The Durban branch was particularly active on the 6 May. In the morning, members of the committee gave a presentation to students at the Mangosuthu University of Technology. The meeting was arranged by Prof. P. Naidoo to make students aware of what the SAIMC does and how it can help them develop their engineering knowledge by mixing with experienced engineers from industry. Students were addressed by Howard Lister, who invited questions from the audience and was not disappointed by the quality of the questions that were asked. It was apparent that there is general concern about the difficulty of obtaining positions for in-service training which is a pre-requisite for graduation, and there were some interesting technical questions raised about student projects.
Philani Mpantsha and Busani Sibindi contributed greatly with their responses to the questions, and we look forward to continuing the productive relationship that has developed with this tertiary educational establishment and extending it to others in the region.
Technology evening
Howard Lister (left) thanks Fred Venter.
The same evening, a technology meeting was held at the Durban Country Club where Fred Venter, sales director for Valve & Automation, gave a clear and well illustrated presentation on the topic of triple eccentric valves. He showed the attentive audience the main differences between various styles of valve and compared their relative characteristics, from both application and economic aspects. The reason manufacturers claim that triple eccentric valves have no friction was explained and shown to be true for the interaction between the valve disk and pipe wall, but the meeting was reminded that there is always some residual friction associated with any rotating or sliding shaft where it passes through the seal or packing gland. A sample valve was displayed, making further clarification available to the audience. Fred’s experience of over 20 years certainly helped him to convey the essential facts to the meeting and to answer the wide variety of questions that were put to him.
Branch chairman Howard Lister thanked Fred for his informative talk and Valve & Automation for generously sponsoring the evening. Everyone then adjourned to enjoy the rest of the evening networking over food and drinks.
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