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Heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning
⎪
Mechanical Technology — August 2013
31
J
eremy Pougnet (right), CEO of
Booyco Engineering says the
company is steadily consoli-
dating its position as a market
leader in custom engineered air con-
ditioning systems for both military and
railway applications.
“Our strength lies in the depth of ex-
perience and technological applications
knowledge within our technical team,”
says Pougnet. “This invaluable pooled
resource allows us to participate on an
international platform, while bringing
a robust cost leadership strategy to
the table.
“Booyco Engineering’s speed and
flexibility in responding to client queries
and crafting innovative solutions gives
us a definite edge in the global market
when competing against the more
cumbersome international corpora-
tions. Another market differentiator is
our extensive reference base of custom
engineered units which have been
field-proven to be reliable and which
continue to perform under exceptionally
tough conditions. Effectively, we are
small and nimble enough to negotiate
a path quickly and efficiently through
specific application requirements.”
Established in 1985, Booyco En-
gineering was originally exclusively
focused on developing tailor-made air
conditioning solutions for the military.
Until 1989, when the company extend-
ed its offering to include the rail sector.
“There are common denominators
between the requirements of military
and railway sector companies,” Pougnet
says. “For instance, the operational re-
quirements for customers in both these
sectors call for higher levels of shock
and vibration than most other automo-
tive engineering applications. Another
commonality is operating temperature
– military vehicles and locomotives both
operate in areas of extreme tempera-
ture, from aggressive summer heat to
below freezing winter lows.
“Every application requires a custom
Bringing a ‘robust cost leadership strategy’ to the table
Processes within Booyco Engineering conform to the requirements of
ISO 9001:2008 and all products are performance tested and certified to
ensure compliance with the relevant specifications. Components for the
company’s air conditioning systems are selected to deliver high levels
of reliability under extremes of shock and vibration, dust burden,
temperature and humidity.
Booyco Engineering is steadily consolidating its
position as a market leader in custom engineered air
conditioning systems for both military and railway
applications.
designed air con-
ditioning system.
Although we draw
from experience
and tap into our
extensive design
library, in almost
three decades in
business we have yet to sell a solution
for an installation that was originally
developed for another application.
“Reliability is of absolute importance
and although we cut our teeth on mili-
tary applications, it has been our work
for the railway sector that has really
taught about innovating systems that
deliver the required performance levels
24 hours a day. Railway locomotives
run almost continuously and in this en-
vironment, any reliability issues quickly
come to the fore.”
He adds that it is becoming the
norm in the rolling stock arena to dis-
cuss performance in terms of a Mean
Time Between Failures (MTBF) of
25 000 hours. This has become a real-
ity not only through a better understand-
ing of the factors surrounding reliability,
but also because these factors are being
adequately addressed by harnessing
improved analytical techniques.
Completely different level
“In tandem with a dramatic growth
in local industry, we’re being asked to
undertake increasingly sophisticated
projects that have required us to come
up with ever more technically advanced
solutions,” Pougnet continues. “Today
we’re operating at a completely different
level to when we started out. We’re now
exporting to major defence contractors
around the globe and have enjoyed
notable successes with military exports
to Singapore and Europe.
“In terms of the railway sector,
we’re proud to have exported our air
conditioning systems to the largest
locomotive manufacturer in the USA,
as well as to locomotive manufacturers
in China and Asia Pacific. Our current
corporate objective is to make it onto
the approved lists of the major rolling
stock builders globally and with a track
record of successful business dealings
with companies all over the world, we’re
confident that we can achieve this.”
Booyco Engineering is pursuing a
strategy of courting appropriate contrac-
tors in other parts of the world with a
view to establishing strategic alliances
or joint ventures. This will ensure that
the company is able to support its
products in their destination territories.
“We’re differentiated locally and
internationally by our core competen-
cies of design and engineering, under-
pinned by a cost leadership approach
to engineering,” says Pougnet. “Booyco
Engineering markets an engineering
solution, not just a standard product.
These are not commodity products –
they are high end engineered solutions
to specific operating parameters and
requirements including size, shape, and
power supply.
“By definition therefore, there is a
need for companies like ours, which
have the uncommon ability to create a
unique solution for unique requirements
– while also fulfilling all the qualifica-
tions steps required to be able to deliver
an approved product.
“Procedurally, we make use of strin-
gent home grown methodologies that
have evolved over the past decades
to be in line with first world customer
requirements.”
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