RINGSPANN’s service portfolio includes expert maintenance advice for customers in the mining and material handling industries.
With nine manufacturing facilities in Germany and other countries, RINGSPANN’s service portfolio ranges from consultation, design and development, production of ready-to-install components, customer training, after-sales and maintenance support.
Founded in 1944 with headquarters in Bad Homburg near Frankfurt, RINGSPANN is a specialist in the manufacturing of freewheels, industrial brakes, shaft-hub-connections, overload clutches (positive torque limiters, friction torque limiters and force limiters), shaft couplings, precision clamping fixtures and remote-control systems.
Having operated through a distributor in Australia for several years, the company recently shifted its sights to pursue a globalised business model.
It opened a dedicated office in Melbourne in 2018, a wholly owned subsidiary of RINGSPANN GmbH, with general manager Seshan Ramaswamy instrumental in highlighting the significant opportunity for stronger communication and greater interaction with Australian customers.
“As a company we are always proactive and always on the front foot in terms of supplying optimal solutions, as well as the right product to meet our customer requirements,” Ramaswamy told Australian Mining.
“We strive to understand the requirements of our customers’ projects, particularly in the design phase, seeking to be prominent in the market with a comprehensive range of standard products but also with customisable and tailored applications.
“We can optimise any customer request across various applications in the mining and material handling industries, with our research and development team constantly working to ensure our components are up to date and meeting industry standards.”
RINGSPANN aims to go above and beyond customer expectations, often providing unique solutions that are typically not available in its official catalogue of products.
“We talk to our colleagues globally especially our HQ in Germany, for new ideas and share their successes with our local customers,” Ramaswamy said.
With all of RINGSPANN’s factories based overseas, coupled with the uneven supply chain that has plagued so many industries in recent times, Ramaswamy understand the importance of ensuring all product lines in Australia remains fully stocked.
“We are constantly monitoring our stock levels, ensuring we are able to meet customer demand and provide quick turnaround times,” Ramaswamy said.
“We want to make sure downtime is minimised for our customers.”
RINGSPANN’s key product offerings fall under six key categories, with the freewheels componentry accounting for the largest aspect of the business.
RINGSPANN recently built its biggest and most high-performance housing freewheel to date for an Asian plant construction company. The extraordinary unit was shipped is now used by a chemical factory as an overrunning clutch in the energy recovery system of a fan with oversized dimensions.
With its nominal torque of just over 40,000Nm, the company believes the unit sets a new benchmark on international standards.
Maintenance is also a critical dimension to the operational success of RINGSPANN’s products.
“Our products are working under very arduous and harsh conditions, so it is important that they are reliable and efficient,” Ramaswamy said. “And that’s why we utilise condition-monitoring to ensure components are working correctly and that we can complete planned servicing or unplanned repairs.
“Condition-monitoring of our products can be conducted either on site or remotely and this flexibility ensures optimal results.
“We aim to ensure our components are fully operational to avoid downtime, which can be expensive, and to ensure they are safe for operators which is a critical consideration.”
On large-scale projects, RINGSPANN Australia can send in expert technicians from either a local office or an overseas factory.
“It’s always possible and we are quite happy to bring out our team from Germany during the installation phase of a project in order to provide technical expertise and training if required,” Ramaswamy said.
“We believe our products are extremely well-suited to Australian mining conditions and as a company we want to make sure we are supplying our customers with robust and reliable components and are backing it up with information, education and maintenance support.
“We want our customers to know that we are fully behind them with optimised solutions.”
This feature appeared in the March 2023 issue of Australian Mining.