Grey drives repair warning

The warning is aimed at production and maintenance managers who use non-official repairers, also known as the grey market, to repair highly sophisticated equipment.

"We estimate that nearly 65% of electronic drive repairs in the UK are completed by non-official repairers,” says Richard Chamberlain, UK service manager at Bosch Rexroth. "The situation in hydraulics is even worse. We estimate that circa 80% of hydraulic repairs are completed by the grey market.”

Chamberlain says that there is a misconception that hydraulic drives are easy to repair with no account taken of which components are used in the repair, or how this may affect any warranties.

"It’s a big issue with hydraulics in particular, because it’s generally a simpler technology that many maintenance engineers believe can be just sent down the road to a grey repairer,” he says. "However, even the simplest repair completed in the grey market could increase the likelihood of a premature failure.”