In early October, Motion Control accepted an invitation from Hydromobile to catch up on the many developments happening at this hydraulic systems manufacturer and supplier.
Andrew Ashton (AA) met with Roger Noble (RN), managing director, Sidney Badenhorst (SB), technical director and Lolita De Witt (LDW), marketing manager.
Hydrocontrol
AA: We understand that Hydromobile has added an important new foreign supplier to its principals?
SB: Roger and I have just returned from a visit to Hydrocontrol in Italy, where we successfully concluded an agreement to represent that company’s products in South Africa.
AA: What is special about Hydrocontrol that caused you to pursue this distributorship?
RN: Hydrocontrol has been manufacturing for the global OEM market, and we are expanding into this OEM area. Where the demand volume suits an OEM solution, clients can achieve significant cost, space and maintenance savings since a purpose-built monoblock or sectional solution can incorporate features that would otherwise require the purchase and tubing of many separate components.
SB: The Italian company is geared to be able to provide a solid R&D backing and a fast turnaround for new valve designs – a key factor for OEMs. Their investment in virtual simulation technology for fluid power system design and in rapid prototyping technology has reduced the time required to build a prototype to as little as three weeks. We are looking forward to opening up this service to our clients.
AA: What has opened the doors for this new opportunity?
RN: About a year ago Hydrocontrol made a strategic decision to broaden its distribution, where previously it had operated only through an owned subsidiary structure with branch offices in Europe, USA, China, and India, it is now actively developing a network of competent hydraulic distributors in each region. At the same time Hydromobile was looking to diversify and the OEM market is one to which we are well suited.
SB: Another of the features that attracted us to Hydrocontrol was that it allows us to offer valves with capacities of up to 2000 lpm. Until now we have not been able to provide solutions above 150 lpm, so this opens up opportunities for growth.
In the mobile market we are seeing the whole world moving to electronic control and Hydrocontrol’s strength in proportional control opens up new possibilities for Hydromobile to provide clients with complete electronically controlled hydraulic proportional systems.
AA: How will you be introducing clients to this new product line?
LDW: In the first quarter of 2010 Hydrocontrol’s team will be visiting us to meet with existing and potential OEM clients and we are planning an Open Day to provide an opportunity for customers to meet with their technical experts to see how this new offering can improve their profitability.
Other new products
AA: Are there any other new product developments that you would like to share with Motion Control’s readers?
SB: We are introducing a complete new range of stainless steel cylinders which are aimed at marine, water and wastewater applications where cylinders may need to operate submerged or in high humidity, high corrosion environments.
Manufacturing and test investment
AA: You have recently completed a multimillion Rand investment in cylinder manufacturing capabilities, investing in a new CNC machine, lathe and welding facilities along with construction to accommodate these into your production workflow. What benefits have flowed from that?
RN: We now have the ability to manufacture larger bore cylinders – up to 250 mm bore and 2 m stroke. We can go up to 500 mm bore with the help of our foreign partners. And cylinder manufacturing capacity has increased by about 20%.
SB: The larger bore sizes mean that we can build mill cylinders and earthmoving cylinders that were previously outside our facility’s capabilities. On smaller bores like 125 mm we can manufacture cylinders with strokes of 7 m and beyond and have just completed one such cylinder.
RN: The agreement with Hydrocontrol complements this investment in as much as Hydrocontrol provides us with OEM opportunities in the valve area, while this manufacturing investment provides us with OEM prospects in the cylinder market.
SB: We are also looking at growing our market share in the cylinder repair and refurbishment sector. We have the knowledge, skills and machinery to do this and it is important for clients to know that the same organisation that supplied their cylinders also offers ongoing service options.
AA: Have you made any investments in other areas?
SB: On the quality side, we have been upgrading our valve and pump test bench to provide full electronic testing and test certificates. And we have just received our new 110 V d.c. motor test panel. Our test facilities allow us to test 380 V and 525 V hydraulic power packs up to 30 kW.
New website
AA: It is tough out there at the moment. What changes have you made in terms of communicating to clients and prospects?
LDW: In September 2009 we launched our new website. Visitors can access the data sheets of every product that Hydromobile and Hydrocylinder supply. Sizes, weights, capacities, pressure ratings – they are all available at the click of a button. We really think that this differentiates Hydromobile from many other South African suppliers. And the video provides a comprehensive overview of our capabilities and investment.
New courses for 2010
AA: You ran three successful training courses during 2009. How were these accepted and what are your plans for 2010?
SB: The popularity of these courses proved that there is definitely a demand for courses covering hydraulic system design and valve applications and we will be running the same course three times in 2010. We are also introducing two new courses – a two-day proportional hydraulics course and a two-day hydrostatic course covering closed-loop systems and pump controllers.
The market
AA: Hydromobile’s traditional markets have been agriculture, construction, manufacturing and mining. What changes have resulted from the downturn?
RN: Like most industrial suppliers we have felt the impact of reduced mining and mineral processing investment, but that has helped us to seek out and identify other areas with significant potential for growth.
SB: We have seen solid growth in the hydraulic actuator market. In fact we have just completed delivery on a 6-figure contract for Assmang’s Black Rock mine at Hotazel where we supplied 26 actuators for ore-handling.
LDW: And Hydromobile has been able to benefit from some of the major South African infrastructural investments like the Ingula pumped-storage scheme, and other Eskom projects where we have supplied hydraulic power packs and actuators for butterfly valves on turbine cooling circuits and sluice gates.
AA: What are you views on an economic recovery?
SB: We think that the economy has bottomed out and will be looking for growth from the first quarter of 2010 – perhaps as much as 15 to 20% per year off this low level that we are at now. Already some of our foreign principals are experiencing growth.
AA: Has the downturn meant that Hydromobile has had to scale back its salesforce?
RN: No, in fact, just the opposite. Over the last year we have added three new sales staff to ensure that we achieve the highest sales possible. We know that when the economy starts to pick up it will be those companies that have maintained a strong market presence that will perform best.
Hydrocontrol quick facts
Head office: Bologna, Italy
Certifications: Quality: ISO 9001:2000; Environmental: ISO 14001:2004
Test philosophy: 100% testing on all assembled products
2008 turnover: 54,5m Euro
2008 investment: 6,2m Euro
Largest application areas:Earthmoving (45%); cranes and mobile application (35%); agricultural machines (15%)
Technologies: Sectional valves (64%); monoblock valves (13%); remote control (13%); cartridge valves (10%)
For more information contact Lolita De Witt, Hydromobile, +27 (0)11 394 5837, [email protected], www.hydromobile.co.za
| Tel: | +27 11 394 5837 |
| Fax: | +27 11 975 6751 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.hydromobile.co.za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about Hydromobile S.A. |
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