I was asked to chair the third day of the Second Annual Bulk Liquid Storage Tanks Conference held from 25 to 27 June at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre. The feedback from the 47 delegates was immensely positive regarding the content, the calibre of speakers, the conference's ability to present new ideas and providing the opportunity to establish new business relationships.
Vivian MacFadyen
Although this industry only requires a narrow array of instrumentation, the different speakers opened up intriguing understanding of a subject that many of us do not even consider under usual circumstances. Did you know that large tanks, the type you see whilst passing a petroleum refinery, are continuously moving?
As they fill up, they get fatter and shorter. The temperature of the product causes expansion and contraction. These movements, even though they are measured in a few millimetres make it difficult to automatically measure the volume of product in the tank.
If you mount a level gauge on the top of the tank, the gauge goes up and down, or the cross sectional area changes. This makes a simple formula of πr²xh impossible to apply. Obviously, this applies to accurate measurement required for custody transfer, if you are simply preventing the tank over-filling or being sucked dry, you could almost use a plastic bag.
This highlights the fact that the instrument application engineer needs to fully understand an application before specifying a gauge. It is no good supplying a gauge suitable for 1 mm accuracy if the mounting structure moves up and down by 10 mm, and wobbles in the wind. Well, now I am on my old hobby-horse - skills. If we do not have students that have studied physical science in their schooling, how will they even hope to understand the implications of industrial measurement, let alone use a tape measure?
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SAIMC
Jenine Jansen van Vuuren from Comtest delivered a presentation at the SAIMC Johannesburg technology evening, focusing on electric vehicle charging stations and the key metrics that govern their functionality.
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SAIMC
At the monthly meeting of the Durban branch of the SAIMC, Smunye Memela, project manager and switch gear specialist at Gubhuza 3 Trading presented on the subject ‘From sensors to insights: predictive maintenance in action’.
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SAIMC
SAIMC will host a technical knowledge-sharing session by Hendrik Spies from SICK Sensor Intelligence, who will share his insights into ‘From Condition Monitoring to Predictive Maintenance: The Digital Journey’.
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SAIMC
: At the SAIMC Durban monthly meeting, James Adams from Adroit Technologies presented to a full house on the subject of ‘The intelligent factory: AI, digital twins, zero-defect production, and cybersecurity in modern automotive manufacturing’.
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SAIMC
AI has become part of our productivity platforms, our operations and our decision making environments. The SAIMC NPC Power Hour series is one such initiative.
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SAIMC
The March SAIMC Johannesburg technology event was proudly hosted by Matech and focused on business intelligence made simple.
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