Great Southern Land

Australia really is a great place and, if you have had the good fortune to spend any time there, you will be familiar with its great weather, wide open spaces and spectacular cities. But not everyone goes there for a holiday. As in the USA, Australia's population has grown through immigration; people from around the word drawn by prospects of a better quality of life and opportunity in this great southern land.

One such person was Vaz Dziombak, an engineer from Yorkshire, transferring to Western Australia to help with his family's business, providing engineering services for the mining industry. The company, Robil Engineering, played a key role in maintaining equipment for large international mining companies, particularly conveyor systems which required constant repair and refurbishment because of the harsh conditions in which they operated.

As an engineer, Vas was always looking for better ways to do things and, if possible, save money. In 1999 he read about Enviropeel in Professional Engineering, the journal of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering in the UK. On a trip to England later that year Vaz visited the Enviropeel offices and decided that the product had a role to play in preventing deterioration of stored equipment and machine parts at Robil's workshops. The repaired and refurbished equipment might wait many months before being required and 45% needed rework before being used because of corrosion and other issues arising from prolonged storage. Vaz anticipated that Enviropeel would be able to protect this equipment and enable Robil to provide a better and more cost-effective service to its customers.

And so it proved, failures in stored equipment were eliminated and it became standard practise for Robil to encapsulate components and complete bearing assemblies with Enviropeel prior to delivery to mining company sites.

Vas examines an Enviropeel
application at Robil

So far, so good ... but it wasn't long before mining company personnel noticed the new material being removed from the newly delivered parts. On learning the purpose of the material, they wondered if Enviropeel would have the same success on working components. With bearings worth thousands of dollars failing in as little as nine months, they were very keen to see what would happen if the Enviropeel was left on the bearing instead of removing it for installation.

Some weeks later, after testing the potential effects of the encapsulation on bearing temperature and lubrication, the first Enviropeel-protected bearings were installed on operating equipment. These trials were so successful that it wasn't long before all bearing housings on BHP Billiton and Dampier Salt conveyors were specified to be protected with Enviropeel. Now, with bearings lasting several years instead of months, many millions of dollars have been saved in downtime, machinery and maintenance-related accidents.

Robil eventually became part of the Orontide Group an Australia-wide engineering and coating services provider - part of a network of Enviropeel suppliers and applicators that are busy making sure Australia stays corrosion free!

A short video on Enviropeel in Australia can be viewed by clicking this link