sparks
ELECTRICAL NEWS
october 2014
contractors’ corner
11
THE restoration andmodernisation of old electrical equipment to
‘as new’status is associatedwith significant cost savings and Impala
Platinum recently approachedMarthinusen & Coutts to refurbish
threeminewinders for a new shaft being established.
The scope of work comprisedmajor repairs to two AEG 3 850 kW
minewinders and one Siemens 4 085 kWwinder, whichwere all pre-
viously owned by another mining company. Marthinusen & Coutts
collected the threewinders from themine site and carried out the
repair and refurbishment at its state-of-the-art facility in Cleveland,
Johannesburg.
“These aremassiveminewinders,”Mike Chamberlain, Marthinusen
& Coutts’marketing executive, says.“The Siemens unit is 4m in diam-
eter and the AEGwinders slightly smaller with 3.5mdiameters. All
three units were extremely complex to assess and it was a challenge
tomanufacture all the new spares and replacement parts required.
Restoring electrical equipment to ‘as new’ status
There were literally thousands of different parts, which called for a
great deal of attention to detail and specialist reverse engineering.
It has also been a major task to document and control the status of
all these parts.”Repair work on the AEGwinders includes restoration
of the field frames, field and interpole coil replacement, damper bar
replacements and re-insulation, as well as gang connector and field
pole connector replacements.
The armatures on both winders were also completely rewound.
Chamberlain says that refurbishing the mine winder motors instead
of purchasing newmotors could save the customers up to 70% of
a newmine winder cost, plus the lead time for completion of the
project can be substantially reduced. The company will also assist
the mine personnel with connecting and commissioning the equip-
ment on site.
Enquiries: +27 11 607 1700
IANMcKechnie, MD of specialist consultants and
forensic engineers INNOPRO says lightning safety
and lightning protection is a topic that is often
misunderstood, with inappropriate management,
strategies, techniques andmethodologies being
applied as a result.“The consequential effects can be
severe, both in terms of direct effects and injuries,
and in respect of indirect and consequential impacts,
including on lost production and other effects,”
he warns.
“The appropriate application of effective lightning
safety and lightning protection strategies and solu-
tions for infrastructure, industry and other sectors is
therefore of critical importance,”he says.
With this inmind, speciality leaders INNOPRO are
presenting their updated one-day industry-briefing
seminar on
‘Best Practices in Lightning Safety and
Lightning Protection of Structures and Systems’
in
Centurion and Durban in October 2014.
Seminars will be held in Centurion (Gauteng) on
2 October 2014 and in Durban on 30 October 2014.
The seminars will be presented by Ian Jandrell and
Ian McKechnie, both directors of Innopro. Ian Jandrell
is also a personal professor, CBI-electric Professor of
Lightning, and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering
and the Built Environment, at the University of the
Witwatersrand. Ian McKechnie is also an Honor-
ary Research Fellow in the School of Electrical and
Information Engineering at the University of the
Witwatersrand.
These seminars are validated for Continuing Profes-
sional Development (CPD) with the Engineering
Council of South Africa (ECSA) by the South African
Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) and attendees
will earn one credit in the compulsory Category 1.
McKechnie notes that the briefing seminars are
aimed at industry practitioners at all levels and will
be beneficial to persons involved in the design/en-
gineering, management, operation, insurance, risk
assessment and/or maintenance of infrastructure
and systems that can be affected or influenced by
lightning and related electromagnetic interference.
He added that health and safety practitioners and
other persons responsible for safety at facilities and
activities will also find the seminar beneficial.
Limited space is available at the seminars and pre-
booking is essential. More information and registra-
tion forms are available from
and on the Innopro website at
Enquiries: +27 12 663 4804
Best practices in
lightning safety and
lightning protection
seminars
