May 2011
Invention, innovation and proper engineering
Do our readers know what the greatest invention of all time is? The editor, Peter Middleton, was stumped by this impressive question from his 11-year old daughter, and felt it a matter of shame that he hadn't thought about it previously.
"I muttered some tentative responses, all prefixed by the word ‘maybe': the wheel, obviously; the telescope, as the key to unlocking space exploration; the light bulb at the starting point of electricity; the sewing machine, because I thought it was a trigger for the industrial revolution; and the steam engine, as the beginning of the link between combustion processes and all kinds of modern engines. There was no obvious perfect fit, though," he says.
But where there is doubt there is interest, so he did some googling and got a very large number of hits. Tesco Mobile, for example, a UK based cellphone company carried out a survey of 4 000 consumers. The wheel was number 1, the light bulb number 3, but none of my others made it into the top 10. The steam engine is in at number 17, with the combustion engine at 10, but neither the telescope nor the sewing machine make the top 100; and the iPhone at eight and Facebook at 83 make you wonder about the credibility of public opinion.
He found a more sensible response by somebody called Jim Watson senior, who categorises important inventions into four areas: transportation (wheel-wagon / locomotive /automobile / airplane / jets / space tech); communication, (printing press / mail-post office / telegraph / telephone / radio / television / internet-computer); mechanisation / power (steam power and coal engines / electric engines / combustion engines / nuclear power); and medical (medicine - antibiotics, cardiovascular / surgical procedures / obstetrics / gynaecology / psychology). "Inventions and developments along these four lines have propelled our society to the greatest extent," says Watson.
"I suspect that my selection of the steam engine as a top invention of all time had a lot to do with ADEPT Airmotive, a company that is being talked about wherever I seem to go because of its innovative new general aviation engine. The ADEPT 320T General Aviation Engine has just won the 2010 SABS Design Excellence award in the category: Engineering, Transport and Mining and the SABS Chairman's award for the overall most-outstanding product development for the 2010 year. This, on top of the Autodesk 2008 International Inventor of the Year award that the company won for the 320T engine, a few years back," Peter says.
While nobody should be surprised that South African engineers are capable of invention, it is wonderful that we have produced a first-of-a-kind design in the commercial aviation field, a design so suited to modern imperatives that it would be difficult to imagine how it could fail to become the industry benchmark in years to come.
Several of the engine's modern features depend on precision manufacturing techniques, and in designing these high levels of precision into the engine and then choosing only South African development partners, Adept Airmotive has empathically expressed its faith in the general engineering ability of the nation. This, without sacrificing its intentions to supply the most cost-effective GA engine solution available anywhere in the world.
As Rory Sharp of Rost Precision Engineering points out, achieving precision is a combination of practical, simple and proper engineering. It requires an inventive spirit, a combination of confidence, determination and a willingness to explore the new. Ephraim Seteke of Sappi Saicccor, with his determination to make best use of new technology to monitor, publicise and manage the state-of-health of the Saiccor Mill, Martin Walt of Elite Mining and Eugene Tondolo of Axiom Hydraulics, who are replacing mechanical drive trains with hydraulic ones, are other examples of successful South Africans with this spirit.
"At the heart of invention is creativity, bringing something into being that did not exist before. And the great inventions have got to be those that inseminate a multitude of other new things. I like to think that the ADEPT engine has the steam engine as its great, great ancestor - and I am certain that its forefathers would be proud," Peter adds.
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In this issue
This month, our special report looks at Audodesk’s Product Design Suite 2012 – the company’s complete set of digital prototyping design solutions. MechTech visits Modena Design Centres, the leading and most successful Autodesk reseller in SA.
MechTech’s proactive maintenance, lubrication and contamination management feature leads with the nerve system of the Sappi Saicor mill, a country-wide proactive maintenance effort that has a major effect on decision-making and plant availability throughout the group. MechTech visits Sappi Saicor’s mill in Umkomaas, 50 km south of Durban.
In materials handling and logistics, we talk to Martin Waldt, Elite Mining’s design engineer and Eugene Tondolo of Axiom Hydraulics, on the way they are revolutionising the manner in which underground chair lifts and rope conveyors are driven – by removing the mechanical drive train and replacing it with an hydraulic alternative.
In our main feature article in heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning, we talk to Samsung Air’s Christo Schlechter, about the release of DVM Plus IV – a fourth-generation variable refrigerant flow system with industry-leading energy efficiency, and the company’s A-rated DC inverter split console units.
For our manufacturing technology and plant automation feature, we visit Kumba Iron Ore’s newly-commisioned automated ore sampling facility in Saldanha. Commissioned in the latter part of 2010 and into 2011, the new fully-automated sampling plant at the Saldanha iron ore terminal will enable exporters to have the physical and chemical qualities of iron ore products certified before they are loaded for export.
Innovative engineering features a visit by Peter Middleton to Rost Precision Engineering in Hennopspark, Centurion. This company is one of the manufacturing partners for ADEPT Airmotive’s groundbreaking aviation engine and has played a major role in transforming the design into an economically manufacturable end product.
Features for June:
• Pump systems, pipes, valves and seals
• Robotics, mechatronics and automation
• Power, energy and energy management
• Modern transport and vehicle solutions
• Innovative engineering
In July we'll be covering:
• Power transmissions, bearings and bushes
• Computer-aided engineering
• Modern engineering materials and processing
• Hydraulic and pneumatic systems
• Innovative engineering
