The 5 Financial Benefits of Purchasing NDT Equipment
Whether to rent, lease or buy NDT equipment is something many business and maintenance managers question. The convenience of a rental agreement can be tempting, with the ease of upgrades as technology advances, included servicing and repairs, plus – of course – no large initial outlay.
However, in many cases, an outright purchase of key NDT assets can have a positive impact on an operation’s bottom line.
1. Logistics
Owning equipment means that it’s always in place and available for use. This removes the related (and often costly) transit costs of getting it to where it needs to be, reducing both the monetary and time aspect. In most industries, the speed that NDT can be achieved directly impacts production and, therefore, profits.
2. Customisation
One of the biggest advantages is that of customisation. This is especially relevant for difficult-to-access assets or those with complex geometry. By customising a product with relevant sensors that are purpose built to suit the common inspections that may be undertaken ensures that your gear is setup optimally for your application whenever needed.
Other examples include additional payloads on crawlers, drones and other inspection vehicles.
3. Inspection Frequency
When equipment is owned it becomes far more cost-effective to flip your maintenance program to a proactive approach. While there are mandatory requirements for asset testing, increasing the regularity allows for more accurate maintenance and repair prediction. In turn, this increases the MTBF (mean time between failures), driving operating costs down. It also dramatically decreases the chances of unexpected breakdowns, repair and serious malfunction incidents – again, this has a positive effect on a business’s bottom line.
4. Familiarity
The training of staff to use NDT equipment can represent considerable costs. Owning equipment means that, once the initial learning process has been covered, the team is primed to use it whenever needed. Only updates to training will need to be ensured, something that’s far less time intensive than constant re-training to use different pieces of equipment.
In turn, becoming familiar with equipment increases user confidence, not to mention honing the ability to capture better and more accurate inspection data.
5. Warranty
Purchasing high-end NDT equipment means that you benefit from a manufacturer’s warranty. These are usually measured in multiple years. In addition, a good procurement company will ensure that customers are trained to be fully competent in how to best use the product, help with set-up and the initial uses, as well as offering robust customer service for any post-purchase questions that might arise.
Companies can also take advantage of any local, regional or national tax incentives on offer to further monetise the necessary expense of NDT equipment.
Today’s technology has brought incredible advances to the field of maintenance, testing and repairs. With an overarching industrial lean towards leasing or renting NDT assets, the advantages of purchasing can often be overlooked.
At Nexxis, our extensive industry experience means we work with you to define what’s best for your business needs. From the above-mentioned Snowcat crawler to vertical inspection cameras and other key pieces of equipment, honing the right procurement model can represent considerable financial benefits.
Contact us to find out more about NDT equipment or any of our other inspection products, or request a quote online.
You might also find this useful: Is Proactive NDT Inspection the Key to Great Asset Management?
