Baublatt · Garching near Munich

On the hunt for the hidden: that's how oil analysis for construction equipment could be described. To uncover its secrets, you need to examine information about viscosity, water content, and wear and dirt particles in engine, axle, gearbox, and hydraulic oil. That's exactly what klarx, a provider of digital procurement for construction machines and equipment, does—leveraging the expertise of the Zeppelin Oil Lab. This approach has already resulted in savings of 5,028 liters of hydraulic oil this year, which protects the environment and cuts costs.

Is the wear on a construction machine still within acceptable limits? How clean is the hydraulic oil? When should operating fluids, assemblies, and wear parts be replaced? The Zeppelin Oil Lab has provided answers to these questions since 1997, detecting contaminants or deposits caused by friction. These are indicators of potential power loss and reveal information about the wear condition or repair needs of a construction machine.

This comes with concrete instructions for maintaining and repairing equipment or replacing worn parts. This helps customers prevent costly downtime and extend the lifespan of construction machines and their components. And that's a core mission for klarx.

The company operates three logistics centers: in Munich (where headquarters is located), Frankfurt, and Berlin. These stock a wide selection of construction machines from well-known manufacturers, providing customers with exactly the equipment they need for their construction projects. To ensure that all machines—such as mini excavators, wheel loaders, and delta loaders—are ready for deployment at all times, they receive regular inspections as part of service. This includes hydraulic oil changes. But the timing of disposal is crucial, as it affects environmental impact.

That's why Sven Blanke, Service and Warranty Manager at klarx, launched an initial test phase in April 2024 together with the Zeppelin Oil Lab to make maintenance of construction machines in klarx's own logistics centers more efficient, cost-effective, and above all sustainable. The goal was to analyze the hydraulic oil of all 64 Yanmar construction machines from the Munich logistics center. According to klarx, each machine requires between 35 and 100 liters of hydraulic oil. An oil sample was taken from each machine and sent to the Zeppelin Oil Lab. For 27 years, they've been evaluating engine, gearbox, axle, and hydraulic oil as well as coolant and fuel samples—and the volume keeps growing. Today, approximately 140,000 samples are analyzed annually using state-of-the-art laboratory technology.

"We work with incredible precision. Wear elements, additives, and contaminants are all measured in the invisible range and reported in parts per million (ppm)," says Dagmar Welzl, Head of ZOD.

Read the full article in Baublatt

Baublatt

For Germany to achieve climate neutrality by 2045, the country's energy supply needs to be rebuilt. This requires significant investments to expand solar parks. klarx, the leading platform for construction equipment rental in Germany and Austria, has focused on the solar industry. That's why the machine fleet at the klarx logistics center has been expanded with 15 CAT Deltalader type 299D3 units, supplied by the Zeppelin Munich branch.

"For our customers who build and operate solar parks across Germany, this type of construction equipment as a compact tracked loader is a must-have for the job site," says Alessio Pala, who coordinated the investment requirements on behalf of klarx together with Zeppelin new equipment sales representative Wolfgang Brecht and Zeppelin service advisor Ralf Kraemer.

The Deltalader provides the necessary power to handle solar modules with a 1,620-kilogram payload capacity. For transport tasks, the fleet was equipped with pallet forks to move the modules to the assembly location. A bucket, in turn, supports the preparation of the foundation.

Read article on Baublatt (Original article no longer available; Archive at archive.org )