REBUILDS & REPAIRS
An ultimate rebuild centre for Europe
Sticking with mining engines , in October 2023 , Cummins made a big move in Europe for the future with the opening of its brand-new European Master Rebuild Centre for high horsepower engines in Krakow , Poland – the first of its kind in Europe . Cummins is offering a range of rebuild and remanufacture options at the Centre . Its Ultimate Remanufacture solution sees the full dismantling and reassembling of the engine , with the replacement of all worn components with Genuine Cummins parts , including wear and tear components . Ultimate Remanufacture engines have a full factory warranty equivalent to a new engine . IM Editorial Director Paul Moore sat down with Goran Galic , Director AM Sales , Strategic Accounts Europe and Ben Schilling , Sales Director , Mining & Rail at Cummins for some more insight into the facility and the rebuild market in Europe .
Q In major mining hubs like Australia or Chile , engine rebuilds are the norm not the exception . Will this new high horsepower rebuild facility in Poland make this strategy more common in European mining ? GG : This is a really big step for us in Europe where up until now we have had no dedicated Cummins rebuild centres on this scale . We have used smaller centres such as in Germany and the UK but not of this size and not as well equipped as this one . We have also been carrying out some standard rebuilds locally or through our dealer network , or the customers have been doing it themselves . And of course we have been offering new aftermarket engines as replacements . Now our portfolio has been extended with two new offerings – the ultimate remanufacture option which is effectively a ‘ zero hour ’ rebuild with a full factory warranty equivalent to a new engine . Then we have the advanced standard rebuild . Both involve the engine being disassembled , cleaned , inspected , remachined , reassembled with Genuine Cummins parts and tested . These rebuilds we see as beneficial for both our mining customers and for Cummins .
Q Are some customers more advanced than others in terms of their rebuild approach ? GG : This is the case in all mining markets in that some customers are more mature in their maintenance approach than others . In northern Europe for example , Boliden with its state of the art Komatsu 830E and 930E fleets at Kevitsa in Finland and Aitik in Sweden has quite a well established and managed process involving at least two rebuilds and maybe even three as these trucks will be working for 80,000 or even 90,000 hours . But in southern Europe there are other mining operations who previously have been used to running engines to end of life and replacing with a new one . BS : I can talk about the US situation and how that has evolved over the past 20-30 years . We have been running what we call a named Master Rebuild Centre for the past 13 years – we were doing rebuilds before this but with a more basic approach . It was done in a Cummins owned or joint venture location still using Genuine Cummins parts and carried out by certified , trained technicians . But the process and process management were not as advanced as in the Master Rebuild Centre . Cummins can help our mining customers win by helping them achieve the lowest cost of production . For that we have two main levers – managing downtime and managing the inputs – ie aftermarket parts , rebuilt engines and fuel consumption . In the US , Canada and Mexico we only offer the certified , zero hour ultimate rebuild . And that is primarily because that it what the vast majority of our mining customers want . They know that this level of rebuild guarantees their lowest cost of production by limiting engine failures and extending their engine life . They may decide to do additional work with the machine OEMs as well to go beyond the typical two or three engine rebuilds , taking the life of the mining truck to 100,000 or even 120,000 hours . They can squeeze more out of the asset and keep it running longer , to reduce overall cost .
Q A lot of mines during and post pandemic have opted to try and “ sweat their assets ” as much as possible to maximise the value of their existing investments . Has that refocused efforts on rebuilds as well ? BS : I would say that focus was already in place long before the pandemic . We were not offering new aftermarket engines as a solution in the Americas already – if you wanted a new engine to refresh your equipment , you would still be getting a rebuilt engine from the rebuild centre as it is has been proven over many years to be the most efficient and cost effective solution . So the focus was already on rebuilds – we have seen some changes in customer behaviour though – people as you say are sweating assets more and moving to more advanced condition-based monitoring , such as deploying our PrevenTech to decide when to change the engine instead of just doing it on a schedule . They are doing oil samples weekly or even daily in some cases as well as using our advanced telematics systems to understand the health of the engine and catch any issues before the engine fails catastrophically . PrevenTech tracks every connected engine , securely transmitting alerts ( via 4G or WiFi ) for urgent and potential problems and recommendations for actions and servicing .
Q Is a rebuild less profitable for Cummins than a new engine ? Is it more about long term benefit to the customer ? BS : We play the long game at Cummins . We want to help our mining customer succeed and view us as a partner . Because if they do they are more likely long term to buy from an OEM with Cummins power knowing that we will support their business in the best way possible .
Q When are the recommended hours to rebuild figures and the numbers of rebuilds over the engine life decided for a particular engine ? GG : It depends – looking at the Nordic region for example with some of our mining customers we have a cost per hour contract ; at other sites we have more in-depth maintenance contracts where our people are maintaining the engines on site , and planning for mid-life overhauls and the eventual rebuild . For the former as it is cost per hour it is quite predefined and we know right at the start based on the estimated monthly hours when we might expect a rebuild to take place . And it matches pretty well – within a month or two . In the other type of contract where the customer is doing more day to day condition based monitoring , where they are following various parameters plus we are following fuel consumption and load factors and giving them feedback . In this case it becomes more of a discussion as to when they should have the rebuild . And there are other things to consider in this more flexible case – Komatsu for example may have a scheduled maintenance at 20,000 hours whereas our engine rebuild might be at 26,000 hours – so to some extent here we
The machine is reassembled with a completely new electrical harness and dashboard , new bolts and nuts , new wear pins , new hydraulic hoses and fittings . In fact , all wearing parts are replaced . The only way to do this efficiently and competitively is to use the spare parts warehouses of Aramine , well known in the mining industry as a supplier of original spare parts . Aramine ’ s central warehouse , in the southeast of France , is fully robotised .
The process is continuously monitored by the technical , logistics and planning teams to ensure that the final delivery date to the customer is respected .
Once the machine is finished , it undergoes a battery of tests on the test track , following very precise documentation and methods , to ensure that the quality and parameters are 100 % in line
70 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2024