Industry: Diamond Cutting & Polishing Works
Location: Navanakhorn, approximately 50 Km north of Bangkok, Thailand
Circumstances: During the Thailand floods in October, 2011, a diamond processing facility was inundated with flood water and silt to a depth of approximately 2 meters. All production and workshop equipment was totally submerged. This consisted of several hundred diamond cutting, shaping and polishing machines, each with its own specialized electric motor.
- As this equipment has a near zero tolerance level for vibration and lateral movement, IRS carried out a test decontamination/repair on one of each type of production machine.
- Based on results of trial decontamination all units were removed from the flood damaged facility and repaired by IRS.
- All motors were completely over-hauled and tested.
- Workshop equipment such as diamond saws, balancing machines, etc. were removed to IRS’ facility and repaired.
- Approximately 70% of the equipment was successfully restored to its original functionality. Unrecoverable equipment had suffered severe corrosion and due to their application these units have zero tolerance level for movement and vibration.
- In excess of US$700,000 saved by recovering machinery instead of replacing.
- As most machinery was imported more than 4 months of disruption avoided by recovering rather than replacing machinery.