2 minute read
PUMPS
High-quality hydraulics for hard wearing jetting and vacuum trucks
The hydraulic systems are a core part of the various truck units manufactured by Werner Pumps, leading South African design, manufacture, supply and maintenance specialist in high-pressure jetting equipment.
The company has chosen to employ specialist hydraulics skills in-house to ensure the high-pressure systems are safe, meet the relevant standards and to provide customers with the highest quality locally manufactured trucks on the market. Hannes Vermeulen, Coordinator in Hydraulic Sales and Store at Werner Pumps, oversees all of the company’s hydraulic work. He ensures the various components, including pumps, motors, valves, hoses and fittings are in stock as required during manufacturing and assembling, as well as managing the installation and fitting of the equipment. Vermeulen previously worked with Werner Pumps on a consulting basis for 25 years, until the company asked him to join them full-time around 20 months ago. “We brought Hannes onto the team because we know and trust his work – he has over three decades’ experience with hydraulics – and he’s a real asset in terms of managing our in-house hydraulics, sharing his knowledge and providing basic training to our fitters,” says Sebastian Werner, MD of Werner Pumps. “Our hydraulic system mainly consists of high-quality bent axis piston pumps and motors to drive our vacuum pumps, high-pressure water pumps and gear pumps to operate our suction boom, tank lift, lid locks and hose reel rotation,” Vermeulen explains. “We also use accumulators to ensure a soft start-up during hydraulic operation.” He says it’s important to have people with good hydraulic skills working on the systems because they are under high pressure. “Training is provided to skill our people in the danger of high-pressure hydraulic systems to prevent injury and damage to equipment,” he says. “ We are also proud of the ability in-house to manufacture our own cylinders and to test them. We adhere to all industry standard and safety regulations to ensure a safe product. Our machine shop is also currently awaiting our new CNC lathe and milling machines, which will improve our production and quality of work even further.” Werner notes that the company believes that investing in equipment and skills development gives the business its competitive edge. “Our drive to continually improve not only keeps our customers happy but helps us to attract good skills to our team too,” he says. Vermeulen agrees. “I am proud to be part of the Werner Pumps team,” he says. “We keep up with new technology and improve our product to give our customer a good and trouble-free product.”
