Deritend redefines '24-hour service' for gearbox rebuilds

Richard K Hale, Deritend Group managing director, says: "Keeping ahead of the competition means always being available to meet customer needs, particularly in a breakdown situation. Helping to safeguard a customer's production and minimise downtime is the key to a modern engineering service relationship."

RMB offers a comprehensive gearbox rebuild service including gearbox dismantling, re-assembly and parts manufacture, CNC machining and metal fabrication - all of which is available 24/7.

RMB joined The Deritend Group in May 2007, adding not only 24-hour services but also over 60 skilled staff and new service branches in Dundee, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich. '24-hour service' is a well used phrase, but there is a tremendous synergy between the two businesses, which, it is believed, will strengthen The Deritend Group as a whole; the RMB model is necessary to service manufacturing and process industries that are joining the utilities as true 24-hour operations.

Three-hour turnaround

Remarkably, RMB has a target build and deliver time of just three hours from receipt of order to delivery of a replacement gearbox for a breakdown situation within a 50-mile radius of the West Bromwich works. Focusing on the renowned David Brown range of in-line helical, helical bevel right-angle, helical worm and offset helical gearboxes, RMB holds a complete range of casing sizes and styles, in addition to a vast number of gear reduction ratios to ensure virtually any standard combination can be satisfied quickly and effectively. Output power capacities up to 90kW are available as standard, with four-stage reduction possible, offering final drive ratios of several thousand to one.

RMB carries £1million worth of gearbox and related inventory, including over 600 components required to hold David Brown 'Swift Centre' status. RMB is claimed to be the only UK distributor to stock both David Brown Series G heavy-duty reducer gearboxes in modular build format and Series J shaft-mounted worm gearbox speed reducers in modular format.

The fabrication department manufactures a wide range of metal structures and assemblies, ranging from automated blast furnace doors and emergency stairways to bakery ovens and food processing equipment. Valves, doors, actuators, mechanical linkages, mountings and power transmission components can all be precision machined, welded and assembled 24 hours per day.

Flexibility and fast throughput times are key features for customers; having both the machine shop and the fabrication shop available 24 hours ensures turnaround times are minimised, while experience with different materials such as titanium, Waspalloy, aluminium and steel are invaluable. Assemblies and gearboxes weighing up to 18 tonnes can also be accommodated.

RMB Engineering is used to keeping quarries, mines and processing plants up-and-running with specialist knowledge of gearboxes and power transmission components. Stock is crucial at RMB; many non-standard components - including large bearings, gearwheel castings and spares - are kept in stock to make repairs as fast as possible. With a 24-hour workshop, RMB can strip, repair and manufacture gearbox parts at any time of the day or night, so, if a gearbox or bearing failure is hitting production, a call to RMB can ensure that downtime is minimised.