Big Developments for CAW

Cape Armature Winders (CAW), a specialist in the repairs and overhauling of electric motors, generators and alternators, has increased its infrastructure. Commercial director, George Epenetos, says that this is a strategic decision of the company to ensure that it will have the ability to service the larger range of equipment to the industries they serve.

At present, repairs to the larger machinery in the Western Cape, are being sent to repair shops in Johannesburg. There are many advantages of completing the repairs locally, the major ones being a quicker turnaround time at a reduced cost. Customers would not need to fly to Johannesburg for meetings and to perform quality inspections.

Technical director, Nick Epenetos, says the company has increased its lifting capacity to 40 tons and has almost completed the construction of their larger curing oven (6m x 3.5 m x 3.5 m). The project to increase the testing facility has begun and the new test bay will be completed by the end of the year. The new test bay features include an increase in current to a 1600amp AC and DC supply, 3.3kv & 6.6kv and will incorporate a dynamometer load test facility.

Cape Armature Winders recently serviced a 6886kva, 26 ton Leroy Somer alternator for De Beers Marine. This is the largest repair performed by the company in its 41 year history and has proven the company’s ability to handle larger repairs. The company has also just completed the Transocean, Celtic Sea, maintenance shutdown project. The project included the overhauling and non-spark/flameproof certification of their motors and GE 752 mud pumps. The field service manager completed PI tests on the generators and issued comprehensive test reports.

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Maintenance shutdown project for the Transocean, Celtic Sea

The company recently went through a rightsizing and restructuring exercise. This introduced the new field services and marine divisions within the business. The field service manager, Morris Golombick, who has 30 years experience in this field, uses state of the art winding and vibration analysis equipment. Comprehensive test reports are issued to clients who in turn use these reports to perform trend analysis and plan for preventative maintenance of their machinery.

The company is looking to negotiate maintenance contracts with its clients to ensure that equipment is well maintained in order to reduce downtime and repair costs. The marine manager, Ronnie Reid and his team recently performed electrical and mechanical services to the De Beers owned, Debmar Pacific vessel. This project was successful and there are plans to grow this division of the company.

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Mechanical services to the Debmar Pacific Vessel

The company has a dedicated 600sq m railway workshop, managed by Clive Farao that performs repairs for both Transnet and Metrorail. This has proven to be a valuable investment. This department also manufactures new magnetic separator coils and has been contracted by Namakwa Sands for the last 3 years.

Cape Armature Winders is an ISO 9001:2008 company and is accredited to certify flameproof, non spark and dust ignition proof motors. It is a channel partner with ABB and is an active member of EASA, a worldwide electrical apparatus services association. The company recently attained a level 2 grading for its BBBEE scorecard. With the various improvements and capital investments made, the company believes it has set itself up to take advantage of the fast growing oil and gas industry.