Courtesy Photo | The Zutendaal Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 maintenance team hosted members of the Dutch...... read more read more
ZUTENDAAL, Belgium – The Zutendaal Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 maintenance team hosted members of the Dutch Ministry of Defense March 19 to observe a grease winch machine demonstration and assist their Dutch counterparts with making an informed decision on incorporating the machine at the Eygelshoven APS-2 worksite in the Netherlands as a best practice.
Guy Vossen said the Zutendaal team started using the grease winch machine about a year and a half ago. The site safety officer said the machine lubricates the winch cable on a wrecker or a tow vehicle more efficiently than doing it by hand and better prevents safety violations and potential injuries.
If there are any small, frayed cable fibers protruding from the winch cable, even when wearing thick gloves while lubricating the cable with grease, a puncture wound could occur, said Vossen. Plus, the grease winch machine is more efficient and more effective in ensuring the cable is fully lubricated than doing it by hand.
“The idea originated in the safety lane a couple of years ago because of issues with greasing the winch cables by hand. I pushed for the purchase of this machine to help make the work safer. Now we are demonstrating it for our Dutch partners from Egelshoven so they can make an informed decision on purchasing one for their worksite,” Vossen said.
During the demonstration, the Dutch maintainers from APS-2 Eygelshoven observed the Belgian maintainers from APS-2 Zutendaal operate the grease winch machine as they connected a large forklift to the winch of an APS-2 wheeled tow vehicle at the site.
Vossen said the Dutch maintainers who observed the demonstration, and in some case took part, seemed quite enthusiastic. He said he believes they will likely purchase a grease winch machine for their worksite, as well.
“For me it’s about safety. It's a risk to grease the winch cable by hand, even while wearing special gloves. It’s possible that metal frays from the cable can penetrate the gloves and cause an injury,” Vossen said. “If this occurs – with the partially rusted and contaminated winch cable, the grease, and the open wound – of course the injury is likely to be more severe, to be prone to infection. I wanted to move people away from that scenario and make the process safer. That's what this machine does.”
“The second part is efficiency,” said Vossen. “When using this machine, the lubrication process goes much quicker and doesn't consume as many man hours. It automatically cleans and lubricates, and it places the lubricant much deeper into the winch cable. When you apply it by hand, you cannot apply as much force as you can with the air pressure, so the quality of the lubrication process using the grease winch machine is much greater.”
The grease winch machine demonstration between the two APS-2 sites is one of many activities and missions they collaborate on. Both workforces – the Belgian local national employees from Zutendaal and the Dutch Ministry of Defense employees from Eygelshoven – fall under the mission command of Army Field Support Battalion-Benelux.
Responsible for the two APS-2 worksites, AFSBn-Benelux is one of four battalions assigned to the 405th Army Field Support Brigade. AFSBn-Benelux is charged with providing and coordinating receipt, transfer, storage and maintenance of APS-2 at the Zutendaal and Eygelshoven worksites as well as at Equipment Configuration and Hand-off Areas, or ECHAs, during contingency operations or training exercises throughout Europe.
The 405th AFSB’s APS-2 program enhances U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s readiness and capability to support the warfighter while simultaneously promoting stability and security in the region. By providing turn-key power projection APS-2 packages ready to deploy at a moment’s notice, the APS-2 program is a key component of U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s power projection and warfighter readiness missions.
The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The brigade provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging the U.S. Army Materiel Command materiel enterprise to support joint forces. For more information on the 405th AFSB, visit the official website at www.afsbeurope.army.mil and the official Facebook site at www.facebook.com/405thAFSB.
| Date Taken: | 03.27.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.27.2025 08:34 |
| Story ID: | 493833 |
| Location: | ZUTENDAAL, LIMBURG (VLG), BE |
| Hometown: | EYGELSHOVEN, LI, NL |
| Web Views: | 37 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Zutendaal APS-2 team demonstrates new equipment for Dutch Ministry of Defense partners, by Cameron Porter, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
