magazine C o m b i w e a r pa rt s
a newsletter for us who love to dig
plant manager torvald strand Page 3-4
NEW AREA SALES MANAGER page 8
COMBI WEAR PARTS IN AFRICA WITH DEM GROUP Page 10-11
C o m b i w e a r pa rt s m a g a z i n e
Prioritise your teeth combiwearparts.com
C o m b i w e a r pa rt s m a g a z i n e
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EXHIBITIONS 2014
page thirteen
christmas
page nine
NOBEL PRIZE
PLANT MANAGER AT COMBI WEAR PARTS FOUNDRY IN LJUNGBY
Torvald strand Torvald Strand and his family (wife and children) live in Växjö. That gives Torvald a journey of around 110 km every day to and from the foundry in Ljungby. Torvald enjoys this commute. He says it gives him time for himself in the car when he can think without interruptions, something that doesn’t happen too often when he’s at the foundry. Torvald joined Combi Wear Parts in February 2006. He has a wide mix of experience in his career but his focus has been the foundry business for almost 30 years. During that time he has owned his own foundry and built a completely new one. This experience is valuable in his current work where he has
In his current role there is a sharp focus on both operations and staff. The endresult will be a profitable and competitive foundry that builds a solid level of confidence among customers and helps them create added value. He also contributes innovative ideas across the entire foundry process including materials. Everything helps to make production better and more efficient.
We asked Torvald what he brings to Combi Wear Parts: responsibility for the new production plant. It’s no exaggeration to say that with his long experience Torvald Strand knows almost all there is to know about foundries the production process and the products.
“I can bring continuity to the work here,” explains Torvald. “I work in the present, which I think is essential. I’m also from the Swedish province of Småland and we tend to be very hard workers as well as innovative.
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Just think of IKEA!” adds Torvald with a laugh, referring to the fact that the Swedish furniture giant has its roots in Småland. Torvald is convinced that Combi Wear Parts has great potential. The management team is united and function well together. This is a well-oiled machine where people speak freely, and that means new ideas and proposals get a positive reception. Combi Wear Parts is well known among customers for being flexible and always striving to meet new demands. This helps customers improve their productivity and profitability, which is something that Combi Wear Parts naturally want to continue focusing on.
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Torvald on how to control a foundry: “Like I said, I enjoy being in the centre of things, because that’s where I get direct information about things that are happening right now. I can see the results of the changes we have made. I find that very stimulating and also completely necessary. Especially now when we are in the middle of work on the new production plant that will start up this summer. When it is complete we will double our capacity and there will be a significant increase in both efficiency and flexibility,” says Torvald enthusiastically. For this very reason Torvald has little time to speak to us. In reality
he works every day. When he does get time off he likes to be with his family and get involved in his children’s leisure activities. His children are aged eight and ten, so they need help being driven to various sporting events. The family also have a dream destination they have visited several times. They love Thailand, with its friendly people and lovely climate. They enjoy swimming, diving and being in the sunshine, so Thailand with its long beaches and warm water is perfect. Unfortunately they will not be able to there this year…, but there is always next year...
C o m b i w e a r pa rt s m a g a z i n e
exhibitions
2014
New warehouse location
Combi Wear Parts continuously strive for better solutions for our partners and one step forward is to further improve the logistic set-up and service. We have therefore decided, to better support new demands from our different market segments, to change our warehousing set-up from 1st of October 2013. At the same time as we are extending our production facilities we move to a new warehouse location, therefore we kindly ask you to change the loading/delivery address to:
In 2014 we are at two exhibitions: ConExpo in Las Vegas from 4-8 March and SIM in Bordeaux from 8-10 October. Please put these dates on your calendar right now. Of course we will send you an invitation in good time ahead of these events.
Many teeth A bucket can have many teeth, but no mechanical bucket can match the animal kingdom. White sharks, for example, have around 3,000 super-sharp teeth in their jaws. They don’t really need to worry if they lose a tooth, as a new one grows in place quickly. It is estimated that a white shark gets through around 30,000 teeth in its lifetime.
Brunskogsgruppen/Combi Wear Parts AB Bredemadsvägen 3 SE-341 96 Ljungby, Sweden The logistic service will increase and we are now able to load and unload all kind of containers in a more effective way and packing of the goods can become more customized. If you have any special needs do not hesitate to contact us and tell us what your specific requirements are.
A sea riddle You probably know that teeth made by Combi Wear Parts are used on dredgers that operate all over the world. Well, a dredger, an oil tanker, a yacht and another boat, a total of four vessels, are all moving in exactly the same direction and there is an equal distance between them. Each boat, in other words, is exactly the same distance from each of the other three boats. What is the fourth boat? You can find the answer on another page of this magazine. Don’t worry, there is a logical explanation.
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MARKETING AND TECHNICAL MANAGER
Niclas Wechselberger We asked Niclas what was the best thing about his job. He answered: “It’s the whole thing, being a part of the development of Combi Wear Parts and being able to produce results. It’s also stimulating to meet so many interesting and competent people. The variety of the work assignments, quite simply, is what I like.”
We asked Niclas what he brings to Combi Wear Parts: Niclas lives with his wife and two children (aged 3 and 6) in Karlstad, Sweden. He started work at Combi Wear Parts in September 2000, just over 13 years ago. He was previously sales and marketing manager for Avesta Sheffield (now called Outokumpu) in Degerfors. Niclas has several roles at Combi Wear Parts: he is responsible for all of the company’s marketing and he is also head of the technology department where he has responsibility for product development. He also has responsibility for our partnership with Vosta, a world leader in the dredging industry. This means a lot of interesting travel, including trips to the foundry at Ljungby, customer visits, sales meetings and exhibitions. Niclas is also a member of the Combi Wear Parts senior management team. 6
“I believe that I have a good analytic capability and I can communicate both with customers and our own staff. I am curious and I enjoy challenges. I think I’m good at coming up with new ideas. On the marketing side I see things from different angles, which means that Combi Wear Parts can continue to be bold and make a distinct impression on the market. On the technical side I’m glad that I have so much competent staff around me who I can trust when it comes to engineering and calculations. I mostly act as a link between the market and the technology department, but I also have long experience of this industry and I have ideas about improvements and new products.” Niclas views the future of Combi Wear Parts positively. A lot is going to happen in the near future. ProClaws, for example, will be further developed so that it can be used on bigger machines. Combi Wear Parts also has new projects in
the pipeline in the dredging sector. Among other things there is a new patented adapter for teeth especially designed for dredging. This solution is based on a mechanical fitting on the cutter instead of previously being welded onto the cutter blade. This will mean significant cost savings as the adapter will be able to be replaced simply without having to dismount the cutter from the vessel. In general, Combi Wear Parts implements continuous improvements, adding the things that customers want and introducing new products that match market requirements. There are several other exciting projects coming up, as well. In his spare time Niclas likes to be with family and friends. He has been playing tennis regularly with a group of friends for some years and he enjoys skiing in the winter and paddling a canoe in the summer. In winter his favourite place in Sweden is Sälen where the whole family can relax and enjoy themselves. During the summer months the family have a summer cottage near Mount Kinnekulle near Lidköping. Before Niclas started his family he enjoyed backpacking in Asia, and that’s something he’d really like to do with his children when they get a little older. Asked if he had any hidden talents, Niclas says he is good at baking buns, at least that’s what his neighbours say. And if you can’t trust your neighbours, who can you trust?
C o m b i w e a r pa rt s m a g a z i n e
FAMOUS DIAMONDS Some diamonds are more wellknown than others. It might be a good idea to get to know them in case you win the lottery one day.
The Hope Diamond The Hope Diamond is one of the French crown jewels. It was mined in India in the 17th century and was either bought or stolen by a French merchant. King Louis XIV of France bought it and recut it to produce a 69.3 carat gem.
The Koh-I-NoorDiamond This diamond comes from India too and once sat on the wall of the famous Taj Mahal temple. The Koh-I-Noor now belongs to the British royal family. It has been famous since the 16th century although there are claims that it is 5,000 years old. After some careful attention it is now 108 carats.
World’s largest dump trucks
The BelAZ 75710 is the world’s largest dump truck. We can’t be completely sure if that is still true, but it remains highly impressive. Height: 8.16m Width: 9.87m (32.38 feet) Length: 20.60m (67.58 feet) Weight: 360 tons Load capacity: 450 tons Fuel tanks: 2x 2,800 litres Max. speed: 60 km/h
The Cullinan Diamond This gem was found in 1905 by Frederick Wells who was then working at the world’s largest diamond mine then owned by Thomas Cullinan. It was 3,106 carats (621.35 grams) and was the largest gem-quality diamond ever found at the time. It was divided into eleven smaller diamonds. The largest of these was named the Great Star of Africa and is now a part of the British crown jewels.
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Combi Wear Parts presents
new Area Sales Manager Emanuele Loperfido, 38, is from Italy and in August he started his job as Area Sales Manager for South Africa and South America. He previously worked for nine years as Export Manager at Corazza, an Italian company that produces buckets for excavators, among other equipment. He therefore already knew a lot about Combi Wear Parts. Emanuele speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese, so he is very well suited to work in South Africa and South America.
which is something he likes to encourage back home.
Travelling far and wide If Emanuele and Viviana get time over for holiday they like to travel to a capital city in Europe. If they have more time to spare they like to go to Apulien in south west Italy, especially the town of Lecce, which is a perfect stopping-off point for the beaches in the region. They are also planning a trip to Asia.
Emanuele lives with his partner, actress Viviana, in Pordenone in north west Italy, a city of 50,000 inhabitants just an hour’s journey north of Venice.
growth in mining, the goal for Combi Wear Parts is to be among the leading suppliers of wear parts in all these markets.
Emanuele looked forward to joining Combi Wear Parts as he likes the way they are organised in teams and always work closely with the customer. He also knows from his time at Corazza that Combi Wear Parts is easy to do business with, which is something that Emanuele appreciates. He also likes that fact that so many of his colleagues at Combi Wear Parts are physically active and do all sorts of sports in their spare time.
In his spare time Emanuele likes football. He used to play but now he is a spectator. He rarely misses a match with his favourite team, Udinese, but he also enjoys watching matches from overseas. He is also politically involved in Pordenone.
Asked about his new role he says that since South Africa and South America have the biggest market 8
Football and politics
Emanuele loves his city and his frequent travels abroad give him ideas that he can bring back to Pordenone. For example, in Scandinavia he is very impressed by the commitment to the environment,
If Emanuele had to name one place in the world apart from Pordenone that had that little extra, it would have to be Venice, a city with beautiful buildings that exudes romance, atmosphere and culture
C o m b i w e a r pa rt s m a g a z i n e
The Nobel Prize Literature Alice Munro
Peace Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
Alfred Nobel and Combi Wear Parts
The world’s most prestigious prize, the Nobel Prize, was recently awarded in the following fields: physics, chemistry, economics, medicine, literature and peace. The prizes were chosen by Alfred Nobel, known as the inventor of dynamite, in his final will dated 1895. The prizes were first awarded in 1901. The prizes are handed over on the anniversary of Nobel’s death, 10 December, at ceremonies in Stockholm, and, for the peace prize, in Oslo. Each prize winner receives a gold medal, a diploma and stipend.
Physics François Englert and Peter W. Higgs
Chemistry Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel
Economics Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller
Medicine James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof
When Alfred Nobel died in 1896 the company was sold in accordance with his wishes and a foundation was established. The return on the investment of 9 million US dollars that was invested by the foundation was first handed out in 1901 to mark the first ever Nobel Prize. The rest is history. At the end of the 1920s Bofors performed its first trials with forged teeth for excavators. In the 1930s Bofors designed, produced and marketed its own wear parts for both the mining and construction industries. Bofors Wear Parts was formed in 1939 and it is this company from which Combi Wear Parts traces its roots. Combi Wear Parts now markets wear parts all over the world.
The prize may not be awarded posthumously and neither can it be shared by more than three people. However, if a person dies after being selected for an award, the ceremony will still go ahead. The youngest ever winner of the Nobel Prize was Lawrence Bragg, who was just 25 when he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915. The oldest winner was Leonid Hurwicz, who was 90 when he won the prize for Economics in 2007. This year the following individuals won prizes.
Not everyone knows that Alfred Nobel and Combi Wear Parts share some history. At the end of the 19th century Alfred Nobel was associated with a Swedish company, Bofors, which he used to experiment with high-alloy armour plate and artillery projectiles.
Alice Munro, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature
So we are very proud to say that Combi Wear Parts and the Nobel Prize share some history. 9
C o m b i w e a r pa rt s m a g a z i n e
Combi Wear Parts distributor in Africa
DEM group The Belgian company, DEM Group, is the distributor in North West and Central Africa for John Deere, Hitachi, Wirtgen Group – and for Combi Wear Parts. DEM Group is a relatively new company, formed in 2011, focused on service and aftermarket sales. The company was previously called Demimpex and was founded in the 1990s when the focus was on the export of spare parts to Africa. The company grew rapidly through strategic acquisitions and new start-ups. In 2012 DEM Group, based in Brussels, began building a network of Company owned Branches in Africa, each one set up with a dedicated Sales and Service Organization and with qualified personnel having an important background in Construction, Forestry and Mining.
The Focus of the Organization is on Aftersales and technical support to national and international organizations operating in the respective countries. DEM Group’s activities on the African continent developed continuously, supported by the operational reliability of the products. 10
The company provides an effective and on-the-spot aftermarket service in the major African markets. This is essential for Combi Wear Parts to live up to its reputation as a reliable supplier and service partner. During 2013 DEM Group worked hard to extend and improve its
At each Branch, a PSSR Parts Service Sales Representative is dedicated to on-site Parts and Service Support. This technical Representative visits the different jobsites and follows up on Spare Parts and Service. The PSSR focusses on application recommendations, continuous availability of Service and Wear Parts as well as a smooth Logistic flow. The parent company, SDA Groups (Société de Distribution Africaine), has over 20 years of experience in the distribution of cars, buses, trucks, plant and construction machinery as well as equipment for forestry and mines in 27 African countries.
representation in Africa. New Branches, fully set up with sales offices and service departments were established in Senegal, Morocco, Ghana, Mauritania, Algeria, Nigeria and Ivory Cost. In the Democratic Republic of Congo DEM Group moved into larger premises.
Fredrik Ivansson, CEO of Combi Wear Parts, says: “DEM Group has knowledge about Africa that we don’t have. That covers areas such as politics, culture and of course business. This,
C o m b i w e a r pa rt s m a g a z i n e together with their experience and professionalism, makes DEM Group a very good distributor for our products in Africa.”
Willy de Smedt, Aftermarket manager, DEM Group Willy is very satisfied with the partnership with Combi Wear Parts. He says: “The cooperation works very well and we appreciate the determination and enthusiasm of Combi Wear Parts to help us both with the vital product training of our staff but also by participating in joint customer visits on the market.” Combi Wear Parts’ products have proven to be of very high quality and they complement in an excellent way the Hitachi machines and service that DEM Group has always offered on the market. The products open up new opportunities for business in future at both new customers and existing ones. Willy De Smedt believes that Combi Wear Parts’ products will lead to many new contacts and new customers which will in turn lead to increased sales of machines. The majority of the plant and mining machinery sold today by DEM Group is equip-
ped with wear parts from the Combi Wear Parts product range.
Bazano in the Congo Bazano, a customer from Democratic Republic of Congo, has several Hitachi ZX870 machines equipped with the size W30 ProClaws teeth and associated lip, side and heel shrouds. The first installation has been in operation since 2011. The ZX870 machines clear the rock before blasting and are also used where the blasted rock is very abrasive. Bazano’s maintenance manager Antony Libotte is very satisfied with the life time of the ProClaws products, and says: “We are very pleased with the
ProClaws system so far and we are converting several buckets to the ProClaws system.” Willy de Smedt mentions another customer to whom they have sold a Hitachi EX1900 with a fully equipped bucket that features the ProClaws teeth system in size W40. This machine works in a copper mine and the customer reports that they are very happy with ProClaws, especially the long life of the teeth and the lip shrouds. “Having access to a wear parts system that gives us satisfied customers gives us great confidence for future ventures,” says Willy de Smedt.
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Copper
Orange
Copper is a base metal. Its Latin name, “cuprum” means metal from Cyprus. Copper was actually the first metal that mankind learnt to process. It all started 6 000 BC.
No-one can have failed to notice that orange is our company’s primary colour. Here are some interesting facts about the colour. The word itself is the French word for the fruit of the same colour. Orange is not so common in the natural world, and it works very well as a strong signalling colour. Orange combines the energy of red and the joy of yellow.
In the 17th century the Falun copper mine was the biggest in Europe and played a very important role in Sweden’s economy. Many castle roofs in Europe, for example, were covered with copper from Falun. Not a lot of people know this, but one of the reasons the police are nicknamed ‘cops’ is that in olden times the buttons on the officers’ uniforms were usually made of copper. There are other theories, but that one works for us.
Answer to the sea riddle
For all the boats to be at exactly the same distance from each other, then the two dimensions on the surface of the water are not enough. For example, if you placed all the boats in each corner of a square, the distance between the boats across the diagonal is greater than along the short sides of the square. You could form a triangle with three of the boats and they could be equidistant, but if you want to add a fourth boat you have to make a three-dimensional pyramid, and put the boat up in the sky, or on the bottom of the sea – so the right answer is that fourth boat is a submarine. 12
Hardness Bucket teeth must be hard but also strong. Producing hard teeth is not especially difficult, but maintaining strength requires more ingenuity. The teeth have to be hard all the way through, too, and not just on the surface. To combine hardness and strength you need a great deal of know-how, which is exactly what we do have at Combi Wear Parts. When we measure the hardness of our products we use the Brinell method. This gives us the information we need to produce the best possible products.
In addition to being associated with Combi Wear Parts, orange suggests happiness, energy, sunshine, enthusiasm, creativity, resolution, stimulation, success and encouragement. In China and Japan, orange stands for love and joy. It’s a colour that reduces depression and stimulates the appetite. Orange demands attention, it wants to be seen and it demands everyone’s attention. Well, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
The Brinell method was developed at the end of the 19th century by Swedish engineer Johan August Brinell to test the hardness of different materials. He simply took a ball from a ball bearing which he pressed into the test material using an apparatus and then he measured the area that had been indented. The ball diameter now varies between one and 10 mm.
C o m b i w e a r pa rt s m a g a z i n e
A Swedish Christmas Christmas food Just like midsummer in Sweden, Christmas is a time of year when we prepare special dishes, although we do like to eat some of them all year round. The Christmas buffet has its roots in the Viking’s midwinter blot, or sacramental feast, and a lot of new dishes have been added since then. The heavily laden table includes ham broth dip, Christmas ham, varieties of mustard, stockfish, meatballs, small sausages, smoked salmon, gravad salmon, hovmästar sauce, numerous varieties of pickled herring, herring salad, Baltic herring, Christmas sausage, pork sausage, brawn, veal brawn, potatoes, ribs, roast beef, rice pudding, browned cabbage, red cabbage, kale, beans, smoked eel, liver paste, boiled eggs, Jansson’s temptation, roe, pig head, pig’s feet, and even more! Then there’s the desserts with the Christmas sweets, gingerbread cakes, nuts and almonds. People like to drink beer, preferably
washed down with an Aquavite and a dark, sweet aromatic soft drink called Julmust. After that the only thing you need is a good nap.
Julmust Julmust is a very special Swedish Christmas soft drink that has been popular now for about 100 years. Sweden is the only country in the world where the consumption of Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola goes down in December as people turn to the traditional julmust drink. The recipe is secret. Just a very few selected people know what julmust contains, although two of
the ingredients, hops and malt, have been revealed. The rest is a secret mix of spices. This concentrated extract is made by a single producer, a family business, and is then sent to a series of breweries. They make their own combination of water, extract, sugar or sweetener, so each julmust from each brewery tastes a little different. Storage time also affects taste. If julmust is stored for 12 months in a glass bottle in a dark and cool place its taste develops to become deeper and more complete.
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