2009 Round-up
Technology evenings
Technology evenings kicked off in March with Nirmal Naratam of PAS describing the best way to configure alarms so as to eliminate alarm ‘flooding’, and confusing the operator. This was followed by Gary Friend from Extech in April, who spoke about Fieldbus technology and issues of correct operation and faultfinding. From there we went on to Conrad Mueller of Beckhoff who spoke about how EtherCat makes Ethernet into a totally deterministic network. The following month’s talk was by Clinton Jensen of Phambili Interface who covered proper Ethernet installation procedures. August brought us fibre-optic technology, courtesy of the ATC division of CBI (presented by Willie Wakeford), followed by a demonstration of the DesignSoft package presented by Johan Hamman.
One of the highlights was undoubtedly the visit to Gilroy’s brewery, where we not only saw a small-scale brewery operation, but were hilariously instructed in the advantages of unfiltered, non-pasteurised beer on everything from our sense of humour, to our sex lives.
Site visits
On this front we have had a very active year, with visits to the SAA Flight Simulator, and to BMW, both fully subscribed and enjoyed by all. Thanks to Nico Marneweck for organising these. About 30 people also enjoyed the visit to the Kelvin power station. Most learned more about the firing of boilers than they thought was possible, and it was very instructive to see both chain grid, and pulverised fuel boilers close up and uncomfortable. Thanks to Jay King and the power station for this instructive visit.
Social events
As always, one of the highlights was the annual Golf Day, which was fully subscribed. This is a wonderful way to support the Johannesburg branch, and also to entertain customers and staff.
The year-end function, as usual, was an evening sponsored by the branch at a Barnyard theatre.
2010
So what have we got to look forward to in the year ahead? To a certain extent, that depends on you! Nothing happens by itself, and we are looking for enthusiastic younger members to join the Committee. Our AGM will be held in February, and you will be advised about this. If you would like to contribute (and add to your CV), please let us know. You will be advised in plenty of time before the AGM.
Are there topics you would like covered at technology evenings? Any site visits you think will be worthwhile (perhaps at your plant)? Social events you think would help members to get to know each other better? (And by the way, if you are not yet a member, why not join?)
Your committee: Paulo, Debbie, Johan, Eric, Jay, Johan and Gert.
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