DavyMarkham - News
Dedicated New Reconditioning Service With Fast-Track Capability

Sheffield engineering company, DavyMarkham has announced the introduction of a new dedicated Reconditioning Service, at its Darnall Works. It includes a fast-track capacity able to respond within 24 hours to emergency breakdowns and factory shutdowns, working round-the-clock to inspect, repair and test mechanical equipment. Born out of the company's long history of manufacturing steel plant, heavy mining & tunnelling machinery and capital equipment, the service is able to undertake the reconditioning of roll chocks, mill spindles and couplings, AGC capsules, plate levellers, rolling mill housings, heavy presses, hydro turbines, rock crushing and tunnelling machines, complete gearboxes and other complex equipment.

Reconditioning often presents an opportunity to enhance the performance of existing used components, as well as returning the repaired item back into service quicker than sourcing newly-manufactured replacements. Given that lead times for purchasing new large steel forgings, heavy castings and other capital plant can be as long as 12 months, OEM-grade repairs can be highly economical, as well as saving on production downtime that can run to thousands of pounds per day. Moreover, the original quality and robustness of legacy plant often means that it can be readily returned to 'as new' condition and performance, greatly extending its working life.

Thanks to DavyMarkham's unequalled 166-year engineering history, experience comes as standard with the new Reconditioning Service, since the company was often the original manufacturer. Even when original drawings are not available, as with other manufacturers' equipment, the process of reverse engineering can reproduce new designs from existing components. The fact that equipment is sent for specialist repair to Sheffield, from as far afield as North and South America, Russia, Australia, South Africa and across Europe, emphasises that this is a world-class reconditioning service.

Offering customers the confidence that repairs are to be carried out under one roof, rather than larger parts being sub-contracted out, this 'one stop shop' facility covers metallurgical and NDT inspection, machining, welding, fabrication, reassembly, reinstallation and commissioning. Overhead craneage with 359 tonne capacity allows the repair of heavy kit up to 250 tonnes, while the team can call upon DavyMarkham's impressive machining resources and design engineering support. A fast-track emergency breakdown service, with optional site-to-site collection and delivery, is offered, as well as standard and premium repairs to original geometrical tolerances, at highly competitive rates.

Repair work typically starts with the inspection of worn or damaged equipment, followed by a detailed scope-of-work outlining the extent of repairs and the required timescale. Modern surface engineering techniques, as well as traditional methods like weld reclamation, are then employed to restore damaged surfaces and structures to original specification. Moreover, where equipment failure has occurred through normal wear & tear, mechanical or thermal fatigue, corrosion or isolated one-off overloads, the cause will be identified and the means to prevent future failures incorporated into the reconditioning solution.

Typical candidates for emergency and routine repairs are AGC (automotive gauge control) capsules, the short stroke hydraulic cylinders used to determine steel strip thickness, which can be reconditioned to strict mechanical tolerances within weeks, rather than waiting nine months or more for new. Rolling mill chocks, where surface wear can give rise to loss of gauge control, reduced speed and chatter, can be speedily refurbished using welding deposits and other techniques, as can heavy drive spindles, often weighing 30 tonnes or more.

Steel mill housings, where DavyMarkham has class-leading experience, can be fast-track reconditioned, saving costly production downtime and easily scheduled into routine plant shutdowns. In addition, the company's specialist gear cutting and grinding facilities can be brought to bear on gearbox repairs, producing replacement gear wheels up to 50 tonnes and 4.75m in diameter and machining other replacement parts.

Complex refurbishment projects like Hull's historic Wellington Street Swing Bridge epitomise DavyMarkham's reconditioning capabilities. This contract involved on-site dismantling of the 160-year old double leaf bridge, structural analysis of the original equipment, upgrading the rotational bearing assemblies, the engineering of replacement fabrications to exchange for worn and corroded parts, and the upgrading of the manual drive mechanisms to plc-controlled electric motor/gearbox units. Fully shot-blasted, corrosion-proofed and repainted, it will be returned to duty in better than 'as new' condition, with a design life of a further 125 years.