Cummins has worked with hundreds of border officials to spot fake parts as its war against increasingly sophisticated counterfeits ramps up.
When Australian Border Force officers flag imported shipments of suspected counterfeit engine parts, the contents often look legitimate at first glance. Cummins-branded cylinder liners are well-packed and come complete with official packaging, barcodes and part numbers.
But trained eyes can spot the telltale signs: slightly off colours on the labels, marginally different fonts, and packaging that feels just a fraction too light. These kinds of issues mean the shipment is likely part of the $US500 billion counterfeit parts industry that is affecting manufacturers and buyers alike.
Cummins is working hard to fight the scourge, and one part of its strategy is to work with customs officials around the world. The company has trained more than 300 Australian Border Force personnel across four capital cities to identify fake components from its range. Together with work on technology and customer education, it aims to protect mining operations from the costly consequences of non-genuine parts.
Cummins’ latest global initiative uses holograms to support its wider anti-counterfeiting efforts. The development of holograms, the effects of which cannot be completely replicated or simulated by normal printing methods, has introduced a new level of brand protection for the manufacturer’s genuine parts.
anti-counterfeiting efforts. Image: Cummins
“Counterfeiters are becoming so sophisticated that their parts look like the original, even down to their labelling, packaging, barcodes and QR codes,” Cummins aftermarket business development manager – mining Kyle Miller said. “Many consumers are misled into thinking they are buying the genuine article.”
To differentiate from counterfeit products, Cummins’ new labels feature a company-specific hologram and a verification website. Customers can scan a QR code on the label to reach the site and confirm authenticity.
The price of counterfeits
The risk of using counterfeit parts in high-horsepower diesel engines recently hit home at a mining operation in Western Australia. An 1800-horsepower Cummins K50 engine failed at only 6000 hours powering an excavator, when it would have been expected to clock up to 16,000 hours after midlife maintenance at 8000 hours.
Teardown of the 50L V16 engine showed destruction inside one cylinder. The reason was clear: counterfeit parts, including the cylinder liners, had been used by a third-party repairer to rebuild the K50 at an early stage in its life.
“At the end of the day, you get what you pay for with quality products,” Miller said.
“If you want to take risks to save a few dollars, you are likely to incur greater losses in business impact through downtime or performance issues.”
The downfall of using an unauthorised Cummins repairer to cut costs was clear to the customer, with the engine requiring complete replacement well before its expected service life.
This is not an isolated incident, as Cummins research has shown.
The company engaged an engineering team to carry out extensive testing of 106 non-genuine parts from the QSK engine series. These parts were put through the same rigorous test procedures Cummins uses to manufacture genuine parts.
The results were stark. Many failed on visual inspection, some failed because the metal was too soft or brittle, and other parts failed for different reasons. Test results confirmed every part category failed in measurement or material inspection, compared to Cummins standards.
One example of the difference was with connecting rod bushings. For QSK45 and QSK60 engines, Cummins only sells bushings with the connecting rod to ensure quality, durability and a precise fit. Competitors sell the parts separately, ignoring Cummins engineering requirements.
“Cummins high-horsepower genuine parts sourced from the extensive network of Cummins branches in Australia and New Zealand are the only parts approved and warrantied by Cummins,” Miller said.
With counterfeit units increasingly being sold as genuine Cummins parts worldwide, with sophisticated reproductions making it incredibly difficult for even trained eyes to distinguish real from fake, the company’s engagement with Australian Border Force, combined with hologram technology and ongoing customer education, represents a comprehensive approach to protecting the integrity of mining operations across the country.
This feature appeared in the November issue of Australian Mining magazine.