Mechanical Technology — May 2013
9
⎪
Industry forum
⎪
In brief
Andrew Mentis has embarked on the local
manufacture of a new European approved and
crash tested modular guardrail system called
EASYRAIL, under licence from
Volkmann &
Rossbach
a German company. This makes it
the first guardrail of its type to be manufactured
in South Africa for use on local highways and
secondary roads.
The installation by
Flexible Conveyor Systems
of a FlexLink
®
Wedge conveyor, the first of
its kind in sub-Sahara Africa, has increased
production and realised significant savings
within only two short months for private South
African pharmaceutical company, Mirren (Pty)
Limited, based in Gauteng.
ACTOM
Air Pollution Control is more than
halfway with the erection of the first of three
bag houses in its current contract for the
control of emissions from the new rotary
dryer and two new kilns that form part of the
Phase 2 smelter expansion project at Xstrata’s
Lion Ferrochrome complex near Steelpoort in
Mpumalanga.
First National Battery
has made a paradigm
shift from the traditional lead-acid battery for-
mation process (the first time charging of a bat-
tery) with the introduction of acid recirculation
technology for the formation of truck batteries
and traction batteries for forklifts and mining
locomotives, as well as for the formation of
solar and gel batteries. This green production
process is now in use at two of its factories in
South Africa.
Wear control specialist
Filter Focus
has re-
cently designed and launched its proprietary
Vacuum Dehydrator system with the main aim
of combating the effects of emulsified, free and
dissolved water in oil.
Proudly sponsored by
Mitsubishi SA
, Rhino
Force’s red, black and white beaded brace-
lets have raised R4,6-million towards saving
rhino’s, making them SA’s best-selling rhino
accessory.
Atlas Copco
, with the launch of responsive de-
sign for its websites, has moved a step further
towards providing customers and other stake-
holders with an optimal and efficient viewing
experience on a wide range of computers and
mobile technologies: from PCs to tablets and
smartphones.
As part of celebrations to mark the Golden
Jubilee of the Organisation of African Unity,
which is now the African Union
(AU)
the
New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD)
Agency, in partnership with the
Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural
Cooperation
(CTA)
, is inviting entries for pho-
tos and essays on Youth, Women and Rural
Agricultural Development.
The South African manufacturing sec-
tor will receive a huge boost from July
2014 when more than 500 toolmak-
ers, with an internationally accred-
ited, government certified toolmaking
qualification, become available to the
sector. “The manufacturing and the
supporting tool, die and mouldmaking
industries are currently struggling with
serious skills shortages,” says Ron Ma-
cLarty, the outgoing chairperson of the
Toolmaking Association of South Africa
(TASA) at its annual general meeting.
“213 apprentices are currently being
trained as part of the TDM Powered
Foundation Phase and Apprentice-
ship Programmes, and through the
efforts of the National Tooling Initiative
Vukile Property Fund, together with
managing agent Broll Property Group,
have accessed the expertise of consult-
ing engineering group Royal Haskoning-
DHV (formerly SSI) to carry out an HVAC
plant room upgrade at their Suncardia
property in Arcadia, Pretoria – a project
that will save the owners an estimated
R400 000 per annum in combined
energy and maintenance costs.
Project manager and principle as-
sociate mechanical engineer Casper Vos
explains the details of the project. “Royal
HaskoningDHV – then SSI – designed the
original HVAC and chiller plant installa-
tion for the Suncardia building in 1989,
one of several we have designed for this
client. The scope of the upgrade consists
of replacing the three existing York chill-
ers with a new air cooled chiller, which
includes demolishing 24 glycol filled
ice storage tanks, two cooling towers
and replacing four centrifugal pumps, a
heat exchanger, ±400 m of pipe work
and the rebalancing of the entire chilled
water system,” he says. “The three York
chillers used to serve the ice storage
system, but that was decommissioned a
couple of years ago due to maintenance
issues. A water cooled screw chiller was
then installed to replace the ice storage
system. This upgrade will see the new air
cooled chiller installed in series with the
existing water cooled chiller to achieve
the required cooling capacity,” Casper
explains.
“All our design decisions are driven
by sustainability and maximising ef-
ficiencies of plant and equipment,” he
R400-k/y payback from HVAC plant
The HVAC plant room upgrade of the Sun-
cardia property in Arcadia, Pretoria will
save the owners an estimated R400 000
per year in combined energy and mainte-
nance costs.
adds. “This upgrade will result in the
client achieving substantial electrical
and maintenance cost savings on the
HVAC installation, and the estimated
total project payback period is less than
10 years.
Programme (NTIP), a wholly owned
TASA company, an additional 332 ap-
prentices started with training in April
2013. This brings the total number
of apprentices in Gauteng in 2013 to
545, and nationally to over 1200,” he
reveals, adding that direct funding on
the TDM Powered Skills Development
Programme to date is R110-million.
“All the TDM Powered apprentices
were placed with companies for train-
ing in 2012 and the feedback has been
very positive. The apprentices are high
potential candidates and year on year
retention rates is in excess of 80%,
which is well above the international
standard,” says MacLarty.
Boost For SA’s manufacturing sector
