supplier and customer and an overall improvement in maintenance and operational efficiency. "The demonstrable success of our contract maintenance system, plus the other services we provide, including round-the-clock supply of parts and accessories and our service exchange scheme, brings us to where we want to be – which is that we should be a whole lot more than a mere supplier of product," said Doug Hutson, CDC’s managing director. "Just as important as supplying and supporting quality products is the provision of a full range of services enabling us to work in close co-operation and partnership with the customer to help him to achieve his goals." The company currently has six maintenance & repair contracts in operation at various collieries. "We are getting greater efficiency all the time and the information backup is there," commented the chief environmental control officer of a shaft where a maintenance contract has been in operation for the past year. "The CDC technician checks everything in the dust suppression system and fixes anything that’s faulty or immediately takes the necessary steps if any parts are worn and have to be replaced. The action time is excellent." CDC has seen a noticeable decline in demand for repairs on dust suppression equipment, which it attributes directly to the improved performance and life of equipment resulting largely from the maintenance and repair contracts it has in place. In the company’s pump shop, for instance, there has been a dramatic decline in pump repairs in the past year of about 25 per cent. Other noteworthy advances that CDC has put into effect in the past year include:
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