Baublatt · Garching bei München

On the hunt for hidden information: that's how you could describe the analysis of construction equipment oil. Anyone who wants to uncover its secrets must have information about its viscosity, the presence of water, and wear and contaminant particles from engine, axle, gearbox and hydraulic oil examined. This is exactly what klarx, a provider of digital procurement of construction machinery and equipment, does, utilizing the expertise of the Zeppelin Oil Lab. This has already resulted in savings of 5,028 liters of hydraulic oil this year, which benefits both the environment and reduces costs.

Is the wear of a construction machine still within acceptable limits? How clean is the hydraulic oil? When should operating fluids, aggregates and wear parts be replaced? The Zeppelin Oil Lab has been providing answers to these questions since 1997, detecting contamination or deposits caused by wear. These are an indicator of potential performance loss and also allow conclusions to be drawn about the wear condition or repair needs of construction equipment.

This is linked to specific action instructions for maintaining and repairing equipment or renewing wear parts. This helps customers prevent costly downtime and extend the service life of construction machinery and their components. And this is a central concern of klarx.

The company operates three logistics centers of its own: in Munich, where the company headquarters is also located, Frankfurt and Berlin. A wide selection of construction machinery from well-known manufacturers is available there to provide customers with exactly the equipment they need for their construction projects. To ensure that all equipment such as mini excavators, wheel loaders and delta loaders are ready for use by customers at all times, they receive regular inspections as part of the service. This also includes hydraulic oil changes. However, the timing of disposal is crucial and has an impact on environmental pollution.

That's why in April 2024, Sven Blanke, Service and Warranty Manager at klarx, started an initial test phase together with the Zeppelin Oil Lab to make the maintenance of construction equipment in klarx's own logistics centers more efficient, cost-effective and, above all, more sustainable. The focus was on analyzing 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, engine, gearbox, axle and hydraulic oils as well as coolant and fuel samples have been evaluated there – and the numbers have been steadily increasing. Meanwhile, approximately 140,000 samples are analyzed annually using modern 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.

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For Germany to become climate-neutral by 2045, the German energy supply must be restructured. This requires substantial investments to expand and develop solar parks. klarx, the leading platform for renting construction machinery in Germany and Austria, has focused on the solar industry. As a result, the machine fleet in the klarx logistics center has been expanded by 15 CAT Deltalader models 299D3, which were supplied by the Zeppelin Munich branch.

"For our customers who build and operate solar parks throughout Germany, this type of construction machine is a must-have on the job site as a compact tracked loader," says Alessio Pala, who coordinated the investment requirements at klarx together with Zeppelin new machine 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 has been equipped with pallet forks to move the modules to the installation site. A bucket, in turn, supports the creation of the subgrade.

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