The Vaal branch kicked off the year with a well attended opening braai in February which brought many of the Vaal region members together. From the Vaal branch perspective the New Year brings with it a new set of challenges, therefore if you have ever wanted to serve on the committee, now is the time to get involved.
During the braai, the branch took a moment to introduce the elected committee members for 2012 (l to r): Resham Sivnarain, Godfrey Nyamande, Eben Grobbelaar (vice chairman), Solly Mabitsela (chairman), Wimpie van Tonder, Oratile Sematle (secretary) and Deon Lottering (treasurer)
One of our drives is to promote automation and control as a profession and encourage school leavers to enter this amazing industry of ours. In addition, the SAIMC collaboration with ECSA, in terms of accreditation of CPD training material, provides a great opportunity for professional engineers and technicians to get involved at different levels.
The first monthly meeting of the year was held on 1 March, Lourens Van Niekerk from WIKA Instruments was the speaker for the evening. Lourens has been with WIKA for nine years; he started his career in the temperature department and has worked in the associated product department for the last six years as product manager. His topic was ‘Isolators, convertors and transmitters in conjunction with power rail supplies’.
Lourens’ great presentation earned him a certificate of appreciation presented by the Vaal branch vice chairman, Eben Grobbelaar (l)
Great aspects of this type of technology are the wide ranges of I/O that can be accommodated, the flexibility, ease of configuration, high galvanic isolation capability, fast response time, high accuracy, vibration immunity, noise emission and immunity and wide operating ambient temperature range. An aspect that makes it remarkable is the robustness of the power rail and redundancy of power supply systems on the power rail. It is expected that the technology will simplify the implementation and commissioning of field I/O significantly and also provide excellent systems integration capabilities.
We thank WIKA for its consistent support.
Visitors
The turnout from the members was excellent with representation from the petrochemical refineries, steel, mining, power and chemical industries, as well as engineering, construction and consulting services and various service and product suppliers. We would like to thank our audiences and presenters for their unwavering support and are looking forward to welcoming everyone again as this year progresses.
Next meeting
The next Vaal branch meeting is scheduled for Thursday 3 April at the Iscor Bowling Club in Vanderbijlpark. Please contact Oratile Sematle on [email protected] for more information.
MESA Africa Summit has been expanded and rebranded SAIMC Supplier Advisory Council
SAIMC
We are writing to share some exciting developments regarding the evolution of the MESA Africa Summit, which has been a cornerstone event in industrial automation and manufacturing excellence.
Read more...How to claim CPD points SAIMC Supplier Advisory Council
SAIMC
SAIMC makes it possible for you to claim CPD points for attending courses and technical meetings, or completing an online quiz on a SA Instrumentation & Control magazine.
Read more...SAIMC: From the office of the CEO:Slaughtering AI holy cows SAIMC
SAIMC
A couple of sessions at various dealers, a wrong delivery, a failed holiday plan, a two-week unplanned vacation and 32 kg of steel on the back seat awaited us as we left South Africa on a dream holiday. But let me start at the beginning.
Read more...SAIMC: Secunda branch SAIMC
SAIMC
At the most recent SAIMC Secunda technical evening, Jenine Jansen van Vuuren, sales account manager from Comtest Technologies, gave a presentation on the calibration of process instruments.
Read more...SAIMC: Durban branch SAIMC
SAIMC
The Durban branch of the SAIMC held its October technology meeting, not on the first Wednesday of the month as usual, but on the second Wednesday to accommodate the very interesting presenter, Nico Erasmus from Abacus Automation.
Read more...SAIMC: Johannesburg branch SAIMC
SAIMC
The October Technology Evening was hosted by Pepperl+Fuchs. Patience Moila, the enterprise mobility expert for sub-Saharan Africa, presented on ‘Lone Worker Protection for the Mobile worker 4.0’.
Read more...SAIMC: It’s not black and white SAIMC
Editor's Choice SAIMC
Grey imports are a problem worldwide, not least in the automation industry in South Africa. The Supplier Advisory Council (SAC) operates under the umbrella of SAIMC, and is tackling this problem head-on.
Read more...How to claim CPD points SAIMC Supplier Advisory Council
SAIMC
SAIMC makes it possible for you to claim CPD points for attending courses and technical meetings, or completing an online quiz on a SA Instrumentation & Control magazine.
Read more...SAIMC: From the office of the CEO: The real damage of fake news SAIMC
SAIMC
People depend on accurate information and their own reasoning and belief systems to draw conclusions or make decisions. However, when they are inundated with fake news, the reliability of the information they receive is compromised.
printer friendly version