Power generation repair and asset management company Marthinusen & Coutts (M&C) – a division of products and services supplier ACTOM – is tallying up its projects for 2025, having experienced a successful year in 2024.

M&C project manager Dominik Krob says that the company has completed, and plans to complete, several additional power generation maintenance and repair projects for a variety of critical plants and sites throughout South Africa. These projects include the manufacturing of a new 10 MVA generator rotor for a leading local sugar company in March 2024, the on-site overhaul of a 147 MVA generator for one of the largest local chemicals companies in 2023, the on-site overhaul of five 12 MW generators at a gas-fired power plant in Africa, and the completion of an ongoing overhaul project for a Limpopo-based platinum mining company, which Krob says will be completed in 2026.

“M&C’s mission is to improve our customers’ businesses by understanding their needs and providing the best solutions – in fast turnaround times,” says M&C’s marketing executive Mike Chamberlain.

Benefits of M&C Services

M&C’s services offer a range of benefits for industrial and mining companies.

For instance, Chamberlain says that the company offers a turnkey, “one-stop-shop” for electromechanical solutions, including customised design and redesign of products, dedicated customer solutions, onsite diagnostics, workshops for the manufacture of components, and an expert service support team that carries out routine and breakdown maintenance.

The company also specialises in servicing and/or manufacturing components for specialised motors and motor parts, generators, medium and low voltage motors, alternating and direct current (DC) motors, flameproof motors, traction motors and transformers.

To support M&C’s products and services, the company boasts four well-equipped workshops in Cleveland, Benoni, and Rustenburg, in South Africa, and in Kitwe, Zambia.

“Significant capabilities include full-load DC, high- and low-voltage testing facilities, a choice of four insulation systems – three with vacuum pressure impregnation (VPI) systems, a 32-t balancing machine, and a 140-t Wagner lathe that takes a 40-t work piece and is up to 11-m-long and has a swing of 3.2 m,” he adds.

M&C’s project pipeline is evidence of the company’s many success stories and is indicative of M&C’s “state-of-the-art” repair and service capabilities.

“M&C is the market leader in the motor repairs and services sector and has the best equipped workshops and the most experienced team,” Chanberlain states.

Major Refurbishment of Assets

A noteworthy project in 2024 was the rewinding of a 60 MW generator stator for a petrochemical company’s power generation system.

The project was completed in July and saw M&C rewind the 75 MVA BBC synchronous generator stator. Krob explains that “this type of generator, especially the generator windings, eventually reaches end of life and needs to be rewound”.

He notes that, instead of replacing the entire machine, the customer decided to rewind the stator, as the generator is a critical component of its power generation system. He adds that the plant is one of many that generate their power in-house to help them be less reliant on the grid, thereby avoiding most of the adverse impacts of loadshedding.

Given M&C’s close working relations with crucial parts suppliers, including US-based National Electric Coil (NEC), it was the likely partner to assist in achieving the stringent quality requirements and tight deadlines for this project.

Further, NEC had developed a unique system with individually VPI stator bars and coils, individually wrapped with the NECCOBond-E insulation system, which meets every associated national and international standard.

Krob says that, while there are numerous stator bar and coil suppliers globally, their quality is not guaranteed. Further, quality issues often only reveal themselves after several years of operation, “when it is too late to change suppliers or claim damages from them”.

He affirms that NEC is one of the “very few suppliers” worldwide that can manufacture individually VPI stator bars, adding that it has been doing so for decades.

Additionally, while M&C has its own testing capabilities, this specific stator size required exceptional equipment to perform the tests and guarantee product quality. Fortunately, M&C was able to leverage its partnerships with specialist, locally-based high-voltage test equipment service providers to ensure the relevant tests were undertaken.