In heavy industries, such as mining, building something to last could be the difference between unnecessarily expensive downtime and eventual profitability, says RMI Pressure Systems marketing manager Mike Sherman.

Sherman asserts that industries involved in processing high-value commodities require reliable equipment. However, delivering a product that can guarantee reliability, while enduring high workloads in harsh conditions, requires improved materials and engineering techniques, which increases the purchase price.

He adds that plant equipment must be of an efficient design and employ materials that meet the specifications of the application, noting that to surpass this and develop an improved model with greater reliability require a degree of “overengineering” – using materials and design concepts that may exceed the original specification, but afford a greater level of reliability.

Nevertheless, today’s practice of tailoring plant equipment performance to demand leaves less scope for engineering a machine to exceed targets, and thus less “overengineering”.

This is why the total cost of ownership must be carefully calculated, taking into account all the costs involved in operating the equipment, as well as the potential costs of lost production owing to a breakdown.

TCO covers a wide range of costs and can be influenced by the design of the equipment, says Sherman.

“For example, long-life bearings, which do not require regular lubrication, can reduce maintenance costs, while components designed to be easily exchanged cut the time to effect a repair.”

He stresses that the key to calculating TCO is understanding all the potential costs involved in purchasing, maintaining and repairing the equipment in question, and ensuring that the cost of lost production is properly represented.

He notes that it makes considerable commercial sense to make an investment in the right equipment from the start, rather than count the costs of a poor decision later.

RMI Pressure Systems delivers high-pressure pumping systems to a variety of industries, including oil and gas, iron and steel and mining. The design of these pumping systems is based on high-specification components within a robust framework to deliver a 98% reliability record. The components are also modular, allowing for fast and efficient routine servicing when required.