AFRICAN FUSION—MARCH2014
37
Welding and cutting
“Afrox’s locally manufactured range of
welding electrodes reflects all the ele-
ments required for a robust contribution
to government’s localisation initiative,”
says Afrox’s Sandy Majatladi, product
manager for special consumables. “Our
welding consumables factory in Brits
has created jobs for South Africans for
many years and continuously develops
their skills,whileproducingworld-class
value-added products. As the brand
leader in welding consumables in
Southern Africa, with the capacity to
produce more than 750 t per month,
Afroxmanufactures an extensive range
of electrodes, which cover most types
of material that can bewelded.
“To be successful, locally produced
productsmust be able to competewith
imported equivalents on quality and
cost andwehavemet thesecriteriavery
effectively with our electrode offering.
All our electrodes are manufactured to
AmericanWeldingSociety (AWS) speci-
fications andwe’re even able to exceed
these requirements when producing
electrodes to meet specific customer
requirements.Mostofourelectrodesalso
conform toother international standards,
such as TüV, LloydsRegister andABS.”
A leadingexampleof theAfroxweld-
ingconsumables factory’scommitment
to localisation is the recent introduction
of a robust new product, the Transarc
®
6013 electrode. These electrodes
achieve a significant reduction in cost
without compromisingkeyperformance
fundamentals and fully comply with
AWS standards.
“The development of this innova-
tive electrode arose out of our desire to
remaincompetitive inourmarket,” says
The Afrox welding
consumables factory is committed to
localisation and has introduced a robust new
product, the Transarc
®
6013 electrode.
Majatladi. “It hadbecomeevident that
we needed to develop a good quality,
cost effective electrode. The resulting
Transarc
®
6013 product can be used
toweld in all positions and is generally
used to weld mild steel. The product
demonstrates very good weldability
characteristics benchmarked against
some premium competing products.
Towards the end of 2013 Afrox’s
speciality consumables factory moved
from its historic premises at Spartan
near OR Tambo International Airport
Afrox electrodesmeet criteria for localisation
andwas consolidated into the welding
consumables factory at Brits.
“This consolidation will achieve
reducedoperational costs, reduced lead
times in terms of product availability,
sustained quality and speedy product
certification,” says Majatladi, “In ad-
dition, research and development can
now be conducted at one site for both
speciality welding consumables and
general purpose welding products,” he
concludes.
D
CDHeavyEngineeringhasopened
anewartisans training facilitybe-
cause “skills are scarce in themarket,
andweneed tocounterunemployment
issues, currently rife in the country,”
notesDCDHeavyEngineering training
facilityhuman resourcesmanagerSue
Steyn. “We previously had a training
centre that accommodated 20 to 25
apprentices. Since its official opening
in2012,wehavemanaged todouble
our student intake and currently we
have 67 apprentices being trained as
fittersand turners, electricians, boiler-
DCD establishes training facility
makersandwelders–andwe recently
added riggers to theprogramme, too,”
she explains.
The apprenticeship is aminimum
of 80 weeks and a maximum of
four years. It involves the students
working at the DCDworkshop, while
completing their training programme.
Each student has a programme that
is tailor-made for their specificneeds,
and thatworks towards themattaining
their trade papers in whatever trade
they have chosen.
