We all expect our roads to be smooth, pavements to be flat and buildings to have water and power, yet most pay little attention to the excavators that lay groundwork for these vital networks.

Located in Montchanin (around 140km from Geneva in the French region of Bourgogne), Pascal Guinot TP is a successful family-run SME with 250 employees. The “TP” in the name stands for “travaux publics” (public works), to which the company has dedicated its efforts since its foundation in 1993. Pascal Guinot TP not only digs trenches for essential services like electricity, heating, water and telecommunications, they also lay the networks inside them before filling and repairing the roads that cover it all.

Rent-to-own excavator contracts make maintenance decisive

Pascal Guinot TP has around 800 different machines carrying out work for municipalities, SMEs, industrial groups and occasional private customers. This includes 70 excavators and mini excavators which are in use 45 weeks a year. With most of the calendar year earmarked for excavator work, reducing downtime is of huge importance.

“We outright own about half of the excavators, ranging from New Holland, Liebherr and Caterpillar to JCB and Mecalac,” Equipment Manager Thomas Desmerger explained.

“The rest are rent-to-own with a fixed-term maintenance agreement, so by the time we own them, the vehicles are mid-way through their 10-year average lifespan and no longer covered by the maintenance contract. That’s when we have to start maintaining them ourselves, and at five years old they begin to need major repairs!”

Damaged excavator arm pins reduce accuracy and force costly downtime

The excavator boom, arm and bucket suffered the most wear-and-tear, but the pivot pin in the arm was the principal problem, with the biggest impact on operational accuracy:

“When the arm becomes a bit wobbly it makes it hard for the operator to control, and then he can’t dig or scoop precisely”.

This wobble occurs as wear between the lug hole and pivot pin means the pin no longer fits snugly into the lug ear. Eventually this must be resolved for the excavator to continue to fulfil its purpose, but solutions which install a new traditional pivot pin are neither futureproof nor easy to implement.

“In the past we would have to dismantle the part, do some welding, have some line boring done, then put it all back together. This meant the machine was out of action for at least a month, and if the machine is down then it is not earning us any money,” Desmerger said.

Aside from the income lost from the machine being out of action for a month, the most expensive part was the machining, which Pascal Guinot TP needed to outsource at a significant cost of around €2,000 per individual pivot pin.

The Expander System shortens excavator downtime by two thirds for Pascal Guinot TP

This problem is a typical scenario resolved by the Expander System, which is specifically designed to eliminate the issue of pivot pin wear and allow simple, fast installation without intensive machining. Desmerger was already familiar with Expander from a previous job, so he suggested it could be a solution to shorten the excavator downtime.

“I’ve been in the business for more than 20 years so I knew about Nord-Lock Group products. I contacted them to discuss our problem and got a solution.”

Pascal Guinot TP’s workshop does extensive predictive maintenance during two quite periods (January and February due to the weather, and France’s vacation month of August), so by planning around this low season, the excavators could be repaired with minimal downtime:

“When the operator begins to feel that the pivot pin is getting loose, we take all the necessary measurements, communicate them to Nord-Lock Group and they supply us with a solution. We’ve been using the Expander System for years and always get an answer and follow-up, Nord-Lock Group are very professional.”

Replacing the pivot pins with the Expander System has delivered benefits that can be clearly quantified in numbers, Desmerger concluded.

“Our aim was to prolong the life of our machines and to reduce their costs. Today, thanks to the Expander System, the downtime of our machines is divided by three, down to around 10 days in total, so it has been money very well spent.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Use case: Excavator arm pins
Client: Pascal Guinot TP
Location: Bourgogne, France
Benefits gained:

- Reduced downtime by two thirds

- Prolonged excavator life

- Reduced TCO