Frikkie van Zyl and Piet van Huyssteen gave an enlightening presentation at the last Durban branch technology evening. Both were members of the team from North West University who won the 2008 Siemens and Festo sponsored Cyber Junkyard competition.
Frikkie van Zyl and Piet van Huyssteen from North West University seen with SAIMC Durban chairman, Vinesh Maharaj (right), at the recent technology evening
The two gave an interested audience the opportunity to share in some of the ‘behind the scenes’ problems that have to be solved when the objective is to design and build an automated beverage machine – the theme for this year’s competition. The machine had to accept orders from a remote station, make coffee by mixing the ingredients in the specified amounts, and complete the order by delivering the cups back to the remote station using a transportation vehicle. An added complexity was the requirement to cater for batches up to nine cups.
The award-winning design incorporated a variable speed drive, access points, S7-200 PLCs, touch-screen panels and numerous I/O modules all from Siemens. The pneumatic equipment and associated moving parts were supplied courtesy Festo.
Richards Bay
The first Technology evening of the newly resurrected Richards Bay sub-branch of the SAIMC was held on 27 May at the Fleur de Lis Guesthouse in Meerensee. There was an enthusiastic turnout which augers well for future meetings and everybody found Carl Reinecke’s presentation: ‘Earthing for instrumentation – applied witchcraft or engineering’ most interesting.
Peter Molokoane (centre), whose efforts have been responsible for the resurrection of the sub-branch, seen here with presenter Carl Reinecke and Kevin McElroy (right) of the Durban branch
The Richards Bay technology evenings will be held on the last Thursday of each month. Interested parties will be notified by e-mail in advance with details of the presentation. All queries can be addressed to Peter Molokoane on +27 (0)78 804 4771, [email protected]
Durban branch
At the next Durban branch technology evening on 5 August, the Schneider Electric team will be presenting a case study encompassing energy management on the 2010 stadiums.
The team consists of Cindy Montague who will present on the 2010 stadium case study and Geoff Gregson who will be talking about energy efficiency and management issues.
“Schneider Solutions provide a comprehensive suite of building management software, a complete range of controllers, communication devices and field devices and can manage all facilities from one central system. Coordinated control across all industrial and commercial facility systems would enable one to achieve the required energy savings.”
Venue: University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College campus, Room G-01, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
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