The SAIMC Secunda branch held its annual general meeting on 17 January. The presiding general manager of the branch, Lezahn Meiring welcomed all members, most of whom had just come back from the festive season filled with great optimism for the new year. She gave her usual pleasantries and wished everyone a prosperous year ahead. She then proceeded to give a short report from the previous year, which was a successful one for the branch. The Technology Evening presentations in 2023 varied from compressors, condition monitoring, and functional safety to an ECSA workshop and digitalisation, to name a few.
The Secunda branch will be 25 years old this year, which is a great milestone. Lezahn enthusiastically indicated that the branch looks forward to celebrating the achievement in many ways. She concluded her report by giving tentative dates for key events for the coming year, which include the annual Golf Day on 23 May at Graceland Hotel Casino and Country Club, a celebration for the branch’s 25-year milestone in November 2024, monthly technology evenings, and site visits. She thanked all members and the committee for being part of SAIMC and participating in all activities throughout the years. Lezahn was elected as the general manager for 2024, and the 2023 committee was elected to continue in 2024.
After the AGM, there was a presentation from Nivaal Rampath, a sales specialist in level measurement and tank gauging from Emerson. His presentation was about ‘displacers vs guided radar’ and ‘ultrasonic vs non-contact radar’ level measurement. He gave technical differences in the measuring principles and how each should be applied.
The February technology evening was held on 7 February, and RJ Ferreira from Valve and Automation, an old friend of the SAIMC, gave a presentation on butterfly triple offset valves (TOVs). It was extremely interesting to learn about the possibilities these offer, and the range of applications. Valve & Automation has recently moved its Vanderbijlpark workshop to the Secunda workshop, and a site visit there is being planned.
The presenters were thanked for always bringing interesting topics and discussions to our technology evenings.
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