African Fusion visits SAIW Members, Eduardo Construction (EC) and the EBS Training Academy (EBS) in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga, and talks to Adelio Oliveira, technical manager for EC, and Johan Sack and Kobus Pieterse, the MD and Training manager of EBS, respectively.
Click to download and read pdf
Eduardo Rodrigues, the visionary behind all the Eduardo Group companies, was one of the highly skilled welders imported from overseas for Eskom’s expansion programme in the 1960s. He took advantage of the skills shortages of that time to establish a technical skills supply and training company to meet industry needs in South Africa.
“The volume of welding that goes into a boiler on the tubing side is just astronomical,” says Adelio Oliveira of Eduardo Construction (EC), and in the 60s, a huge number of welders were being brought in from overseas to meet that need,” he relates. “Our founder was quick to see the opportunity to develop and supply local skills to the African power and petro-chemical industries,” he notes.
“The EBS Training Academy, however, was formed much later, in 2002, in collaboration with Steinmüller Africa, continues Johan Sack, the MD of EBS. “But the vision underpinning EBS goes back to the same need seen by Eduardo Rodriguez to develop the technical welding skills necessary for building and repairing power station boilers and piping systems for South African industries,” he tells African Fusion.
Core to this vision is the need for customised welder training to meet the specific needs of the power industry, as well as petrochemical, paper and pulp, steel-making and other industries requiring high temperature, high pressure equipment and piping systems. “EBS started out with a focus on developing our own skills for Eduardo Construction’s internal requirements, but we now service many clients in various industries. We also train apprentices through three-year QCTO programmes,” says Sack.
Kobus Pieterse continues: “The principal need in the power and other industries served by us are manual welding skills required for installation and repair of difficult-to-reach piping: on tube walls and in heater bundles of boilers, for example. “Our training is therefore highly customised to meet the real welding conditions a welder is likely to experience in a boiler or in a particular industrial plant. We have spent a lot of time and effort developing simulation mock-ups of power station components for various areas within the boilers. Similarly, our work teams are prepared for a particular project based on that project’s specific work scope.
“After a welder has been qualified for general pipe welding using the TIG welding process for root welding, followed by MMA/stick welding to fill the pipe joint, we then qualify him or her in-situ using our different simulations, materials, welding processes and procedures. This is the ultimate test, to make sure that welders qualified by EBS can complete real welding joints at the quality levels and within the time requirements of a project,” Kobus Pieterse says.
“Time pressure is embedded into the training and, while we generally find that a newly qualified welder is about a third slower than an experienced welder, if employers are a little patient, their speed quickly picks up,” he says, adding that it is very important to avoid rushing a welder because that can quickly create repair rate problems down the line, which is counter-productive.
In terms of training capacity, Pieterse says that the EBS Training Academy can accommodate 50 welders at any one time, some on short and some on longer welder training programmes. “Our shortest course is three weeks, which would qualify that welder for tack and/or down-hand MMA welding only.
“If you’re talking about higher integrity pipe and boiler tube welding, which is our strength, then welders need to be able to weld pipe using TIG and MMA welding processes in the complicated positions associated with boilers and industrial plant piping. Our MMA course for pipe welding takes three months, and the TIG component will take another three months, with a further six weeks for simulated training in the tight, awkward, out-of-position welding environments in most plants,” he notes.
From an accreditation perspective, he adds that welders must perform their qualification weld test pieces inside the different simulation stations before being coded for work in the power or petrochemical industry.
Sack adds: “Since 2002, we have trained so many welders that we sometimes fear generating an oversupply. But we have never yet found that to be the case. The need is as great as ever,” he points out.
Fabrication at Eduardo Construction
An established market leader in the provision of competent fabrication services to the power generation, steelmaking, petrochemical and mining industries in South Africa and abroad, EC employs specialist manual welders and other highly skilled artisans, supervisors, QC/NDT inspectors, heat treatment technicians and operators.
“We have the proven skills, equipment, infrastructure and resources to execute mechanical engineering projects to exacting technical and quality specifications, within budget and agreed time-frames,” says Adelio Oliveira.
“Our experience as a mechanical engineering contractor/subcontractor for mechanical erection, maintenance and refurbishment projects, has enabled us to develop an in-depth knowledge of the requirements of clients, particularly in the power industry, along with the pressures and deadlines that they experience,” he notes.
Specialist in-house skills include: high pressure piping and pressure equipment; specialised welding; pipe fitting and boiler making; and general fabrication and construction.
Citing a recently completed success, Oliveira says that the last of 12 pairs of top and bottom tube plates for the replacement boiler reheaters at Lethabo Power Station have just been completed. “Once a pair of these tube plates gets to site, they have to line up perfectly with each other, top and bottom, so that the reheater tubes can be slid in from the bottom up – and there are about six and a half thousand tubes per set. The allowable tolerances were extremely tight,” he point out.
The replacement project involves removing everything from the old reheaters and replacing them. “Our part of this project is now complete. We’ve built all 12 sets for the six boilers at Lethabo, and it was a five year contract that we managed to complete in just over two years,” he adds.
A few of the many other notable projects include:
- The assembly and welding of main-steam form pieces for ESKOM’s Duvha Power station (2008 to 2011).
- Pre-fabrication of piping spool pieces for the Wax Plant Upgrade at Sasol (2012).
- Fabrication of both the Medupi and Kusile Re-Heater inlet and outlet tube bundles (2011 & 2012) and the Fabrication of the Duvha Burner Mouth Openings Assemblies – 33 Units for Steinmüller Africa (2012-2014).
- Site assembly and fabrication of the boiler walls for units two to six of ESKOM’s Kusile Power Station, as well as the HAH Super-heater Vertical boiler walls and the HAD Evaporator Spiral boiler walls for units one to six (2012-2018).
- Workshop fabrication of piping spool pieces with the onsite assembly and erection of the replacement boiler Soot Blower piping for the SAPPI Ngodwana Mill.
While Oliveira concedes that a few jobs might be too big for Eduardo Construction, “there’s no job too small,” he assures. “We are willing to take on anything, no matter how small or how specialised the work.
“We also have an extensive network within the Eduardo Group to assist us with the skills and other project resources we might need, as well as strong partnerships with sub-contractors and key clients in the power and other key industries in South Africa,” he concludes.
