Company Announcement - The recently-established Voith Africa Power, Oil and Gas Division covers the full scope of maintenance, servicing, upgrades and repairs across Africa. The company has filled a gap in the local market by providing a comprehensive and dedicated aftermarket services offering.

Voith is globally-recognised as the leading OEM for high-speed rotating equipment, including; high-speed gearboxes, fluid couplings, geared fluid couplings, variable speed drives, turbine controls and torque converters. Voith Africa POG vice president Derain Pillay states that the division boasts global technology and expertise that is customised for local operating conditions.

“With our dedicated African presence, qualified experts assist local clients in configuring, operating and maintaining their equipment for each particular application in the most efficient and cost-effective manner,” he says. Pillay adds that the Voith Africa POG division also provides maintenance contracts in order to increase the availability of the equipment, while reducing downtime and unnecessary costs.“A high percentage of our business is aftermarket, thereby providing clients with the peace-of-mind that we are the market-leading experts in equipment inspection, repairs, upgrades and overhauls,” he continues.

Due to the unique African climate and terrain, operating conditions are challenging. To proactively address this issue, the Voith Africa POG division supplies critical spares and skilled service engineers for breakdowns or upgrades upon request. In order to add the greatest value to our client base, every order is solution-specific to ensure optimal productivity According to Pillay, the Johannesburg-based Voith Africa POG division has grown significantly since inception. Its success is attributed to a substantial amount of investment in resources and training, ensuring maximum effectiveness.

“Voith prides itself on reliability, advanced engineering, and longevity of its products. As a result, we are currently in the process of signing reputable agents and distributors to fully access the entire region,” he observes. Pillay highlights the fact that the Africa POG division also has unlimited access to Voith’s pool of global resources and expertise. “Should a complex challenge arise that the local team is unable to deal with, we will endeavour to send an international expert onsite to resolve this.”

Proven performance

All newer-generation power stations in South Africa rely on Voith’s high-speed rotating components to operate. More recently, the Africa POG division was commissioned to custom design a total of 36 Vorecon variable speed planetary gears+ for use in coal-fired power plants. The enormous, yet intricately-designed Vorecon weighs more than 60 tons each when filled with oil, and assist in transmitting around 20 MW of power individually. Pillay points out that this is another example of a highly-complex and customised solutions offering.

In addition to customising the design of equipment, Voith POG also assists plant operators in increasing their efficiency by avoiding unforeseen failures and downtime, which is currently a major issue in Africa.

Africa

Voith Africa POG division focuses on the entire Africa region. Pillay notes that key markets that have been identified for measurable growth are; Angola, Algeria, Kenya and Nigeria in particular. “We are currently supplying a large amount of equipment to an offshore floating production, storage and offloading oil facility in Angola, in addition to power plants and oil pumping facilities in Kenya,” he concludes. Voith Turbo, a Group Division of Voith GmbH, is a specialist for intelligent drive solutions and systems. Customers from highly diverse industries such as oil and gas, energy, mining and mechanical engineering, ship technology, rail and commercial vehicles rely on advanced technologies from Voith Turbo.

Voith sets standards in the markets energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transportation & automotive. Founded in 1867, Voith employs more than 39 000 people, generates €5.3 billion in sales, operates in over 50 countries around the world and is today one of the largest family-owned companies in Europe.