Technology Evening April 2010
What is risk? How can it be quantified? What tolerance is put against process safety? Do engineers have specific professional responsibilities towards safety? How should the risk be managed? How can organisational environments be structured to improve professional responsibility or to manage risk better? What roles can professional societies and engineering educators play in addressing this issues?
The Vaal branch held its second meeting of the year on 8 April where all the questions mentioned above were addressed during a presentation on process safety by Rolf Köstlin of Siemens Southern Africa. Although such questions may initially appear esoteric, they are of substantial concern for health, safety and the environment.
During the presentation, Rolf addressed the safety engineering principle and regulations pertaining to safety in process industries as follows:
* Functional process safety.
* Introduction and importance of IEC standard in process industries.
* Safety instrumented system (SIS) design methodologies.
* Brief history and the impact SIS has made in ensuring the safety of the environment, personnel and plant processing equipment.
The presentation by Siemens was very informative and educational. The attendees were given the opportunity to ask about safety related problems currently experienced in their respective organisations and probable solutions were presented in an attempt to address the challenges. Rolf’s well articulated presentation earned him a certificate for outstanding speaker presented by the Vaal branch.
Technology Evening May 2010
The Vaal branch welcomed Johan Steyn, Wika product manager who provided an informative presentation titled ‘Principles of magnetic level measurement’. Level measurement on vessels is critical both in terms of operations as well as statutory requirements. The excellent turnout highlighted the interest in the instrumentation community for such products.
Johan’s presentation ensured that all members of the audience were quickly brought up to speed with the measurement principle by taking them all the way back to content covered in high-school physics. The presentation covered basic principles, industry application and typical installations. The possible pitfalls of such installations as well as safety-related considerations were also discussed. Johan highlighted the critical design conditions required to specify magnetic level instruments and provided various examples of the device’s utilisation.
The presentation slides were supplemented by a variety of product samples as well as instrument internals which ensured that there was plenty of touching and feeling.
The group interaction as well as the presenters' humour made for an informative and entertaining evening enjoyed by all.
The Vaal branch will be holding its July technology meeting at the Iscor Bowling Club in Vanderbijlpark at 17:30. The topic is still to be confirmed but will be presented by Siemens Southern Africa. Contact Eben Grobbelaar on eben.grobbelaar@natref.com for further details.
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