Grey hydraulic and electronic drive repairs warning 01 May 2014

Non-approved or 'grey' repairs to hydraulic and electronic drives are threatening industrial productivity by increasing downtime and placing warranties at risk.

That's the warning from Bosch Rexroth, which asserts that production and maintenance managers using non-official repairers on sophisticated equipment could live to regret it.

"We estimate that nearly 65% of electronic drive repairs in the UK are completed by non-official repairers," states Richard Chamberlain, UK service manager at Bosch Rexroth.

"The situation in hydraulics is even worse. Circa 80% of hydraulic repairs are completed by the grey market," he adds.

Chamberlain says the widely-held view that hydraulic drives are easy to repair is a misconception – with no account taken of which components are used, or how this may affect any warranties.

"It's a big issue with hydraulics in particular, because it's generally a simpler technology that many maintenance engineers believe can be just sent down the road," he says.

"However, even the simplest repair completed in the grey market could increase the likelihood of a premature failure," he explains – adding that one recent example resulted in a pump failing and consequent production downtime costing "tens of thousands of pounds".

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Bosch Rexroth Ltd

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