Pylon can supply the entire undercarriage for a mining shovel, including the drive tracks, tumblers and swivel pinion
Mechanical power transmission manufacturer Pylon Gears last month embarked on a trade mission to Peru, which was funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), to gain a foothold in the country’s growing mining market, says Pylon Gears CEO Alex De Bruyn.
The company also travelled to Chile in May on a similar DTI-funded project.
Mining in Peru and Chile, especially copper mining, is growing and there are only a few gear manufacturing facilities, leaving a gap in the market, he explains.
He praises the DTI’s initiative to fund outward-looking South African businesses, stating that it would have been significantly more difficult for Pylon to embark on the trade mission had it not been for the additional DTI funding.
Pylon supplies alternatives to original-equipment-manufacturer parts for mining shovels, which the company says is particularly useful when a machine has exceeded its warranty period. The company can even supply the entire undercarriage for the mining shovel, including the drive tracks, tumblers and swivel pinion, De Bruyn states.
He explains that a slowing domestic mining market has prompted Pylon to look for opportunities outside Africa to supply its products to unsaturated mining markets and consider other industries where Pylon has previously not been active.
For example, the company has been approved to regrind old gears for State-owned freight rail company Transnet, and has also applied to supply new gear trains for Transnet in a tender, the result of which is yet to be announced.
To be eligible to win the Transnet tender, Pylon bought a machine last month that can provide a three-dimensional read-out to represent the accuracy of the gear grind, which, by Transnet’s standards, must be within 0.2 μm of the specified accuracy.
In addition, the company has applied to supply the gears and other parts for the drivetrain for Gibela – the joint venture manufacturing project between State-owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and French rail company Alstom – in Dunottar, Gauteng. The Gibela project is set to begin production by 2017.
De Bruyn notes that, while Pylon’s new product venture, which should eventually result in the appointment of about five employees to the company, currently applies only to above-ground rail, it could be used in underground rail and is, therefore, applicable to mining.
He is confident that the gear market is sustainable and explains that this was one of the reasons he and black economic- empowerment investment consortium Cap Leverage chose to acquire Pylon in October last year.
“Gears are used in such a diverse range of applications that the market for mechanical power transmission will take a long time to go out of fashion,” De Bruyn says.
The niche nature of the gear market enables a company to reap substantial rewards, provided the company remains competitive, as a big portion of the market can be captured. However, De Bruyn adds that “staying afloat” as a company is “especially difficult” in the current environment.
“Upon acquisition of Pylon, there has been a downturn in mining and the company is balancing its development with trying to stay competitive until the mining industry recovers.”
As part of its vision, the company is also aiming to develop young black engineers, says De Bruyn. Skills and knowledge transfer from the older to the younger generation is part of a sustainable business model in South Africa, as it crucially maintains the quality of standards, he argues.
De Bruyn reiterates that Pylon’s strong asset base, its stategy to diversify its product range and the addition of service and maintenance as core to the business will help the company to mitigate current difficult economic times.
While Pylon has previously been an aftermarket service provider, the added service and maintenance will enable it to partner with a mine, allowing for better sustainability and longevity, concludes De Bruyn.