Pennine stocks up with spares

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Sep 17, 2002

In mid-2000 Pennine Automation Limited was contacted regularly by customers explaining the difficulties they had in obtaining economical replacement spares fast.

In mid-2000 Pennine Automation Limited was contacted regularly by customers explaining the difficulties they had in obtaining economical replacement spares fast.

On some occasions Pennine was able to assist, on others not.

Further research suggested that if a professional support and stocking system could be put into place, coupled with fast knowledgeable feedback, a reasonable demand could exist.

Pennine already had in-house expertise with on-going service support and software for most CNC controls and drives.

So, step by step, a stocking system plus combining repair and service was built up.

Spares come in two main categories: second user and new.

Second user spares are obtained from various sources including exchange/replacement controls and retrofits.

Parts are tested, documented and added to the database for ease of identification and search, allowing potential customers to search at any time the stock via the Pennine websites.

Parts are held in a large temperature-controlled store.

New equipment is purchased worldwide from various sources, sometimes direct from companies who have a stock of last year's models or direct through the Internet where companies have stock surplus to requirements.

Since its inception, the Spares Division has continued to grow to meet the world-wide parts demand.

Often, surprisingly, enabling Pennine to supply parts to the original manufacturers who haven't stock or no longer produce the spare part (most OEMs only guarantee availability of spares up to 10 years or less).

Main spares carried are: Fanuc, Siemens, Mitsubishi, Indramat, Bosch, Okuma, GE1050, 2000, Contraves, Gettys, Cincinnati, Inland, Allen-Bradley, SEM, NUM 760, Fidia 10 and many more.

To assist customers two main sites exist, these are: www.fanuc-spares.co.uk for Fanuc and GE, and www.cncspares.co.uk for all other makes.

The overall result is an expanding supply and repair of spare parts to meet the growing demand.

Besides supplying spares Pennine Automation also provides on-site service including installation, fitting and commissioning and can provide initial on-site fault and identification.

In addition to service and spares Pennine Automation can advise companies on machine condition including calibration (laser/ball-bar and conventional).

The Manager of the Spares Division, Neil Ginley, says: "We pride ourselves in being able to help our worldwide customers, where possible with next day part supply and when parts aren't available a fast repair service.

New parts have 12 months guarantee and second user parts have 6 months.

Our major problem is getting all stock onto our database.

So customers, who inspect the site and find the part they are looking for isn't listed, may find by contacting Pennine direct that the part is in stock but not yet on the database.

The Spares Division, now in its third year, has grown to almost 50% of the Pennine Engineering Group turnover.