Food Processing - November 2007 - (Page 37)

The savings can be short-term when replacing OEM parts and assemblies with ones of questionable origin. – By Bob McDougall, Contributing Editor Risky business: parts Counterfeit and fake There are numerous and increasing challenges to food processors these days. Bad replacement parts for your machines shouldn’t be one of them. counterfeit parts, also known as fakes, bandits or tramps, are typically new or replacement parts that are deceptive in some fashion. They may be sold separately or incorporated into assemblies or fabrications offered for sale. They may be passed off as the real thing or may be openly offered to food plant managers as “just as good as the original equipment manufacturer’s (oem’s) parts – but at lower cost.” counterfeit parts may be falsely branded, imperfectly manufactured or refurbished, carry unearned certifications or quality designations and be poorly tested – if tested at all. They may be visibly different from legitimate parts, or they may appear identical. They may work satisfactorily or they may fail disastrously, harming operators or damaging equipment or facilities. They may compromise products or processes, and seriously impair consumer safety. They’re a “crap shoot,” according to one oem, and they are on the increase. counterfeiting and piracy of all kinds cost the u.s. economy $200-250 billion annually, according to the anti-counterfeiting and Piracy initiative of the national chamber Foundation, u.s. chamber of commerce. This is almost one-third of such losses worldwide. estimates of resulting american job losses approach 750,000. “organized crime thrives on counterfeiting,” ronald noble, secretary general of interpol, has been quoted as saying. given the near-universal availability of reputable branded and warranted parts, the only reason for the existence of fakes is financial. someone somewhere in the supply chain is making www.foodprocessing.com an inflated profit through misrepresentation or someone else is trying to save a buck. in most cases, the reasons they are cheaper are inferior performance and reduced safety. The results can range from increased downtime to personnel dangers – and in all cases where they are discovered, counterfeit parts void equipment warranties, some even retroactively. “in our business, we see both counterfeit and non-oem replacement parts,” says Brad gillispie, national sales manager-aftermarket in the santa Fe, Texas, office of sPX Process equipment (www.spxprocessequipment.com), which supplies such food industry products as Waukesha cherry-Burrell pumps and valves and lightnin mixers. “some fabricators will try to reverse-engineer and duplicate our parts. They can get close, but they don’t truly duplicate them. The parts are lacking in something – tolerances, material specification, hardness – and all those things have a lot to do with performance. “one customer we have here in Texas was using local shops for repairs and noticed they weren’t getting the life expectancy they should have out of their gearboxes,” gillispie continues. “They called us in and we found it was because of counterfeit parts. What they saved on those parts was not enough to cover the more frequent gearbox repairs.” Fakes are everywhere The ideal part to fake is a high-cost item the value of which lies in some character or property not visible to the eye. components with complex heat treatments, specialty machining tolerances, exhaustive testing certification and expensive compounds or alloys all present ideal opportunities for counterfeiting. noVemBer 2007 food processing • 37 http://www.spxprocessequipment.com http://WWW.FOODPROCESSING.COM

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Food Processing - November 2007 Contents Editor's Page NewsBites Regulatory Rollout Food Biz Kids Our Favorite Products of 2007 Ingredients Product Development Plant Operations Packaging New Product Profiles Toops Scoops

Food Processing - November 2007

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