After 56 years of extensive experience in the local and global market, Actom Group company Marthinusen & Coutts, has earned its stripes as Africa’s largest medium voltage machine repairer. With four production workshops covering 32 000 m2 in southern Africa, the company is conveniently located to provide its customers with a fast turnaround on all machine repairs and upgrades.

To ensure complete customer satisfaction, Marthinusen & Coutts has made substantial investments in equipment and services at its facilities in Cleveland, Benoni, Rustenburg and Kitwe, Zambia. The machine shops house shaft and bearing presses, horizontal and vertical boring mills, CNC lathes and machine centres, as well as micro welding equipment.

Marthinusen & Coutts is also solely licensed to apply InsulCore to cost effectively solve selected core problems. The InsulCore chemical treatment repairs electrical lamination steel by simultaneously etching inter-laminar shorts and forming a durable core plate, without having to dismantle the core. The company’s state-of-the-art 32-ton Schenk balancing machine is complemented by the company’s seven test facilities for full mechanical test loading of HV, LV and DC motors.

In addition to its well-equipped facilities, Marthinusen & Coutts regularly deploys its experienced team to sites across the continent. The comprehensive on-site capabilities have been used by a number of large blue chip mining and industrial companies to provide high level repairs, where logistics or urgent time frames discourage transportation of machines to and from the central workshops.

Capabilities include coil design and manufacturing from VPI class F and H, through DC and traction pole coils to equaliser coils. AC and DC fans are repaired or refurbished, tested and balanced to ensure conformance with stringent test parameters. Redesigning of existing motors extends their lifespan, and improves their efficiency and reliability.

In addition to repairs and load testing of vibrator motors on a specialised test bed, Marthinusen & Coutts also undertakes repair and refurbishment work on specialised motors. Notable projects include the repair and specialised assembly of scraper winch motors, combined with bearing modifications from imperial to metric, to ensure cost effective repair on older motors. In addition, the company manufactures and repairs specialised 75A and 75D loco motors and 8E traction motors.

In the power generation market, the company undertakes both electrical and mechanical repairs, overhauls and complete refurbishments. General overhauls of any design or type of generator stator or rotor, including modifications, rewinding and on-site balancing are offered. Mechanical services include fault finding and root cause analysis, diaphragm refurbishment, re-blading and balancing of turbine rotors, as well as metallurgical investigations and reporting.

Continuous customer improvement programmes include a full analysis of customer needs; audits and assessments; a systematic project plan; routine, predictive and preventative maintenance. By immersing itself in the operations of its clients, Marthinusen & Coutts is able to develop application-specific solutions that realistically improve returns on investment.

EXTENSIVE CAPABILITY PIC 01 : Synchronous motor being tested at the Marthinusen & Coutts test facility in Johannesburg.

EXTENSIVE CAPABILITY PIC 02 : Marthinusen & Coutts regularly deploys its experienced team to sites across the continent and recently completed repairs to a 8250 kW AEI mine winder at Lumwana in Zambia.

EXTENSIVE CAPABILITY PIC 03 : Balancing of a Kelvin turbine by Marthinusen & Coutts in its 32 t state-of-the-art Schenk balancing machine.

EXTENSIVE CAPABILITY PIC 04 : Balancing of a 24 t rotor for Kelvin Unit 11 Oerlikon (75 000 KVA 11,8 KV 3000 rpm) in Marthinusen & Coutts' state-of-the-art 32t Schenk balancing machine.