Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/141668
Product Support percent. Bryan Debshaw, CEO of POLARIS Laboratories, estimates about 40-50 percent of machines are tested regularly, with higher compliance on heavier machines. Education is key in getting equipment owners on board. "The biggest thing that we can do is educate the customer," said Spitznagel. "Letting them know the value and what the oil sample is trying to tell them." Spitznagel finds the new graphing and trending features on KOWA (Komatsu Oil Wear Analysis) to be helpful for showing the customer trends and wear. Once issues are identified, contractors can have the advantage of budgeting for needed repairs while avoiding costly downtime on a jobsite. Tolbert says it's fairly simple to sell fluid analysis as part of a preventive maintenance (PM) package to those who have already done it. For those who are unfamiliar, it can take more time. "As we move customers into PM programs and are able to start showing them the data and the value of the data, it doesn't take long to make them believers," he added. Edwin Downer, general manager, Whayne Technology Division, Wayne Supply Co., Louisville, Ky., believes much of the growth in oil sampling will come from the building/ construction market. "Your large contractors, highway contractors, quarries and mining customers – a lot of those guys are already doing it. Probably the biggest growth area is with small construction contractors. Even though they have smaller machines, they can still benefit," said Downer. Just as there is disparity among end-users concerning oil analysis, some dealers are more proactive than others when it comes to selling oil sampling and the preventative maintenance contracts that include it. A Competitive Market End-users have many choices when it comes to fluid sampling. Most OEMs offer a branded program and that A technician at Analysts Inc. conducts a LEM (Light Extinction Measurement) test to monitor the amount of soot buildup within diesel engines. A LEM test offers significant advantages in speed, accuracy and cost compared to older testing methods. Whayne Supply uses the (FT-IR) Fourier Transform infrared instrument to detect soot, oxidation, sulfur products and nitration. It also scans for the presence of water, glycol (antifreeze) and fuel. is the typical choice for dealers. There is SOS (Caterpillar), KOWA (Komatsu), SystemGard (CNH) and John Deere Oilscan Fluid Analysis Program to name a few. While some of these programs may be executed by an independent lab, they are designed to meet specific brand standards. Other dealers, such as Nevada-based Cashman Equipment and Whayne Supply of Kentucky and Indiana, both Cat dealers, have built their own fluid analysis lab onsite. Downer believes one of the advantages of using a Caterpillar dealer to perform analysis is its focus specifically on construction equipment. "We do a lot of samples on the same type of machine, Cat as well as other brands of machines; if we have an issue we can look at other samples. This makes for better benchmarking and more accurate interpretations." Analysts Inc. is the preferred vendor for Komatsu, while POLARIS Laboratories is a preferred vendor for New Holland. Customers can also engage these independent labs as well as oil distributors. According to Debshaw, most dealers send their oil analysis to an OEM-recommended lab, but there are a number of options available for customized dealer branding. "We can brand the program with the dealer's name and logo on everything from the website to the kits that go out, the quarts that come back, and even to how the phone is answered," said Debshaw. For multibranded dealers this can be an attractive option. Michael Forgeron, president of Analysts Inc., an independent fluid analysis company, sees a direct correlation between the amount of sampling activity at a dealership and the price dealers are charging their customers. "The (continued on next page) July 2013 | Construction Equipment Distribution | www.cedmag.com | 55 54_Fluid_Feature_KP.indd 55 6/27/13 2:20 PM