SEW-EURODRIVE South Africa’s investment has expanded beyond the manufacture and assembly of new equipment to supporting the full drivetrain lifecycle, from commissioning to repair, refurbishment and remanufacturing. The latest phase of that investment focuses on extending the operational life of industrial equipment.

Completed in late 2026 after construction began in 2024, the Service and Repair Centre adjacent to the company’s Aeroton headquarters, in Gauteng, occupies a site of almost 28 000 m2, with about 17 000 m2 under roof. It has been purpose-built for drivetrain inspection, repair, overhaul, refurbishment, remanufacturing and testing.

Internally, the company describes this approach as “closing the lifecycle loop”. A complete drivetrain may include a gearbox, motor, couplings and associated mechanical and electrical components. Historically, these components were often repaired by different suppliers.

Fragmenting the repair process can create uncertainty over engineering responsibility, inconsistent repair standards and longer equipment downtime. Bringing these capabilities together allows the complete drivetrain to be assessed, repaired, reassembled and tested as an integrated system.

Incoming gearboxes are cleaned, inspected, scanned where necessary, stripped and assessed. Components can be machined or remanufactured, motors repaired, couplings refurbished and the complete drivetrain tested before being returned to the customer. For older equipment, digital reverse engineering has become an increasingly important capability.

A handheld laser scanner generates a point cloud that accurately captures the geometry of worn or obsolete components. Engineers use this dimensional data to manufacture replacement gearsets and other components even when original drawings are no longer available.

The capability also extends beyond SEW-EURODRIVE equipment. Before completion of the new centre, between 50% and 60% of gearboxes passing through the company’s existing repair operation had been manufactured by other original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Many industrial plants contain equipment supplied by numerous OEMs over several decades.  Some manufacturers have exited the market, some product ranges have become obsolete and, in many cases, customers require an engineering solution sooner than the original supply chain can provide.

One example involved a large gearbox at a Limpopo mine that had experienced repeated failures. Engineers eventually traced the problem to the gearbox’s oil-flow channels, where lubricant behaviour during cold starts restricted oil flow. Rather than rebuilding the gearbox to its original design, the engineering team modified the oil-flow channels to eliminate the underlying cause of the failures. The improved design was subsequently applied to similar units operating at the mine.

Projects such as these illustrate the difference between restoring equipment to its previous condition and improving its long-term reliability. As industrial assets remain in service for longer, identifying and addressing the underlying cause of failures is becoming increasingly important. Replacing major equipment is not always economically viable, but neither is repeatedly repairing an asset without resolving the engineering problem.

Local machining, motor rewinding, balancing, inspection, scanning, testing and engineering support provide an alternative to both approaches. Extending equipment life also preserves the material and manufacturing value already invested in industrial assets, while targeted upgrades can improve performance without requiring wholesale plant replacement.