At the SAIMC Durban technology evening held on 5 August the enthusiastic turnout was treated to an interesting presentation by Cindy Montague of Schneider Electric on Schneider’s involvement in the Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town 2010 soccer stadium projects. Amongst other things Cindy brought us up to date with all the pertinent energy efficiency and management issues that are being addressed. Afterwards the Durban crowd showed its appreciation boisterously by blowing loudly on the vuvuzelas Cindy had handed out earlier.
Illovo Sezela site visit for SAIMC members
A site visit was arranged recently for interested members to visit the Sezela Sugar mill as well as the by-products plant located on the KZN south coast.
Members were welcomed by Sezela management and after a brief description of the sugar manufacturing and Furfaral extraction process, the site tour commenced. The plant walk-through entailed the crushing plant where sticks of cane are chopped and pulverised into fine fibres. Then on to the diffuser and mills where the sugar is squeezed and washed out of the fibres, the juice section where the sugar juice is clarified and boiled into a thick syrup and the pan floor where the crystals are formed by boiling off the liquids from the syrup. The services around the plant (boilers, turbo-alternators etc,) were also visited. The modern, centralised control room was one of the highlights and various aspects of control and instrumentation were highlighted by our tour leader. The Durban committee wishes to thank Rob Moxham of Sezela and his management team for accommodating the branch members and providing some welcome refreshments at the end.
Eston student site visit
The Durban committee in collaboration with Ed Boje of the UKZN school of Electrical and Electronic engineering arranged for the automation class to visit Illovo Sugar Eston to gain firsthand knowledge of instrumentation and control in a heavy industry. The tour was a ‘laboratory’ for the students and they were required to write up a paper after visit on various aspects of the sugar production process, the business model as well as the automation aspect.
Ten students attended and after a 45 minute lecture by engineering manager, Anil Singh, on the topics for their paper they commenced the tour. The group’s enthusiasm increased significantly once they got closer to the large rotating machines of the sugar mill. The DCS at the central control room was analysed in some depth and field equipment used for the various measurements was pointed out. The group was given documentation on the sugar manufacturing process in the form of brochures and P&IDs. The visit culminated in a braai at the Eston lapa where a good time was had by all. The Durban Branch would like to place on record its sincere gratitude to Vis Pillay, GM of Eston Mill and Anil Singh, for all the effort they put into coordinating this visit.
Forthcoming attractions in KZN:
Wednesday 30 September – Richards Bay SAIMC Technology Evening. 18h30 for 19h00.
Reliable Fieldbus systems from start to finish. Presented by Gary Friend, sales director Extech Safety Systems.
Venue: Richards Bay Kayak Club, Commodore Close, Richards Bay.
Contact: Donald +27 (0)83 644 9556
</i>Tuesday 27 October </i>– Durban SAIMC Technology Evening: Johan Hamman, managing director of DesSoft Design Software will be discussing the necessity of plant documentation (company standards, reducing of plant downtime and how to maintain these documents (redlining, ownership etc).
</i>Venue:</i> University of KawZulu-Natal Howard Collect Campus: 17h30 for 18h15. All welcome.
Wednesday 28 October – Richards Bay SAIMC Technology Evening
Venue: Richards Bay Kayak Club. This will be a repeat of the Durban technology evening topic.
Wednesday 7 October – Site Visit: Umgeni Water – Wiggins Plant. Please contact Vmaharaj@cubetechnologies.net to register for this.
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