Diesel engine and component remanufacturer Metric Automotive Engineering is refurbishing and extending its Germiston pre- mises to increase its workshop floorspace, fit out the workshop with new equipment and extend its administration offices to cope with increased work volumes.

Metric Automotive Engineer-ing operations director Andrew Yorke says the investment in modernising and expanding the company’s premises is the first part of a two-phase expansion plan, which will double the company’s current floorspace.

The new buildings will be constructed on an adjacent piece of land that is owned by the company. The extension will include a new component-cleaning facility and the installation of additional engine performance test benches.

The company has occupied its premises for more than 30 years and, although many improvements have been introduced over the years, it was time to bring the buildings firmly into the twenty-first century, says Yorke.

Meanwhile, Metric Auto-motive Engineering, which is the sole Southern African parts distributor for US-based manufacturing, engineering and distribution company IPD, now has access to IPD replacement parts to cover the Caterpillar C series engines.

Yorke says customers will have the advantage of sourcing engine parts from an engineering company. The parts available to customers are the same as those used by Metric Automotive Engineering in the remanufacturing of the company’s engines.

“The focus of Metric Auto-motive Engineering and IPD has been to help equipment owners save money without risk to reliability. “Essentially, IPD products are Caterpillar replacement parts but, unlike parts being sourced from the East, IPD parts are manufactured in a Lloyds-accredited ISO 9001:2000 quality-controlled environment,” he adds.

The current product line offers both wide and deep coverage for engines in the older Caterpillar 300 series to the later Caterpillar 3500 series. This coverage helps IPD distributors to competitively offer engine owners overall lower costs.

Further, following an audit by an independent verification body, Metric Automotive Engineering was granted a Level 4 broad-based black economic-empowerment rating in May.

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