Credit crunch drives market for hired instruments
05/09/2008
The current economic climate does not seem to have affected the market for instrument hire – Ashtead Technology Rentals reports a 'boom in demand' over the last few months as oil prices rise, house prices fall and the economic forecast becomes ever gloomier.Ashtead rents instruments for environmental monitoring, for health and safety checking, for testing materials in construction and manufacture, and for remote visual inspection in a wide variety of industries.
One might suspect that worries with the economy might force businesses to cut back on all expenditure, but as Ashtead's General Manager James Carlyle says: "Nervousness and uncertainty certainly causes companies to reduce or delay capital expenditure. However, testing, monitoring and inspection work is vital for a number of reasons including regulatory compliance, quality control, health and safety, and environmental protection. So, even in difficult times, this work still has to take place and be undertaken using appropriate technology.
"It follows, therefore, that there should be a move to instrument rental rather than purchase as renting lowers financial risk and frees valuable capital.
"Of course this applies in normal market conditions, but in times of recession businesses examine their cost structure more closely than usual and quickly draw the conclusion that renting will help put them in a stronger position to weather any potential storm."
A further reason for the growth in instrument rental is growth in the market itself; Ashtead has seen a steady trend away from instrument purchase to rental for the financial reasons outlined above, in addition to an expansion in demand for particular instruments employed in environmental monitoring, occupational hygiene and quality control.
Health and Safety at Work Regulations require employers and self-employed people to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks for all work activities for the purpose of deciding what measures are necessary for safety.
For example, in confined spaces the HSE advises: 'It may be necessary to check that air is free from both toxic and flammable vapours and that it is fit to breathe. Testing should be carried out by a competent person using a suitable gas detector which is correctly calibrated.'
Ashtead's fleet of instruments for health and safety assessments includes toxic gas detectors, particulate monitors, HVAC monitors, and instruments for the measurement of noise and vibration. These instruments come from world leading manufacturers such as RAE, BW Technologies, TSI Instruments, Thermo, Quest and Casella.
Companies with emissions to the environment have to comply with a raft of regulations that relate to the management of waste and emissions to air, land and water. Compliance inevitably involves monitoring with the most appropriate technology; this may involve the purchase of on-line monitors, but frequently necessitates an initial assessment followed by regular spot checks, so renting provides an opportunity to do so without investment in expensive instrumentation. It also enables process operators to deploy the best available technology whenever they need it.
Ashtead's range of environmental monitoring instruments includes water quality and flow monitors, meteorological equipment, particulate and gas monitoring instruments for stacks and chimneys, ambient monitors and portable instruments for the assessment of gases, vapours and contamination in soil and landfill sites.
These instruments are drawn from leading manufacturers such as YSI, Horiba, Sick Bernath, Casella, Innov-X and Geotechnical Instruments.
The inspection and maintenance of manufacturing and processing plant is vitally important for existing equipment, particularly when capital expenditure budgets are under pressure. Working lives may be extended and this places an increased emphasis on inspection procedures.
Rented instruments from Ashtead enable the accurate assessment of plant condition. For example, infrared cameras from leading manufacturer Flir are commonly employed in the inspection of equipment with moving parts because the temperature of a component will usually rise before it fails. Similarly, high-speed cameras from Olympus enable the inspection of high-speed manufacturing processes such as a tin can production line, and Olympus endoscopes simplify the internal inspection of equipment such as engines or cooling towers.
In summary, as house builders, manufacturers and high street shops start to experience a fall in turnover, Ashtead's instrument rental business is joining the ranks of those that can help ease the burden of a credit crunch.
