All in one. All for you. 40VOLUME NO 2 FEBRUARY 2024 Official publication of the SAIMC System integration | Control systems | Process measurement Electrical power & protection | Condition monitoring Motion control & drives | Control valves, actuators & pumps Food & beverage | IT in manufacturing | Sustainable manufacturing INSPIRING AUTOMATION
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www.instrumentation.co.za February 2024 1 Control valves, actuators & pumps Motion control & drives Food & beverage Sustainable manufacturing IT in manufacturing VOLUME 40 NO 2 FEBRUARY 2024 03 11 12 REGULARS FEATURES Process measurement Control systems System integration Condition monitoring Electrical power & protection 30 22 18 14 33 40 37 41 45 44 News & events SAIMC news Automation professionals DRH Components, Turck Banner, Opto Africa Automation, Endress+Hauser South Africa, Omniflex Remote Monitoring Specialists, WIKA Instruments WEG Africa, Schneider Electric South Africa, Comtest ACTOM, ifm - South Africa, EtherCAT Technology Group Control System Integrators Association Neu Matics SA, SEW-EURODRIVE, Bosch Rexroth South Africa Turck Banner, VEGA Controls SA Emerson Automation Solutions RJ Connect Parker Hannifin, ABI Research, Beckhoff Automation, LOESCHE South Africa, ABB South Africa Busch Vacuum Solutions, WIKA Instruments, LAPP Southern Africa, BMG OUR COVER 16 All in one. All for you. 40VOLUME NO 2 FEBRUARY 2024 Official publication of the SAIMC System integration | Control systems | Process measurement Electrical power & protection | Condition monitoring Motion control & drives | Control valves, actuators & pumps Food & beverage | IT in manufacturing | Sustainable manufacturing INSPIRING AUTOMATION Honsberg, Greisinger, Martens, Val.Co and Delta OHM have joined forces under Senseca to expand their research, development and manufacturing operations globally. This has resulted in state-of-the art flow, level, environmental, and portable measurement instrumentation that is suitable for applications throughout industry. Read our cover story on page 16 to find out more about Senseca’s reformulation of brands into one, with a range of data measurement devices that can meet any measurement and data requirements, particularly within the environmental and fluid level measurement sectors.
2 February 2024 www.instrumentation.co.za welcome VOLUME 40 NO 2 FEBRUARY 2024 Disclaimer While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements, inserts and company contact details are printed as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, adapted, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd, Reg No. 2005/034598/07 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor should be addressed to Kim Roberts at [email protected]. Sending material to this publication will be considered automatic permission to use in full or in part in our Letters column. Be sure to include your name, e-mail address, city and zip code. We reserve the right to edit all letters. EDITOR Kim Roberts MSc Chem [email protected] CIO & DIRECTOR Graeme Bell NHD Elec. Eng., MBA [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Michael Brown BSc (Eng) (Rand), CEng MIEE MSAIEE Gavin Halse BSc Chem Eng Lance Turner BSc (Hons) Information Systems ADVERTISING Sales manager Jane van der Spuy [email protected] Tel: +27 83 234 5412 Heidi Hargreaves [email protected] Tel: +27 83 504 0436 DESIGN AND LAYOUT Technews Production Department SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES For address changes, subscriptions, renewal status or missing issues, email: [email protected] or write to: Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd, Box 385, Pinegowrie 2123 SUBSCRIBE ONLINE www.technews.co.za PUBLISHERS Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd Wild Fig Business Park, Block B, Unit 21, 1494 Cranberry Street, Honeydew It’s still early in the year and there’s no shortage of predictions on what will happen in 2024. It looks like the breakthrough trends from 2023 will continue. We know that generative AI is the big one, the genie is out of the bottle, and we’ll continue to be bombarded with speculation and exaggeration. So I thought I would look at some technologies that didn’t make it past the hype, or failed spectacularly. Here are some examples from MIT Technology Review where reality didn’t live up to expectations, in spite of attracting huge interest in the media. Worst technology failures of 2023 The catastrophic implosion of the Titan submersible holds some lessons. The sub’s creator, aerospace engineer Stockton Rush ignored good engineering in favour of wishful thinking. The spirit of innovation can get ahead of reality, sometimes with nasty consequences. The Titan was a radical design for a deep-sea submersible. A kombi-sized carbon fibre tube operated with a joystick was meant to open deep sea to a new kind of tourism. The idea of solar geoengineering is to cool the planet by releasing reflective materials into the atmosphere; but it won’t stop the greenhouse effect, only mask it. Injecting particles into the sky is theoretically cheap and easy. Mexico banned geoengineering trials after a startup called Make Sunsets wanted to launch balloons to disperse reflective sulphur dioxide into the sky. The startup is still selling ‘cooling credits’ for $10 each on its website. We covered this one before but, it’s a good example. A superconductor operating at room temperature is the holy grail. It’s a material offering no electrical resistance. If it existed, it would make new types of batteries and powerful quantum computers possible, and bring nuclear fusion closer to reality. So when a research report from Korea claimed that a substance called LK-99 was the answer, the internet was waiting. An online video of a bit of material floating above a magnet went viral. Well-funded startups dropped their work on rockets and biotech to try to make LK-99. It was going to be the biggest physics discovery in decades and would change our lives. But the dreams soon faded when real physicists couldn’t replicate the work. LK-99 is not a superconductor. Impurities in the materials could have misled the Korean researchers, and thanks to social media, the rest of us too. GM’s Cruise division put its robotaxis into circulation before they were ready. Just after Tesla did a massive software recall when cars in self-driving mode slammed into emergency What’s staying, what’s going vehicles, Cruise’s ensor-laden Chevy Bolts started having mishaps, including dragging a pedestrian for three metres. Cruise had previously claimed that robotaxis don’t get tired, don’t get drunk, and don’t get distracted. The California Department of Motor Vehicles has now suspended the robotaxis, citing an “unreasonable risk to public safety”. I’m glad they won’t be here for a while. People are realising the complexity of unsupervised autonomous driving, especially in interactions with road users. What won’t happen in 2024? According to ABI Research, several other highly anticipated advancements will not happen in 2024. These are a couple that didn’t actually fail, but they didn’t manage to gain any traction. 5G will fail to attract enterprise interest − again. Companies are much more interested in usable case studies and outcomes than in the name of the connectivity technology; and the over-promoted metaverse will be on the back burner, although industries will invest in some applications that have real returns and measurable benefits. What will happen Many things will happen in 2024, but the big one is that genenerative AI will go mainstream. This will be the year that the world gets to grips with how powerful and useful it can be. One of the wilder new developments is NewsGPT. Shortly after launching the first 24/7 AI-generated news channel, the innovations team at NewsGPT.ai has unveiled an even more audacious offering, the world’s first news forecast. Sustainable technology will also be an issue as countries and companies work to meet net-zero commitments. This will involve new solutions for carbon capture and storage, recyclability, super-efficient solar cells, and especially green hydrogen, which is expected to play a critical role in the energy transition. Cyber resilience is also going to be increasingly important. There will be new applications in quantum computing, which we recently covered, and we will especially see the adoption of post-quantum cryptography to make cryptographic systems secure against quantum and classical computers. The only constant in technology is change, and I’m looking forward to finding out what’s next.
NEWS & EVENTS 4 February 2024 www.instrumentation.co.za At the recent Investing in African Mining Indaba 2024, Bosch Rexroth Africa, a leader in hydraulics, pneumatics and automation, bolstered its presence and showcased its innovative solutions for the mining industry. The Group aligned with the event’s theme, ‘Embracing the power of positive disruption in African mining’. The focus of the stand was on the provision of the most technologically advanced solutions and services to the mining industry. This highlighted that Bosch Rexroth Africa is disrupting conventional ways of operation. This is through award-winning Bosch Rexroth solutions, Artificial Intelligence of Things (AloT) mining solutions offered by fellow company Smart Mine, and a range of Hägglunds drive systems that are designed to optimise operational efficiency. Bosch Rexroth recently presented its comprehensive three-year strategy #ThinkGroup, which highlights the importance of collaboration and the interdependence of three pillars: people and culture, digital transformation and sustainability. “#ThinkGroup enables us to harness the power of eight specialist companies within our group. By working together, we provide the most diverse range of turnkey solutions for the mining industry. This is supported by our extensive multi-brand offerings and a healthy supply chain that gets solutions to clients in the shortest time frame possible. Through teamwork, we can reach our full potential,” said Bosch Rexroth Africa CEO, Chris Riley. “With a multi-brand approach, a drive for innovation, and collaboration, we can meet our clients’ demands. This is our competitive edge.” Riley also highlighted the significance of presenting innovative solutions at Mining Indaba. “Participating in this event helped expand our footprint across the industry and continent. The opportunity to engage with industry leaders about our most innovative products and services was invaluable,” he added. Riley’s sentiments mirrored one of the major goals of the Indaba − to have more conversation-based interactions. Bosch Rexroth Africa showcases mining solutions at Mining Indaba Schneider Electric has been recognised by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey as one of three global Circularity Lighthouses in the built environment. This new designation recognises pioneering circularity solutions that demonstrate innovation, substantial impact and value, and maturity of scale. The new lighthouses were selected by an independent panel of experts from industry, academia and public life. The World Economic Forum defines the built environment as residential and commercial infrastructure. Together, this is responsible WEF recognises Schneider Electric as a Circularity Lighthouse For the past three decades, Investing in African Mining Indaba has been vital for the largest players in Africa’s mining industry. It is the hub of networking and innovation for the continent’s largest sector. In the time that the conference has become an integral part of mining in Africa, Bosch Rexroth Africa has made its own significant strides. These include growing its product range and expanding its presence to over 11 African countries. For more information contact Gillian Allin, Bosch Rexroth South Africa, +27 11 979 4630, [email protected], www.boschrexroth.africa for 39% of energy-related CO2 emissions, 33% of material consumption and waste generation, and 25% of land system change. The Forum’s Circular Lighthouse network provides companies with a way to share and learn from one another, to accelerate action rapidly and scale for greater resource efficiency. Schneider Electric was recognised by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey for its end-to-end circular approach across a broad portfolio of its energy and building automation solutions. Through eco-design, waste-to-resources sites and a global network of refurbishment centres, Schneider Electric has avoided approximately 513 million tons of CO2 going to customers since 2018. The company also uses 27% green materials across its products with the ambition to reach 50% by 2025. More than half of its manufacturing sites recover more than 99% of waste. “Circular business models offer compelling sustainability and commercial benefits,” said Peter Herweck, Schneider Electric’s chief executive officer. “We look forward to the opportunities this new Circularity Lighthouse network offers to learn, share, and accelerate action.” For more information contact Schneider Electric South Africa, +27 11 254 6400, [email protected], www.se.com/za/en
www.instrumentation.co.za February 2024 5 NEWS & EVENTS Two-factor authentication doesn’t safeguard your business. People do. Unlock business success by hiring the right people. Ensure effortless recruitment with Pnet’s smart-matching technology and access to over 6 million candidates. Visit pnet.co.za to learn more. Young scientist invited to Nobel science seminar in Sweden Crawford student, Brandon de Greef embarked on an extraordinary journey last December with a lifetime opportunity to participate in the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar during Nobel Week. De Greef was honoured with the prestigious University of Pretoria/Professor Derek Gray Memorial Award at the Eskom Expo International Science Fair, following a successful showcase of his ground-breaking research project, ‘Powdered Insulators for High-Voltage Applications’. The project earned him the Derek Gray Gold Medal and a three-year bursary at the University of Pretoria. “My research involved finding if a powder-only insulator would be a possible substitute for high-voltage electrical insulators. This powder would be far easier to remove, repair and maintain than conventional oils and gases – which are toxic to humans and the environment, and are also very expensive. Systems are also hard to repair because they are messy and need to be completely replaced. The powdered insulator would be far cheaper and better for the environment,” said De Greef. He took part in the Eskom Expo International Science Fair last October with another research project, ‘Solar Optimisation for Personal PV Systems’, for which he was awarded a gold medal. The science seminar in Stockholm is an extraordinary blend of science and culture. The event features individuals selected from international science fairs and premier universities recognised for their remarkable research undertakings. Its unique programme unites young minds from diverse global backgrounds, fostering a shared passion for science. The goal is to inspire youth to pursue scientific endeavours, while championing international understanding and friendship. For more information contact JeVanne Gibbs, Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, +27 76 674 1455, [email protected], www.exposcience.co.za Brandon de Greef.
NEWS & EVENTS 6 February 2024 www.instrumentation.co.za ABB has secured a third contract with GHGSat, the global leader in high-resolution greenhouse gas monitoring from space, to manufacture optical sensors for its C12, C13, C14 and C15 satellites set to launch into orbit in 2024. The new satellites will join GHGSat’s expanding constellation, which detects and quantifies industrial gas leaks from space. ABB has built the payloads – the instruments carried on board the satellites – for ten of GHGSat’s emissions monitoring satellites launched into space. Earlier this year, GHGSat reported that its existing satellites have doubled their methane emission measurement capabilities thanks to the exceptional performance of these sensors. This has allowed GHGSat to accelerate the scaling of its monitoring services, helping industries such as oil and gas, power generation, and mining to understand and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “The new contract is a testament to GHGSat’s confidence in ABB’s manufacturing capabilities to build complex, high-performing optical payloads for hyperspectral earth observation,” said Marc Corriveau, head of Global Operations, Business Line Analytical, ABB Measurement & Analytics. “This year, we doubled our manufacturing infrastructure dedicated to space projects so that we can better serve the booming private space sector.” “Our collaboration, which began in 2018, has showcased ABB’s technical expertise and Greenhouse gas monitoring satellites manufacturing capabilities,”said Stéphane Germain, CEO of GHGSat.“This experience has fortified our belief in ABB’s capacity to support GHGSat’s expansion in building proprietary high-resolution payloads. Such partnerships are the key to achieving significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately making an impact in the battle against climate change.” ABB has been a leader in gas sensing from orbit for over two decades, starting with the development of the Canadian Space Agency SCISAT mission payload, which profiles the concentration of more than 70 different gas types down to parts per trillion from cloud top to outer space. ABB also provided hyperspectral technologies to the Japanese GOSAT programme, which pioneered the global mapping at regional scale of sources and sinks of greenhouse gases from orbit starting with a first satellite in 2009 and an improved version in 2018. Today, ABB builds on this legacy by manufacturing enhanced versions of GHGSat’s proprietary wide-angle Fabry-Perot (WAF-P) interferometer, which tracks the same infrared fingerprint of greenhouse gases. In this way, ABB applies its vast expertise acquired in earlier high-profile government space missions to the private sector space, with a focus on actionable low-latency satellite data for civil uses. Space is the only location that allows greenhouse gas emissions to be monitored freely across jurisdictions, enabling unbiased reporting. For more information contact ABB South Africa, +27 10 202 5105, [email protected], www.abb.com/za Artificial Intelligence to drive quality control machine vision market Machine vision (MV) solutions for quality control in manufacturing are becoming ever more essential for manufacturers due to increased regulatory requirements, new manufacturing techniques, and crippling labour shortages. According to a new report from global technology Image copyright: GHGSat. intelligence firm ABI Research, the market is facing a period of significant evolution due to the growing presence of AI solutions acting as an enabling technology. This will fuel growth in the quality control machine vision market to reach $7,2 billion by 2028, up from $2,3 billion in 2023. “AI is accelerating and improving the efficiency of the MV market. It increases inspection speeds and enables the movement of quality systems upstream; and AI systems are more adaptable than traditional software. However, although many AI solutions can easily integrate with existing MV hardware and software, making it a low-hanging fruit for manufacturers to leverage, its lack of explainability can be challenging. Without this functionality, AI could struggle to make traction in high-regulation markets,” explains James Prestwood, industrial and manufacturing industry analyst at ABI Research. “While some AI vendors are making great strides to support their software with explainability functionality such as Neurala, it is not a standard feature on all solutions yet. “For most manufacturers, budget and build complexity will be the defining factor for choosing off-the-shelf solutions and build-your-own with best-of-breed components. Smaller manufacturers will likely find the greatest use for off-the-shelf solutions due to their lower cost and simpler requirements,” Prestwood concludes. For more information contact Deborah Petrara, ABI Research, +1 516 624 2558, [email protected], www.abiresearch.com
www.instrumentation.co.za February 2024 7 NEWS & EVENTS Turck Banner South Africa has appointed Chané Blockley as financial controller. Turck Banner has appointed Michael Fernandes as strategic operations manager. Turck Banner has appointed Maxine Wingrove as marketing communications manager. SMEs play a crucial role in most economies, and South Africa is no exception. They are also important contributors to job creation and global economic development. According to the World Bank, SMEs represent about 90% of businesses worldwide, while the International Finance Corporation revealed that roughly 50% to 60% of South Africa’s workforce finds employment within SMEs. A key challenge SMEs face is finding employees who are a good fit for their business, and who have the skills required to increase efficiency and business growth. Pnet researched the recruitment needs of SMEs over 12 months, and the findings revealed that information technology skills fall within the top five most in-demand skills, alongside skills in finance, business and management, sales and admin, and office and support for SMEs. Pnet’s research also revealed the top three in-demand roles in the SME sector during the same period, namely sales representatives, accountants, and software developers. Salaries and wages across various sectors and roles differ greatly in South Africa. Pnet analysed jobs with the highest salary offers from September 2022 to September 2023, and the findings revealed that information technology was the second-highest paying job sector in the country, after business and management. Software developers can expect monthly salary offers ranging from R37 000 to R66 000, depending on their years SME employment trends in the IT sector Appointments of experience, the software they specialise in, and the job location. As the ‘Silicon Valley’ of South Africa, the Western Cape tends to offer the highest software developer salaries, followed by Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. European research findings reveal that the lack of software development skills is challenging for the SME market, and that a pervasive shortage of digital skills can severely impact SMEs in their efforts to adopt new technologies. Thus, it is essential for SMEs to widen the skill set and competencies of existing staff, and to be able to recruit externally when investing in technology. Despite the need to attract and retain skilled talent, SMEs often face various recruitment challenges such as time-to-hire and the hefty price tag often associated with sourcing suitable candidates. Specialised online recruitment platforms offer SMEs a range of benefits to help them save both time and money during the hiring process, and find the right candidates for their vacancies. Sourcing candidates directly using smart-matching technology streamlines the hiring process so that SMEs can quickly and directly reach more jobseekers. Sophisticated platforms like Pnet’s online recruitment portal offer a host of easy-to-use tools and features to easily filter and shortlist candidates with the required IT skills from their database of over six million jobseekers. Job ads also get further reach from the 100 million Job Alerts that Pnet sends directly to jobseekers’ inboxes every month. By going directly to the source of suitable candidates using specialised recruitment platforms like Pnet, SMEs can save up to 60% on their recruitment costs. Pnet’s online recruitment platform uses advanced algorithms and analytics to target job advertisements for the most relevant candidates. This enables recruiters to find quality candidates using locally relevant filters, and even create a talent pool to access when they need to hire for similar roles in the future. For more information contact Pnet, +27 10 140 3099, [email protected], www.pnet.co.za
NEWS & EVENTS 8 February 2024 www.instrumentation.co.za When I was in Matric, I was thinking of studying mechanical engineering, but an uncle who was a leading local entrepreneur said that I should rather take up electrical engineering as the future was for the people who ‘pushed the buttons’, and I decided to follow his advice. I battled initially at Wits University, as everything was very theoretical and described in mathematical formulae. I remember being told in one of our first lectures that: “You think that you are here to learn Electrical Engineering, but you aren’t. You are going to be taught how to think like engineers.”. This was very true, and our course in Control in final year was pure maths, and words like ‘controller’ and ‘PID’ were not even mentioned. I managed to get a first in control, but I didn’t really know what it was. That was in 1963. Transistors were just coming into commercial use, and most of our studies were on equipment still using devices like thermionic valves and mercury-arc rectifiers. I spent the first two years of my professional life undergoing a ‘Graduate Apprenticeship’ at GEC in England, and specialised in telemetering. On one job we had to send control data from a remote plant to a petrochemical refinery over radio links. This was when I ‘met’ real life control loops and the famous PID controllers for the first time, and I was fascinated by the technology. A year after returning to South Africa, I got a job with AFH Devers who were the South African representatives for the-then leading Reminiscences of a life in control and famous Foxboro company. My boss was Morris Hill who had been the Chief Control Engineer at AE&CI. He gave me a book by a revered Foxboro training officer, Norman Anderson, if I recall his name correctly, which brilliantly explained how pneumatic instruments and controllers worked. My job was to design systems for various plants. A very noteworthy one was the air conditioning control system for the enormous Carlton Centre, which was then in the process of construction. The control system was very advanced and had been designed by Italian Consultants. Electronic instrumentation was still in its infancy and the consultants had specified pneumatics. I had to engineer the system which was really fascinating as it also involved some feedforward controls, and we used pneumatic mathematical computing blocks for these. One really interesting thing was that the building was going to be the-then tallest building in Africa and consisted of 50 floors; with, I think, eight being below ground. The control centre was in the lowest level. A pneumatic temperature transmitter was mounted on the roof of the centre to measure ambient temperature, and it was calculated that it would take about 12 minutes for a step change in the process variable to reach its final value down on the panel. The panel was amazing with many standalone pneumatic controllers, recorders, and other instruments on it, and was about 6 metres in length, filled inside with literally hundreds of aluminium pneumatic signal pipes. During the construction phase of the building, a special roadway had been made leading from the ground level in the Centre down to the lower levels, to allow large objects to be transported there. However, when they finally called for the panel to be delivered, the roadway had been filled in, and there was no access to get the panel down to the basement. The only solution was to cut the panel in half, which included all the pneumatic pipes inside it, and then to weld it together underground and rejoin all the pipes. It took over three months to do this work, and cost them a small fortune. I had an interesting meeting a few years later when I was on a skating course in the Carlton Centre which then had an ice-rink above the multistorey carpark. One of the other participants was the maintenance manager of the Centre. He told me that the control system had never really been used properly, and that the method he preferred to control the air conditioning was a system he called ‘Management by Complaint’. Electronics was starting to replace pneumatics in the industry in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Many people were very pessimistic about the maintenance of equipment, as there was quite a shortage of personnel with knowledge of electronics. However, it was generally hoped by the control experts that feedback control would really ‘come into its own’ as the new electronic systems were magnitudes more accurate and configurable than the old pneumatic systems, where every item in a control loop had an By Michael Brown.
NEWS & EVENTS www.instrumentation.co.za February 2024 9 accuracy of about ±2.5% F.S (full scale). Many of the old pneumatic controllers had the parameters set by adjusting a tiny three-quarter turn knob on a pneumatic device with a logarithmic scale. When you purchased the old pneumatic controllers it was necessary to specify which parameters you wished to include in a new controller, i.e., P, I or D (proportional, integral and derivative). Basically, each term involved quite a few extra pneumatic components, which made it more costly. When electronic controllers came into the market, you still had to specify which parameters you wanted and pay quite a lot of money for each extra term. This was in spite of the actual cost to the manufacturer being negligible, as it just meant adding in a few extra resistor-capacitor networks. However, as more control people came into the field from the electrical engineering side, they felt that they were being ‘ripped–off’, so there were a lot of protests, and before long all the manufacturers only offered full three-term PID controllers. Another unusual project I was given was to build a controller test bed, as clients would sometime complain that a controller was not performing correctly. This knowledge was very useful to me in later years when manufacturers started building computerised controllers. Most of the DCS controllers were fine, as those companies had been building controllers for decades. However, when PLC manufacturers started including PID controllers in their systems, they usually didn’t work correctly, and in many cases scientific tuning was impossible. Even to this day, when I work on plants using PLC controllers, I find that in at least 85% of cases they have not been set up correctly to allow proper control and tuning! I spent about two years with the company, and during that time most mining companies were developing new extraction processes which required automation, and were starting to use many more feedback control systems than previously. I did a lot of this work for some mining companies, and gained quite a bit of knowledge of control of mineral extraction processes like gold, and the newer uranium and platinum industries. I was always a bit rebellious, and in 1969 decided that I never wanted to work for a boss again, so I started a company named Brown & Rutter Control Systems with Clive Rutter who was in my class at Wits University. My side was basically manufacturing and supplying control systems for industrial process plants. Luckily, my previous work with one of the mining companies had been appreciated, and they gave us a lot of orders for control systems at a time when a lot of new gold and platinum plants were being opened. The company also owned one of the big paper manufacturers, and I engineered many of the control systems for a new fine paper plant that was being constructed near Johannesburg. Computer systems were still quite a way ahead, and with the knowledge acquired at GEC, I designed many logic ‘On/Off’ control systems using relays, timers and rotary sequencers. These would be all done today on a simple PLC. The most complex system I ever designed and manufactured was the control of the converters at a platinum plant in Rustenburg, which involved complicated logic using hundreds of hermetically sealed relays. I commissioned the system on one of the converters in late December in the early 70s. A few days later, at 02:00 on New Year’s Eve, the plant’s control engineer phoned me to tell me that the converter had overrun its bottom limit when turning out of stack, and had tipped the molten matte into the dump pit, which had unfortunately filled with water after a rain storm. (The roof had not been finished on the plant at that stage). The resulting explosion set the plant on fire and caused a lot of damage. Fortunately there were no casualties. The engineer told me that I would be sued if it was found that the design was faulty. I spent an anxious few days waiting for the result of the enquiry. Fortunately, it was found that a pin in the mechanical braking system had sheared, and I was exonerated. Many years later the company replaced the relay logic system with a PLC, and I remember the engineer at the mine who did the work telling me it took months to understand all the dozens of complex interlocks that I had incorporated into the system. After a while at Brown and Rutter I decided that we should also supply instrumentation and control equipment, so I travelled extensively to many countries overseas to establish agencies. On one trip in 1979 I visited the ISA Instrument and Control Expo, which was held in Houston, Texas that year. There I met an engineer called David Ender who was exhibiting a computerised tuning package. I knew very little about tuning, and was fascinated by the product. In those days, the only computers were massive and very cumbersome mainframe machines. PCs didn’t exist, so David and a brilliant mathematician who worked for him had built their own ‘portable’ computer, which could be moved around inside plants to connect to the standalone electronic controllers of the day. This machine consisted of a mass of electronic boards mounted inside a huge aluminum case, which was on castors and was fitted with lifting lugs. David explained the technology to me and it sounded fantastic. The problem was that the selling price was $75 000, and I didn’t think that any company in South Africa would be interested in such an expensive product for tuning, so I did not apply for the agency. However, I was very impressed with David Ender, and we established quite a good relationship and kept up a correspondence over the ensuing years. In the mid 1980s he phoned me one evening and said: “Mike, I have fantastic news. IBM has developed a low-cost personal desktop computer called the XT, and soon virtually everyone will have their very own computer standing on their desk. We have managed to fit our tuning package into this machine and we are now selling it at $4500 (excluding the PC).” I was on the next flight to the USA and a week later I returned with the tuning package installed in Dave Ender’s own IBM XT which I had persuaded him to sell to me as there was quite a long waiting list for them. The following week I started trying to tune control loops on some of our clients’ plants. The results of my first attempts at tuning control loops were extremely disappointing. The software was supposed to be able to tune processes with all types of process dynamics. However, the tuning was not always successful, and very often gave poor results. This mirrored the experiences of many control people I have met over the years who have tried tuning packages. The general consensus was that they did work occasionally, but most times the tunings they gave were pretty useless. Even to this day, surveys have shown that almost 95% of people still prefer to do tuning by trial and error. I did not do much more work on tuning, as I was kept very occupied with other matters in the business at the time, but I still kept in touch with Dave Ender over the next couple of years. My business in the last half of the 1980s was becoming very difficult. South Africa was in the height of the Apartheid era, and more countries were putting trade sanctions in place against South Africa. It was very difficult to import our instrumentation. Also, computing systems were starting to be used in control systems, and one needed a lot of resources if you were to keep up with the competition. It was also hard to find specialists in this field at the time, and if you did get one, they were soon poached by some of the
NEWS & EVENTS 10 February 2024 www.instrumentation.co.za ‘big boys’. The business was also growing to a stage where I had to increasingly turn my attention to managing, rather than doing engineering. I far preferred being an engineer than having to manage other people. In late 1989, Dave Ender phoned and asked me to come over to spend some time with him in Phoenix. He told me that he had discovered that nobody really understood the practicalities of feedback control, and we needed to train people. He had developed a course and wanted to try it on me. I told him that it was ridiculous to say that no one understood control, and was very sceptical. However, I went over and spent about 10 days being taught the practicalities of control. The course was literally ‘mind-blowing’. It was one of the most remarkable experiences I had in my career in control. I literally learnt much more than I’d known in the previous 20 years, and I realised that Dave was right and that no one I’d ever met in the control field had much understanding of the practical side. This marked a major turning point in my life. I realised that the knowledge I had gained needed to be spread far and wide, and I decided to sell off my businesses, and go out into the field to ‘spread the new control gospel’. So, I began a new career teaching people and also doing consulting on optimising control loops. Initially it was a hard and rocky road. I had no actual plant experience in this field and had to rely entirely on everything I had learnt from Dave in the few days I had been with him. As it transpired, not everything was 100% correct, as he was also learning. My first course was in December 1989 at a pulp plant in KwaZulu-Natal. I have subsequently referred to it as a case of the ‘blind leading the blind’. However, it was amazingly successful, and in the practical session held after the classroom sessions we managed to very successfully optimise some control loops that had previously always been in manual. It is often very challenging sorting out control problems. I remember that the chief control engineer in a large titanium extraction plant once telling me that I was completely mad. He said: “How can you expect to go into a plant where people have been trying to solve problems for sometimes years without success, and sort it out in a day or two?” In many ways he was right. I certainly have not succeeded in all cases of solving problems, but in general I can tell them what the cause of the problem is, and what needs to be done. I learnt an amazing amount over the next few years, and gained a lot of self confidence in the technology. I always pointed out that companies spend huge amounts of money on installing expensive control systems, but unfortunately they generally show little interest in trying to get their systems working efficiently. This is because very few people, including both control and process personnel realise how badly their base-layer feedback control loops are working. Even to this day, when I go into a plant for the first time, I find only a few loops are operating efficiently in automatic. At least 50–75% of loops have some sort of problems in them that, in most cases, the plant personnel are not even aware of. Unfortunately, most plants have been operating in the same fashion for many years, and the management is quite happy with the operation and sees no reason to invest money to improve the performance. Sadly, with no inside knowledge of a plant’s economics, I cannot predict savings that could be made if things were operating more efficiently. However, in several cases I have performed work in plants where I was told that it had resulted in huge savings, and sometimes literally very large increases in production. One of my jobs in a pharmaceutical company in the UK resulted in them increasing annual production by £14 000 in one plant. Another great success was saving a South African mining company literally millions of Rands on a particular gold extraction process. One of the other sad things is that many plants are investing huge amounts in APC (Advanced Control Systems) without properly optimising the base layer control systems first. The APC sits above the base layer controllers and send signals to the setpoints of those controllers. If the base layer controls don’t work properly, the APC cannot operate efficiently. The APC practitioners invariably argue that they do sort out the base layer first, but I have found in numerous cases that they do not know how to perform such optimisation properly, and generally just try and adjust the tuning. An example of this was in a particular chemical plant that had installed APC and was not getting the desired results. I worked with them in optimising nearly 200 base layer control loops. A few weeks after the end of the exercise they reported back to management that an 80% improvement in the performance of the APC had been achieved by getting the base layer controls to operate efficiently. There is no doubt that although one can be taught the principles of practical optimisation; practitioners do need to gain quite a bit of experience. Once they really get into it, it is remarkable to see how much self-confidence they gain. I have had a lot of feedback over the years from past delegates on my courses on how the knowledge has helped them. Some have claimed that using optimisation has added millions to the bottom line of their companies. I am one of the few people who can say that they actually benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic. Just before it struck, I was reaching the stage of life where it was getting difficult for me to go into plants. In fact, some plants would not let me in due to my age, even though I was still very fit, and I was seriously considering retiring. However, with the lockdown along came Zoom, and I found a method where I could carry on teaching and indeed also performing optimisation from my home. This has proved very successful, and although I really am ‘semi-retired’ I still provide services of this nature to quite a few companies. In fact, even better, some of them are in far-away countries like Japan, Panama, and Ghana, to name a few. I hope I can carry on doing this as long as I’m able, as I really enjoy the challenges of this type of work. Michael Brown is a specialist in control loop optimisation, with many years of experience in process control instrumentation. His main activities are consulting and teaching practical control loop analysis and optimisation. He now presents courses and performs optimisation over the internet. His work has taken him to plants all over South Africa and also to other countries. He can be contacted at: Michael Brown Control Engineering CC, +27 82 440 7790, [email protected], www.controlloop.co.za About Michael Brown
www.instrumentation.co.za February 2024 11 Johan Maartens. From the office of the CEO This month, we have a contribution to our Cavemen to Chatbots challenge. The idea is to reminisce on where our industry came from, and where it is headed. Our contributor this month, and the winner of this month’s R1000, comes from an old and dear friend and colleague who has contributed, and is still contributing so much to our industry, Michael Brown. Reading through his article brings back so many memories, and reminds me of the way things have changed and are still changing. You can see the traditional thinking in education and how that caused headaches for those entering industry. You will learn of the struggles with technology that could not do what we wanted it to do, in contrast with today, where we have technology available that can do things we have not even dreamed of. You will see the marvellous things that people like Michael did with the technology available at the time. Asaf Amir, CEO of Chatsuite, wrote an article in VentureBeat about how chatbots are still in the caveman stage. He argues that although chatbots have been hailed as modern-day marketing Messiahs, they need some work before they can pull off miracles. It takes time for people to realise that chatbots are just a tool, and that although they may solve problems, they come with a slew of other issues that didn’t exist before, and that need to be dealt with now. If you are interested in learning more about chatbots, Zapier has compiled a list of the best AI chatbots in 2024 (https://zapier.com/blog/ best-ai-chatbot/). ChatGPT is one of the best AI chatbots overall. It is free and easy to use, and it works like a search engine with up-to-date information on current events, and links back to sources. Microsoft Bing AI is another chatbot that can generate text, images and search results. The term “boer maak ‘n plan” can be clearly seen in Michael’s description of his time during the apartheid years. It reminded me so much of the home-built controllers used at various critical plants in South Africa because of the boycotts. Our politicians have no idea what damage they caused by irresponsible behaviour, both to our industry and our financial systems. Award-winning economists are recommending that South Africans seriously look at taking their investments abroad. If business must stay out of politics, politicians should stay out of business. Professional registration We are still looking for more professional technicians, technologists and engineers to put up their hands for training as ECSA assessors in Mechatronics and Computer Engineering. Please send you names and contact details to [email protected] Time is running out for those individuals doing ‘engineering work’. Make sure you register this year. We have recommendations and links for you on our website. Make use of these before it is too late. Future jobs With the rapid pace of technological advancements, it is natural to wonder what the future holds for us and our children. The skills that will be in demand in the future are likely to be different from those that were in demand in the past. According to a report by Pluralsight, some of the most sought-after tech skills in 2024 and beyond include data science, blockchain and cybersecurity. When developing new material, education institutions should consider the skills that will be in demand in the future. Artificial intelligence has advanced to the stage where machines can create content that seems like it was done by humans. Although this technology is still in its infancy, it is already revolutionising various industries. Jobs such as AI researchers, data scientists, and robotics designers are likely to be in high demand in the future, and should be considered by both education institutions and people looking for a new direction in their professional lives. Yours in automation Johan Maartens SAIMC National Members Cavemen to Chatbots
12 February 2024 www.instrumentation.co.za AUTOMATION PROFESSIONALS Abacus Automation supplies innovative, custom-developed technical solutions using standard PLCs, drives, scada and motion control equipment and is Siemens approved for crane automation. With 23 years in the industry, this award-winning and internationally acclaimed company has highly qualified, experienced and professional staff. It operates out of offices in KwaZulu-Natal. Tel: +27 31 702 5767 [email protected] www.abacus-automation.co.za Abacus Automation Control Software Solutions - CSS Customer-centricity allows CSS to attain a high percentage of repeat business from its growing customer base. With a solid 17 years’experience in designing customised C&A solutions, CSS partners with customers in relationships thriving on information sharing and open communication enabling them to enhance customer operations. Supplier Certification provides customers with the assurance that the CSS team is completely up to date on current trends and technology as indicated by a number of prestigious awards. Tel: +27 31 914 0040 [email protected] www.cs-solutions.co.za Moore Process Controls Moore Process Controls provides process automation and optimisation solutions to realise the maximum potential of your plant and assets. Its offerings include DCS, PLC, scada, compressor control solutions, MES, production management and predictive maintenance systems, control loop optimisation, alarm and energy management systems, plant security and access management systems, Matrikon OPC, OSi Soft, dashboards and historians, wireless and data solutions including digital twin, process simulators and training simulators and cloud-based IIoT solutions. Tel: +27 11 466 1673 [email protected] www.moore.co.za Consulting engineers, system integrators & project houses EHL Consulting Engineers offers comprehensive C&I services across all industries including control system design, software development and system integration; legacy system upgrades and replacements; process automation and optimisation; and IS and SIL services. Tel: +27 11 370 7400 [email protected] [email protected] www.ehl.co.za EHL Consulting Engineers Autotronix is a recognised leader in industrial automation design and implementation having attained its ISO 9001 certification. Autotronix offers its clients turnkey control system integration services for energy management, PLC/HMI/scada/VSD, manufacture of control panels, applications for water distribution and manufacturing. The company operates from offices in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Tel: +27 31 705 0400 or +27 16 422 7644 [email protected] www.autotronix.co.za Autotronix Iritron is a new millennium technology company providing quality solutions in the fields of electrical instrumentation and control systems engineering, MES systems integration and simulations. It has a proven ability to manage projects efficiently and produce high quality results. It has an extensive track record of successfully implementing plant infrastructure reticulation, designs, and automation and information systems. Iritron, a TUV accredited ISO 9001:2015; ISO 14001:1015 and ISO 45001:2018 as well as a GAMP®5: A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant technology company, can offer its clients PLC, DCS, MES and scada software and hardware, as well as electrical and instrumentation design, engineering, project management and commissioning services. Tel: +27 12 349 2919 [email protected] www.iritron.co.za Iritron
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