Hytec Fluid Technology (HFT) recently introduced customised service kits tailored for use with heavy-duty equipment and vehicles. These service kits, HFTs latest innovation, provide clients with a choice of OEM or customer-specific consumables for equipment or vehicles in their range. Customised service kits are tailored specifically to its individual clients’ requirements and the kits’ traceability, a standard feature, allows HFT to monitor the kits’ locations and the date it was used. This enables HFT to notify clients when their equipment or vehicle requires a service or service kit replacement.

The service kit contents allow for extended service intervals and vastly reduced filter and oil changes. This makes them an ideal solution to help fleet and equipment owners to reduce their cost of ownership. Using extended service interval (ESI) filters from Fleetguard® and engine oil with extended life means the lifespan of all service kit components are suitable to extend service life (in some cases 1000 hours service intervals have already been achieved). “Essentially, this means that operators use half the air filters and one quarter of the oil and fuel filters compared to most OEM recommendations,” points out Sandor Bottyan, General Manager, HFT.

Service kit contents

The consumables contained in the customised service kits vary per customer. They can include basic filters for every component of the machine or vehicle, such as air, fuel, oil and hydraulic filters. More specific and specialised filters such as cabin air filters, crank case ventilators and air oil separators for compressors are included on request. Other OEM-recommended components that can be included are belt ranges like alternator V-belts and aircon belts, etc. Fleetguard’s organic acid technology (OAT) coolant, a lifelong coolant that, technically, is not required to be drained from the engine or refilled, can also be included.

 “The contents of our customised service kits are kept to a minimum for costing reasons,” explains Bottyan, “and are determined by the type of service the machine is scheduled to undergo.”

Kit traceability

A service kit tracking system that identifies kit quantities and their destination is standard. Each kit has a unique tracking code associated with a data set that identifies the specific machine for which the kit is intended. The tracking system monitors exactly where the kit is at any time and alerts operators and HFT as soon as it is used. “This gives us the ability to notify our customised service kit clients as to when their next service is due,” Bottyan points out. “We develop kits and the data sets in co-operation with clients’ in order to minimise the risk of human error during servicing. This niche offering allows us to meet supply and logistics demands more accurately.”

The customised service kits offering follows on from HFTs complete engine protection mobile offering, which involved a partnership with Cummins Filtration and its Fleetguard® brand in 2015. This partnership resulted in such a positive client take-up that larger premises were needed by HFT. To accommodate this expansion, HFT moved to a new 2 800 m² premises in Spartan, Gauteng in 2017, coinciding with the launch of its customised service kits. The facility chosen also has the capacity that allows HFT to manufacture customised and specific transfer and bulk filtration systems, all of which are available for sale or for onsite hire.

“We are not the only company offering service kits for mobile equipment,” Bottyan concludes, “but we believe we now have one of the best service offerings in this space. We have a thorough understanding of hydraulics and our partners, Cummins Filtration, have more than 50 years’ experience in designing and manufacturing diesel engine filtration products. This partnership allows HFT to provide the best customised servicing and on-board vehicle contamination protection offering possible.”

HFT offers total fluid management solutions for industrial and mobile markets with a comprehensive understanding of hydraulic filtration solutions including oil analysis and contamination monitoring as well as testing and recertifying of hydraulic accumulators with a unique automated accumulator test bench. HFT is a subsidiary of the Hytec Group of Companies, a joint venture with Bosch Rexroth.