Witbank sub-branch
November 2003
News
The branch was established on 16 October 2001 and is proud to report that we have enrolled six new members for 2003. The committee is striving to reach full branch status by end of 2004.
Committee members are:
* Pieter Smit (chairman) 082 922 9825
* Fanie Ferreira (treasurer ) 082 440 9898
* Wayne Pickering (vice chairman) 082 494 0339
We had excellent presentations by Vega (Profibus), Futuristix (Advanced Control Systems and DT Analyst) and in October we had Adroit (Re-usable items in scada) whereby valuable knowledge and information was gained. Many thanks to these sponsors for their valued presentation.
These presentations take place on a monthly basis on the first Thursday of every month.
Other events that we are planning for the rest of the year include a visit to Columbus Steel, Golf day - and we are planning for 28 November, excursions to some of the very interesting industries in and around Witbank/Middelburg area. Upcoming presentations are to be presented by Yokogawa, Elen enclosures, PTM and Dust Emissions.
The WTB committee members are putting in a lot of effort to attract new members and to get the existing members to attend the branch meetings and make the meetings attractive. If anybody out there has ideas on how we can achieve the above effectively, please contact us at the telephone numbers mentioned above.
The past year was a disappointing year as far as member attendance at the branch meetings. We request that all branch members do make an concerted effort to attend the monthly sponsored branch meeting.
In the article on "What incentives are there for practical training" in the Editorial Comment column of our Instrumentation & Control mag, reference is made to how difficult it is take 60 students to a plant to show them how various instruments and valves work. I spoke to the head of Control and Instrumentation Engineering at Witbank Technikon about helping them to establish a laboratory equipped with active control loops so that students can see how the instruments and valves work. He has invited us to come and discuss the matter. The I&C industry has various pieces of redundant I&C equipment which I am sure can be donated to the Technikon, with which such a lab could be outfitted inexpensively.
Pieter Smit, Chairman, [email protected]
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