AFRICAN FUSION—MARCH2014
32
Open day at Renttech
W
ith a long history of success in the South African
rentalmarket, Renttech’s equipment offering now
includes 22 recognised brands of welding, lifting
and rigging equipment, as well as a comprehensive range
of industrial generators, electrical power tools, welding
consumables and construction-related equipment. “We
are the leading distributors of Harris soldering and brazing
gas cutting andwelding products, the largest distributor of
Lincoln Electric products and, through SAWelding (SAW),
can offer an impressive range of specialised welding solu-
tions,” says van Zyl. “We are also proud to be associated
with names such as: Kelmeg Lifting Services (KLS) for top
class rigging and lifting equipment, UniPower, for welding
machines and industrial generators; andUniArc forwelding
accessories,” he adds.
The rental business, along with the company's national
distributioncentre,will continue tobemanaged from thecom-
pany’s 9000m
2
under roof facilitywith 17000m
2
of yard
space inWadeville, Germiston. “Until 2007/2008, wewere
a rental drivenbusiness and,with over 1000 generator sets
and 4 000 welding inverters, we have one of largest rental
fleets forwelding inSouthAfrica.Wehavenowdedicated the
Wadeville facility as a rental repair workshop for all welding
related equipment – gas equipment, engine-drivenwelders,
welding inverters anddiesel generators, for example – and it
also servesasour nationalwarehouseanddistributioncentre
for rentals and sales,” he explains.
Thenew facility, openedduringDecember andeffectively
operational from1January2014, expresses the recent shift in
the core business of the company. “75% of current business
is now sales,” reports van Zyl. “This new facility has been
chosen to reflect that. It centralisesall ourGauteng salesand
marketing functions and serves as a new face of Renttech.
Wehave incorporatedashowroom, alongwithawalk-in retail
sales outlet and a suite of customer friendly offices,meeting
rooms, training and demonstration facilities so that we can
service the broad and day-to-day needs of customers across
the region,”heexplains.Thenewpremises,which finalise the
integration of SAWelding’s Benoni office into Renttech, will
also serve as the tender base for all SouthAfrican contracts.
“Spartan is easilyaccessible for clients, our sales teams, and
for shipping toour other offices in the country,” says vanZyl.
Building on its rental expertise, it was a natural exten-
sion for Renttech to start selling capital equipment: welding
machines, engine drives and diesel generators. “We began
with offering our own UniPower product range,” continues
Bester. “These welding machines all use inverter technol-
ogy, but because of our rental experience, we persuaded the
original manufacturers to improve their designs. The duty
cycles are nowmuch higher and the quality, reliability and
lifecyclesmore suited to long term rental use,” he suggests.
“In thepetrochemical industry, for example, our traditional
strength, it is not uncommon for a welding machine to see
power spikes of up to 575 V. Also, the mining and on site
work environment is very dusty.
“UniPower now customises machines for our South
African rental customers. We have enlarged the heatsinks,
increased the airflow, moved the PC boards away from the
bottom of the machine and isolated them from the airflow,
so that nodust canpass over or settle on the electronics. On
thesupplyvoltageside, themachinesswitchautomatically to
accommodate voltage fluctuations of up to25% up or down
from the 525 Vmean supply,” adds van Zyl.
At an open day at its new Spartan
facilities, Renttech showcased its
new face for Gauteng: a 2 500m
2
customer-friendly centralised sales,
marketing and service facility
with awalk-in sales outlet and
showroom.
African Fusion
talks to
Gerrit van Zyl, managing director,
and Johann Bester, welding
product manager.
Renttech’s zero downtime
weldingmodel
Renttech's JohanBester, welding product manager andGerrit van Zyl,
the company'smanaging director.
The new facility, which incorporates a showroom and a walk-in retail sales outlet,
serves as a new face for Renttech.
