COMPANY OVERVIEW

WearCheck was formally launched in 1976 by Lesley and Wally Crawford and Gary Brown. The tests carried out comprised of 6 elements, viscosity, water, fuel, sludge and debris analysis with no automation. The company employed 10 people and processed less than 500 samples per month.

Today WearCheck is a member of the International WearCheck Group (IWG) and is the pre-eminent oil condition monitoring service on the continent, processing in excess of half a million samples per annum. 

IWG is an association of independent laboratories, spanning the globe, dedicated to oil and wear particle analysis. This relationship with the IWG allows for the exchange of technical information and the ability to offer a worldwide service. 

WearCheck serves the mining, earthmoving, industrial, transport, shipping, aviation and electrical industries through the scientific analysis of used oil from oil-wetted components. WearCheck’s expansive network of seven laboratories spans southern Africa, including Isando in Gauteng, Pinetown in KwaZulu-Natal, Middelburg, Lumwana mine and Kitwe in Zambia, as well as India and Dubai (in partnership with Precision Machinery), with additional offices in Namibia, Cape Town, Rustenburg, Steelpoort and Port Elizabeth. 

WearCheck is the only oil analysis company in Africa with ISO 9001 quality certification and ISO 14001 certification for its environmental management programme, and is currently implementing the ISO 17025 laboratory centric quality management programme. 

WearCheck has been awarded preferred supplier status by several Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), including Barloworld, Caterpillar and Volvo Construction Equipment and, along with WearCheck’s global partners, is the laboratory of choice for Shell lubricants. WearCheck also has a partnership with ABB Limited, Zurich, a global leader in power and automation technologies.These partnerships are in line with worldwide trends in outsourcing specialist services.

Services
Oil analysis is as important for Maintenance Engineering as blood testing is for medicine. It is the scientific analysis of all types of lubricants and transformer oils, coolants, greases and filters and is an established method for predictive and preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance programmes are essential for optimising operational efficiency and performance of mechanical and electrical systems. WearCheck offers many services for predictive and preventive maintenance, including competitive pricing and short turnaround time. Analyses are carried out at state-of-the-art, custom built, automated laboratories with interpretation and reports being completed by qualified staff.

The company's capabilities include:
• Viscosity
• Density
• Distillation
• Flashpoint
• Water (by Karl Fischer)
• Appearance / colour
• Wear metals
• Particle contamination
• Dissolved gases
• Total acid and base numbers
• Moisture
• Dielectric strength
• Visual colour
• PCB analysis
• Ruler test
• Copper and silver corrosion
• Thermography

Continued investment in new pH, glycol and co-ductivity technology has ensured that all equipment in WearCheck's laboratories is state-of-the-art, matching or surpassing its local and international counterparts. The ever increasing range of advanced equipment in these custom built laboratoes includes:

• Inductively-coupled plasma spectrometers
• Fourier transform infra-red spectrometer
• HIAC and PAMAS (GmbH) particle counters
• ISL Houillon viscometers
• Gas chromatographs
• Rotary particle depositors
• Particle quantifiers
• Microscopes
• Image processing systems
• Distillation and flashpoint apparatus
• High performance liquid chromatography systems
• Karl Fischer titration
• Dielectric strength testers

A high degree of automation in the laboratories ensures reliability of results and has virtually eliminated time consuming paper work.

Other services include:

• Telephonic and on-site support
• Advice including in-depth investigations and trouble shooting by WearCheck's qualified Diagnosticians.
• Suppliers of a wide variety of different sample kits and accessories such as sampling valves and extraction pumps.
• Regular technical publications and conferences,
• A comprehensive training programme, offered both on-site and at WearCheck's offices in Johannesburg, Pinetown and Middelburg.
• NetCheck, which is a user-friendly database browser that allows customers to store their part of the WearCheck data base on their
  own computer and update it daily using Internet e-mail.
• Reports are communicated either by e-mail, fax, telephone or by post.
• A number of options are available to speed up the delivery of samples to the laboratory and more than 95% of all samples are processed within  24 hours of the sample reaching the laboratory.