Maamba, Southern Province
Maamba is Zambia’s main coal operation and the site of a thermal power station fed by it, in Southern Province. Coal handling and power generation put tooling into abrasive dust and high-temperature plant, and a power station’s outage schedule is even less negotiable than a mine’s shutdown calendar.
Served on planned visits from Trackcor’s Zambian base.
Outage work has a fixed window
A generating unit out of service is measured in megawatt hours, not maintenance hours. Everything that can be certified before an outage should be, because the window does not extend to accommodate a tool that turned up out of calibration.
Coal dust is also unusually hard on pneumatic and electric tooling, which draws it straight into the motor. Servicing intervals that suit a metal mine are usually too long here.
Services delivered at Maamba
- Pre-outage calibration and certification of the tooling fleet
- Servicing intervals set for abrasive dust conditions
- Hydraulic torque wrench, cylinder and jack repair and load testing
- Onsite calibration on planned visits
- Operator training and hazard recognition
Common questions
Does coal dust need shorter service intervals?
For pneumatic and electric tooling, usually yes. Abrasive dust goes straight into the motor and the air path, and an interval set for a metal mine will be too long.