During 2007, I had the opportunity to visit the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen a town on the northern side of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in southern Germany, near the borders with Switzerland and Austria. Probably the most famous airship built was the Hindenburg built in 1931 to a new, all-duralumin design.
Vivian MacFadyen
It was a visually striking airship, 245 m long and 41 m in diameter, longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end, and only 24 m shorter than the Titanic. It was originally equipped with cabins for 50 passengers and a crew complement of 40, though on the last flight there were an additional 21 crew members in training.
The centrepiece of the museum is a reconstruction of a 33 m section of the craft. What struck me was the size, the opulence of the accommodation, and mostly the skill of the construction crew. The duralumin frame was extremely light, and I almost hurt myself when lifting a 15 000 X 300 X 300 mm section because I was not expecting it to lift so easily. There were literally millions of rivets holding the aircraft frame together, and these were not pop rivets, each one had to be fitted with hand tools.
The workers must have had great pride in themselves and it showed in their workmanship. The rivets were set expertly, the metal cut precisely, and even though the frame would not be normally visible, it was perfectly finished.
In contrast, I live in the neighbourhood of a recently constructed shopping mall and the workmanship is incredibly shoddy, especially since we now have far better machine tools to use.
I believe today's workers in South Africa are just as capable as those in Germany, but unfortunately they have not been trained by skilled master workers. These experienced people have been abnormally displaced but are still out there, and given the right opportunity, could become valuable mentors to the new workforce.
The upliftment of our work ethic needs to be done holistically, and not hindered by lack of insight and prejudice.
International robotics conference streams live to Africa
SAIMC
The SAIMC hosted five live-stream viewing events across South Africa for the IEEE International Conference of Robotics and Automation in Vienna, bringing global robotics research and technology directly to local industry and academia.
Read more...From the office of the CEO: Introduction to GRIP SAIMC
SAIMC
Industry has long been concerned about graduates who have no understanding of the modern equipment they will face in industry. This has triggered an investigation into the possibility of creating a facility whereby graduates register with the SAIMC and rotate through all the vendors to obtain experience on modern equipment.
Read more...SAIMC: Durban branch SAIMC
SAIMC
The SAIMC Durban Branch hosted a technology meeting featuring a presentation by Abacus Automation on the practical role of AI in industrial automation, drawing considerable interest from attendees.
Read more...SAIMC: Johannesburg branch SAIMC
SAIMC
Instrotech recently hosted a technical presentation on load cell technology and applications at the SAIMC Johannesburg Technology Evening, presented by Trevor Salzwedel. The session covered load cell fundamentals, selection and installation, mechanical considerations and calibration methods.
Read more...SAIMC: Johannesburg Golf Day SAIMC
SAIMC
The SAIMC Johannesburg Golf Day on 22 May 2026 brought together 16 four-balls for a day of golf, networking and fundraising, with generous support from sponsors across the instrumentation and control sector.
Read more...SAIMC: Johannesburg branch SAIMC
SAIMC
The Johannesburg Branch had the privilege of being hosted by Phoenix Contact for our technology event in May. Shamil Surbun, BU manager for Automation, presented a CPD-accredited session on ‘From Sensor to Cloud: How SPE and APL Are Transforming Industrial Connectivity’.
Read more...From the office of the CEO: Power Hour goes national SAIMC
SAIMC
South Africa’s automation, control, mechatronics and computer engineering community is changing fast, and the SAIMC is changing with it. I am excited to announce a new national initiative that will reshape how we deliver technical knowledge, strengthen branch identity and bring our community together like never before.
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