At the May meeting of the SAIMC Johannesburg branch there were two presentations, one by Manqoba Gumede who has written a book on industrial instrumentation and process control, and the other by Johan Maartens, the CEO of SAIMC, on registering with ECSA.
A guide to industrial instrumentation and process control
Manqoba Gumede has experience in instrumentation which spans over 23 years, derived from production companies, mining companies such as Anglo Platinum, water purification and distribution. He has compiled and authored a book called – ‘Field Reference Handbook – Industrial Instrumentation and Process Control’.
Gumede said it’s not a textbook, but a map guide for when you are in the field doing maintenance or fault finding. The instrumentation principles covered in his book are divided into various chapters. Each chapter talks about the principle and all that is involved with it. For example if we are talking about level, it gives you all aspects of the principle. These include different types of level measurement systems, the instruments used, typical schematic illustration of the instruments, their principles of operation, typical problems and faults, and solutions.
There are 28 chapters that can be explored. They include level, pressure, flow, valves, temperature, analytical, dust monitoring, speed, weight and mass, pneumatics, indicators and displays, moisture and humidity, relays and proximity switches, process automation and control, basic PLC, telemetry, VSDs, processes & procedures, fault finding, PIDs, terminology and conversion tables.
Johan Maartens addressed the meeting concerning ECSA and professional registration for individuals. Registration hinges around three documents:
• Council for the Built Environment Act (Act 43 of 2000).
• Engineering Profession Act (Act 46 of 2000).
• Identification of Engineering Work (IoEW) Government Gazette Vol 669 dated 26 March 2021 No. 44333.
He explained to members that there are various categories in which a person may register in the engineering profession. There is a wide variety of disciplines in the profession. The steering committee decided on a generic approach and the use of competencies and graduate attributes to define the work to be reserved.
Engineering persons need to be competent in a number of generic attributes despite their specific disciplines. These attributes have been defined internationally and are used worldwide.
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