Khaki-bos and khaki shorts - that is what you see a lot of in the Kalahari but visitors of the Penmac Control Roadshow on its trek to the Northern Cape will also have seen some great equipment on display - from scada systems to measurement and control instruments - from load cells to Ethernet switches.
Visiting the Northern Cape in November is a brave thing to do as our exhibitors found out when they had to endure temperatures of 38°C and more inside - outside temperatures of over 42°C! The Northern Cape area is of course renowned for its history in diamond mining and we had many engineering and control and instrumentation staff from the diamond mines and supporting industries visiting the exhibition to view the latest technology on display. But there is a lot more to this area than heat and dry land (how do those bushes survive?) as there are also major, world-class cement, lime, manganese, iron ore, and other metal producers in this area. Our exhibitors were able to make use of the opportunity to show off their products and also meet some of their clients and make new contacts.
We started off in the 100-year-old Regiment Hall in Kimberley where we were hosted by the Kimberley regiment, one of the oldest military units in the country. (Pity they never had aircon in those days!) After Kimberley we moved on to Lime Acres, a small mining town surrounded by a number of large mining companies. The weather was kinder to us as there was a pleasant breeze blowing and the hall was also airconditioned. The show was visited by some of the top engineering staff from the local industries and this helped our exhibitors to 'cement' some old client relationships.
The final leg of the Northern Cape show itinerary was the visit to the El Dorado Hotel in Kuruman. Whilst the visitor numbers in Kuruman were disappointing, a number of useful client contacts were made which hold strong possibilities for increased future business.
The companies exhibiting were: AC/DC, Adroit, Anglo Allied, Ascoreg, Autotech Weighing systems, AWR Smith, Burkert Contromatic, Festo, Industrial Automation and Control, Innomatic, IPC Africa, Lapp Cable, Laser Measurement, Loadtech, Mega Measurement, Pall SA, Rockwell Automation, R&C Instrumentation, Throughput Technologies, Wika Instruments and Yokogawa.
Penmac's programme for 2005 has been finalised and the show will be visiting a number of new areas in KwaZulu-Natal. The organisers have already had a number of commitments and look forward to another exciting year in the control, automation and measurement industry. Penmac wishes readers a successful and prosperous New Year.
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