News
CHESTERTON LUBRICATION SEMINAR
A Special Chesterton lubrication seminar on industrial lubricants & MRO (maintenance & repairs operations) presented to our clients by Paul Lenehan the Chesterton EMEA (Europe & Middle East Africa) Marketing Manager at our Perseverance offices in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) in September 2022.
Everyone who attended expressed their appreciation for the Chesterton knowledge and expertise conferred to them for the benefit of their plants and maintenance operations forthwith.
They all received a tip in getting their production plants “well oiled”, using a Chesterton solution.
The Chesterton Lubrication team at a Lubrication seminar.
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A successful installation of the Chesterton 442 Split seal at Salt manufacturing and processing plant. Seal installed without disassembling any component of pump. The plant was able to operate in no time.
Spec Hardware Cape Town News:
We have recently hosted 3 seminars for our CHESTERTON clients presented by Chesterton Product managers Hans Dekker, Paul Lennehan and Woldemar Haak.
Chesterton’s AMPS (Automated Mechanical Packing System) seminar Presented by Hans Dekker
Spec Hardware Cape Town hosted a seminar to launch the Chesterton AMPS, which was conducted by Mr. Hans Dekker, Chesterton EMEA Packing Product Manager. The seminar aims to help you understand how to increase your equipment performance and extend your equipment life by increasing your reliability and efficiency.
Hans Dekker graduated as a Bachelor of Engineering at the Saxion Polytechnic in Enschede in the Netherlands. He started working for the A.W. Chesterton Company in 1996 in the Dublin, Ireland Office as an application engineer. He worked in different functions in Engineering, Marketing and Sales. His expertise is in Compression Packing, Water Saving Programs, Stationary Sealing, Low Emission Sealing and Legislation, Flange Reliability, Valve Reliability, Gaskets, Live Loading. He is currently the Product Line Manager in Europe, Middle East and Africa for Compression Packing, Gaskets and Live Loading for the A.W. Chesterton Company.
Chesterton proprietary AMPS (Automated Mechanical Packing System) is a fully autonomous packing system with active loading technology. This technology automatically reduces maintenance costs and mitigates any safety concerns by automatically adjusting packing compression.
Chesterton’s CERAMIC POLYMER COATINGS seminar Presented by WOLDEMAR HAAK
Spec Hardware Cape Town hosted the Polymer Coatings seminar, which was conducted by Mr. Woldemar Haak, Ceramic Polymer Product Manager on how to increase your equipment performance & extend your equipment life.
Woldemar Haak, holds the position of Area & Key Account Manager for Chesterton Coatings product line (primary Ceramic Polymer). He plans, coordinates and implements customized application training and seminars for applicators, distributors and end-users Woldemar Haak has been with Chesterton (Ceramic polymer) for 9 years.
Ceramic Polymer is a high-performance coating with integrated micro ceramic particles for different application. By incorporating micro ceramic partical reinforcements with advanced thermoset polymer technology, Ceramic Polymer coatings is able to provide outstanding corrosion protection and resistance to delamination under aggressive chemical and elevated temperature conditions.
Chesterton’s Industrial Lubrication seminar and Launch 650AML Presented by Paul Lennahan
Spec Hardware Cape Town hosted the Chesterton Lubrication training and seminar with the launch of Chesterton’s New 650 AML (advanced Machine lubricant) in South Africa.
Paul Lennehan has worked with Chesterton for 35 years and has fulfilled many functions, while working in the industry he has spoken at conferences, conducted seminars, training and practical support on Chesterton solutions, this approach has massively benefitted the industry.
His main goal is assisting in understanding where a plant has challenges and help introduce lubrication solutions to improve reliability and plant efficiency.
650 AML is engineered with a unique ester blend of plant-based synthetic technology. It is a high performing and environmentally It is designed to creep into internal workings of chains, cables, needle bearings, and sliding mechanisms. 650 AML penetrates deep into valves, pistons, and other pneumatic components to protect against friction and wear, resulting in smoother and more efficient operation. 650 AML absorbs moisture from the airlines to reduce corrosion of the pneumatic components.650 AML cleans as it lubricates. Inherent detergency in this lubricant disperses dirt and debris and removes gums and varnish. As a result, equipment is protected from abrasive wear. This advantage can prolong the life of mechanical equipment, chains, and cables.
Chesterton 650 AML improves the efficiency of automatic lubrication systems by eliminating trace moisture and contaminants from distribution lines, controls, and components.
650 AML is NSF H1 certified and is free of any animal fats, oils, and animal derived by-products. It is worker safe and a has low oil mist hazard.
Emergency siphon by Mthatha.
1. Background
Mthatha WTW is supplied with water from Mthatha dam via a pipeline.
The first section consists of two 600 mm dia pipes running from the dam inlet tower under the overflow channel. It joins into a 1000 mm dia pipe next to the channel running to the Mthatha WTW.
One of the supply 600 mm dia pipe failed in 2017.
The WTW was supplied with one 600 mm dia pipe and two pumps installed at a weir at the WTW.
The second 600 mm dia pipe failed in March 2021. The WTW was supplied by the two pumps at the WTW.
The two pumps were unreliable. The result was that to WTW could not supply sufficient water to Mthatha.
2. Planning
DWS issued a Letter of Intent (LOI) to SPEC in March 2022 to install an emergency by-pass siphon.
A site meeting was held with DWS in early April 2022 to decide on the route and conceptual design of the emergency by-pass siphon.
Pieter Barry with the assistance of De Wet Swanepoel, both from DWS, designed the emergency by-pass siphon.
The design was completed, and material ordered in April 2022.
3. Design
The emergency by-pass siphon consists of 4 X 350 mm pipes from the dam over the dam wall to the 1000 mm pipe supplying the WTW.
The suction in the water was made from steel pipes.
The tie in at the 1000 mm dia pipe was steel pipes.
In between were HDPE pipes.
On the dam wall crest four butterfly valves were installed to prime the siphons.
Between the steel pipes at the 1000 mm dia pipe and HDPE pipes, four gate valves were installed to assist with priming the siphon and operational purposes.
4. Construction and installation
The steel pipe sections were manufactured at SPEC.
THE HDPE pipes were ordered to be manufactured in Cato Ridge. Due to the flooding in Natal it took six weeks for manufacturing.
The HDPE pipe sections were welded together on site and flange to the steel pipes.
The siphon was installed in May 2022.
The suction was too low in the water. The result was that a vortex formed which resulted in the siphons filled with air.
The suction was modified, and the siphons successfully commissioned June 2022.
5. Conclusion
The water flow from Mthatha dam to the weir at Mthatha WTW was closed off. The WTW cannot rely on water supply from the water pumps at the weir.
The WTW is currently fully dependent on the newly installed emergency by-pass siphon.
The emergency by-pass siphon will be operational until the successful commissioning of the new permanent by-pass siphon.
SPEC Hardware Father’s Day Competition in June 2022
On Father’s Day children recognize and celebrate fathers and father figures to show their love and appreciation.
Spec Hardware had a Father’s Day competition where you had to “like, share and tag” our Facebook page and to spend R300 or more in the Spec Hardware shop, in order to be entered into our competition to win one of 2 great prizes. The winners of our Father’s Day competition were Frans van Aardt who spend more than R300 from the Spec Hardware shop and Annelie Nel who won the Facebook competition. Congratulations to our two winners.
A father is neither an anchor to hold us back, nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way.
Keep an eye on our Facebook page for more competitions.
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SPEC took delivery of a brand-new Scania Truck – APRIL 2022
SPEC Group added a brand-new Scania truck with Crane and Trailer to our Fleet in April 2022. The truck is branded with our Company details, and we think it looks Awesome. We as a team is very proud of this new addition to our fleet.
Below just a few Specifications:
- Truck – load 3m long and 2.4m width and can carry 6 ton.
- 32ton/m crane on the truck to make load or offload easy.
- Trailer – load 12.56m long and 2.4m width and can carry 22 ton to 26 ton if the freight is loaded correctly. The trailer has air suspension and can carry the following types of freights:
* There is a Tonneau cover that can cover 12 bags shot/sugar for incase it rains.
* Our Scania Truck has a lowbed trailer (with sides) and can carry for e.g., a TLB or similar machines.
* Our Scania Truck can transport 2*6m or 1*12m container/s.
* Our Scania Truck can transport 12.5m length pipes.
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Spec Hardware had a CHRISTMAS competition in December 2021
To stand a chance to win one of four amazing prizes, clients had to like and follow our Spec Hardware Facebook page, share the post with their friends and spend R350 or more in our Spec Hardware shop.
Winners were Sydney Ambier [1 st prize], Gerrie Terblanche [2 nd prize], Annelie Nel [3 rd prize] and John Brown [4 th prize]. Congratulations to our winners and Thank You very much for everyone’s support.
SPEC Hardware Cape Town - Eshaam Smith - Chesterton Reward
Eshaam Smith, Spec Hardware’s Product Specialist from our Western Cape branch, received an incentive award for the highest sales achieved in the EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Africa] region for Chesterton 650 AML.
Eshaam received a Canal Walk shopping voucher for this achievement. Congratulating him is Michael Moore, Chesterton’s Regional Manager for Sub Saharan Africa and Arnold Avenant, Spec’s Group CEO.
Spec Hardware congratulates Eshaam for this achievement and thank him for his diligence and hard work especially during the covid period.
Loerie dam Eastern Cape - Projects
On request from our client, SPEC did an electrical light installation in the gallery at Loerie dam. We did the research and the proper lights were designed and supplied by BEKA. The layout was done by the customer and SPEC’s electrical team under supervision of Johan Lemmer did the complete installation.
New cables and racking were installed and a supply point was installed at the control room.
This is a major upgrade as this will make it easier for proper maintenance to be performed. It will also make it safer when walking in the gallery as this will eliminate a trip risk.
As the tunnel is under the water , there are steps at the end of the tunnel to reach the control room. As is the picture it is clear that these lights will make it safer to climb and work.
On completion, the client did the necessary lux measurements and signed off on a great job done
SPEC Hardware (Pty) Ltd
SPEC Hardware had a Father’s Day Competition in June 2021.
For this competition clients and followers had to like, follow and share our Facebook page and to spend R200 or more in the Spec Hardware shop (Gqeberha/ Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape), in order to be entered into our competition to win one of 3 great prizes. The winners of our Father’s Day competition were Kevin Clarke, Jade Jayda Couts and Donovan Muller. Congratulations to our winners.
“Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father”
Barack Obama
Chesterton 650 AML (SPEC Hardware (Pty) Ltd)
A client in the Bottling Industry was experiencing build-up on their chains and sprockets resulting dry running and a squeaking noise. To eliminate the build-up we applied Chesterton’s 650 AML unsurpassed, high performing lubricant designed to creep into the internal working parts of your equipment whilst cleaning and to remove gum and varnish as it lubricates.
Chesterton 630 Grease (SPEC Hardware (Pty) Ltd)
Our client in the Food Industry experienced continuous bearing failure. Our Product Specialist recommended Chesterton 630 Premier Synthetic, Corrosive resistant and extreme pressure grease that has a food grade H1 NSF classification in conjunction with Chesterton’s automated lubri-cup dispensers to prevent future bearing failures.
NMU South Campus - Sawdust Extractor system (SPEC Corrosion Protection (Pty) Ltd)
The sawdust extractor system required urgent repair work. After the client gave us the instructions/order, we immediately started the repairs having our Rigging team (with our Iveco 6x6 rigging Truck) on site to remove the tank and transport it back to our factory in Perserverance. After stripping the entire tank apart we started with mechanical repairs by removing all rusted areas and welded new plates in. After the mechanical work was completed we proceeded to blast the extractor tank to SA2.5 and coated the entire tank interior and exterior with Proguard CN200 at 400µm. On the exterior we applied an additional 40µm top coat of Sigmadur 550.
We continued to work on site and replace all fasteners and coated all structural support beams on site. After we completed the work on site we transported the newly refurbished tank back to site, installed and reconnected all piping. The Extractor system was completely refurbished and 100% operational.
Mthatha DWS Project (SPEC Corrosion Protection (Pty) Ltd)
In the mechanical department, our team has been hard at work on manufacturing of numerous sets of steel pipes for DWS Mthatha dam. This consists of cutting down pipes to the desired lengths, welding, grinding and repairing if needed and fit-up of flanges on more than 40x450NB pipes. Each pipe also goes through vigorous testing, to see if it adheres to DWS Standards & Specifications. All pipes for this Mthatha project, passed the Mechanical inspections and are ready for our Corrosion team to apply the required coatings.
Loerie Denso Wrapping (SPEC Corrosion Protection (Pty) Ltd)
On the weekend of 18 th April 2021, we sent our Corrosion team down to Loerie dam, to Denso wrap two pipe couplings. They prepped the desired area, by wiping down the surface to make sure there are no contaminates. The Mastic putty was applied, and pushed into all crevasses and around all the nuts and bolts. The Denso Wrap was then carefully applied layer by layer until the desired thickness was achieved. To fully secure the Mastic putty and Denso Wrap in place, a layer of ‘outer wrapping tape’ was applied. They also applied 2 Coats of Acrylic based white paint over the Outer wrapping, for an extra layer of protection.
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SPEC Group - 50th Anniversary - 4 March 2021
Surface Preparations Equipment and Coatings (Pty) Ltd, or as it is known in the market as just SPEC (which is the Projects company and also the mother Company of the SPEC Group) will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary on 4 March 2021.
Over the past 50 years, SPEC Group has grown into a multi-disciplinary force supplying turn-key projects to our customers. This all started 50 years ago as a single small company and now the Group consists of 6 companies and a property trust. While SPEC’s services and operations have expanded, our underlying principles have remained constant. We are proud to celebrate our 50-year milestone with our employees, clients, and partners—and look forward to the next 50 years!
Supply of Chesterton products – Western Cape [December 2020]
Mechanical Seal replacement
Customer: Municipality in the Western Cape
Requirement: The client refurbished one of their bulk water supply pumps and wanted reliable sealing solutions for the newly refurbished pumps
Solution: Chesterton 442 split mechanical seal. The flagship product of the world leader in split seal technology. Patented, innovation in split seal technology, combining superior seal performance with the ease of installation of a cartridge split seal.
New seal installed
Position of the rotary seal
Parts of the Chesterton 442 Split Mechanical Seal
REFURBISHMENT OF ALICEDALE WATER TREATMENT WORKS (PHASE 1)
CONTRACT NO. MLM/2018-2019/INFRA/004
The Alicedale WTW Project was started on the 5th of April 2019 and completed on the 30th of July 2020 and the scope of the works were to upgrade and modernise the water treatment plant to supply clean potable drinking water to the community of Alicedale.
The scope of the works was extremely broad and challenging due to the fact that the water treatment works is spread out across the whole entire town of Alicedale, this included refurbishing, upgrading and installing completely new installations relating to the following dissiplines of water purification.
In a broad outline the following items were addressed, the upgrading and repairs to the Control Building, Settlement Tanks, Clarifiers, pipe lines, valves, valve boxes, pumps, electrical works including a new state of the art flocculation system to name but a few items addressed at the main Water Treatment Works.
All the existing water reservoirs were cleaned, repaired, upgraded and sanitised the acceptable water treatment standards.
The main final clean water reservoir was stripped of its old badly deteriorating roof, cleaned and a new Shukuma pre-stressed concrete roof was installed with a 250 ton crane. ( Please see photos herewith )
The old decommissioned water reservoir on the mountain providing water to the Kwanonzwakasi community was completely demolished and a new 360m3 HDG pressed metal reservoir was erected and commissioned in its place.
The existing sandfilters were completely refurbished and a new state of the art Gas Chlorination System was installed and commissioned and tested.
A new borehole was drilled outside town, including the construction of a Solar Panel Tower installation to supply power to the borehole pump station and a 1.80 km pipeline was laid from the borehole to the Water Treatment Works to be an extra supply of water to the community.
The Total Value of the project was R 16 810 491.65.
The Client Makana Municipality was extremely satisfied with the end result and commended SPEC as HIGLY RECOMMENDED in the post Contract Report.
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SPEC Hardware 4th birthday 1 July 2020
SPEC Hardware celebrated its 4th birthday on 1 July 2020. To celebrate this day, we handed out free goodie bags with each purchase.
We had a Facebook competition where clients and followers had to like, comment and share our birthday post in order to be entered into our competition to win one of 2 great prizes. The winners of our Facebook competition were: Noleen Bouah and Belinda van der Bank. Congratulations to our winners.
Noleen’s husband collected her prize on her behalf.
SPEC Open day February 2020
On 21 February 2020 the SPEC Group had an Open Day for both client and public to come and see what services we offer at our premises in Perseverance (Port Elizabeth); we had so much fun. We had over 15 supplier stalls, 4 food stalls, live displays every 20 minutes and a lot of lucky draws throughout the day.
The feedback we received afterwards was very positive. “Luister FM” (an local radio station) also did a live broadcast from our premises on that day to do some Marketing and invite more visitors. There is so much photos we can share but below are some highlights of the day.
We as the SPEC Group would like to thank everyone once again for all the support on the Open day and for the past 50 years.
SPEC HARDWARE NEWS - October 2019
On 17 February 2019 SPEC Hardware (Pty) Ltd became the sole distributor of Chesterton Products for the areas of Eastern Cape and Western Cape. SPEC Hardware maintain complete inventory of Chesterton Products and also employs full-time knowledgeable Chesterton Specialists who are trained in the technical aspects of the business and in troubleshooting.
On 1 March 2019 Spec Hardware opened a branch in Cape Town to supply and service clients in the Western Cape.
Product Specialists (Sales & Technical Representatives) :
Western Cape :
Eshaam Smith (Cell no. 083 564 6009)
E-mail : Eshaam.hardware@spec.co.za
SPEC Group Corumana dam, Mozambique - June 2019
SPEC Group extended its expertise and experience abroad for the first time with a contract at the Corumana dam in Mozambique. The project is funded by the Word Bank. SPEC is responsible for work on the Refurbishment of Corumana Outlet works Hydro Mechanical Equipment (Contract title). SPEC commenced work on the 21 st June 2019 with 3 teams working permanent on site.
SPEC Group SPCA Donations - May 2019
SPEC Group made a fantastic donation to show their support to our Furry Friends at the SPCA Uitenhage. We also gave them a R2000 voucher to use at our SPEC Hardware store. This was an amazing team effort and always nice to give back to our community.
SPEC Fleet Vehicles - 2018 & 2019
SPEC Group added more than 10 new Vehicles to our Fleet in 2018 & 2019. Most of the fleet are Ford Rangers because we use them on the project sites. Some other vehicles we added to our fleet is VW Polo & BMW x4. All of our vehicles are branded with our Company details.
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Chesterton Open Day - March 2018
SPEC had a Ceramic Polymer Open day for some of our big Clients which was a practical session in our workshop where we showed the application of the different products by a representative of Ceramic Polymers from Germany.
Ceramic Polymer Award - January 2018
AW Chesterton Kick off meeting in Rome, Arnold Avenant (SPEC Group) and Woldemar Haak (Ceramic Polymer). SPEC receiving the Ceramic Polymer Top Sales and Distributor award for Sub Saharan Africa.
