INDUSTRY PEOPLE
A finished project ready to ship.
actually quite broad and extends their polytech theoretical
knowledge.”
The current building is modern and well-placed in Auckland
from a logistical point of view, although Rob explains
that Christchurch, New Plymouth and Nelson also have
large hydraulics industries. Jonel also have a smaller site
in Christchurch, however quite often, a South Island job
will end up in the East Tamaki workshop due to size and
complexity.
One recent job was for the Port of Nelson, whereby a cylinder
failed and there was no spare. The cylinder was shipped to
the East Tamaki site and work carried out until complete,
sometimes hours on end of boring to make everything fit.
“You can be boring for 24 hours in a situation where the
barrel material might be an odd size which means we’ll
have to get the next closest size and bore it out that’s why
you can’t always hit the price points because there ain’t no
way in the world that you can beat the price of a new piece
of equipment, but you then have to factor in the time for
freighting the new bit.”
and another near Christchurch. Elsewhere, they service the
earthmoving, transportation and construction industries,
any industry that has a hydraulic component.
Rob says that the evolution of the business has been
interesting as it has been kept specialist.
“When you have a big cylinder out of commission, you say
‘do I send it to a generalist or a specialist?’ and generally
speaking if it’s a big cylinder they tend to come to us.”
Additions to the workshop such as an overhead gantry have
made the work safer and more efficient.
“It means that we can drive vehicles in, load them straight
with the gantry then we’ve got trolleys to move things
around. It’s a flow business, it’s about getting a cylinder in,
only moving it the smallest distance possible to where we
strip it down to diagnose what’s wrong with it then separate
out the parts.”
A walk through the workshop reveals the “flow” idea with
clarity. It’s very much large-scale work too, and the size of
the current equipment is gobsmacking.
The marine sector is just one ‘slice of the sector pie’ for
Jonel. They are also involved with the quarrying and mining
sector, specifically the Waikato coal mines and the Oceania-
owned gold mine at Middlemarch. “We’ve been in this building for about four years,” says Rob.
There’s also involvement with the West Coast coal mines, “Anytime you are launching something across a space like
On the communication board in the staffroom is a plethora
of projects underway including bridging projects that require
launching equipment. A quick lesson in bridge
Gold mining is surprisingly lucrative in New “You can be boring for building is delivered and it becomes clear about
Zealand. While offshore companies are helming 24 hours in a situation the engineering component of this hydraulics
that sector, when the gold price is good, mining where the barrel material business.
shifts can occur 24 hours a day, seven days a might be an odd size”
In conjunction with Downer, Jonel developed a
week. In Waihi alone, there’s a pit, which Rob
steel bridge launching nose for a section of an
describes as something that’ll make you giddy to stand at
overbridge on a KiwiRail track over the Ongarue River to
the edge of, that employs 350 staff, many who are local.
ensure safety, because the launch points in some parts of
That kind of work uses excavators on a wide scale.
the structure were wider than others.
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