The Durban technology evening was held on 6 October at the Westville Country Club. It was clear from the excellent attendance that the topic was one that attracted wide interest. Gary Friend, sales director of Extech gave a very interesting and excellently presented talk about protection methods for electrical circuits in hazardous sreas, with special focus on intrinsic safety which is the preferred protection technique for many instrumentation installations. He reviewed hazardous area zone classification before covering the origins and principles of IS and the implications for dusts. It was noted that whereas the discharge of electrical energy was the major concern in the case of gases, in the case of dust the surface temperature was generally of greater significance. The use and specific advantages of zener barriers and galvanic isolators in a variety of practical situations were examined and compared, and he summarised the principles of loop design to accommodate both safety and operational requirements before moving on to show how approvals are done and how maximum usable cable lengths are calculated. The presentation ended with a brief look at IS for fieldbus and for Ethernet.
Presenter, Gary Friend seen shaking hands with Vinesh Maharaj
SAIMC Zambia SAIMC
SAIMC News
SAIMC Zambia marked its 21st anniversary with the annual SAIMC Banquet, held on 29 November 2025 at Mukwa Lodge in Kitwe, Zambia.
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The SAIMC Durban Branch closed off its 2025 technology meetings with an exceptionally well-attended session on selecting and applying signal transducers.
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The SAIMC Durban branch hosted its much-anticipated annual year-end dinner at the Mount Edgecombe Country Club on 22 November 2025. Durban’s summer weather provided the perfect backdrop for a warm, ...
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At the Durban branch of the SAIMC held in October, Mitch Naidoo took the attendees on an interesting journey on Asset Health Management: Tracking The Pulse Of Your Plant.
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At the Durban branch of the SAIMC held in October, Mitch Naidoo took the attendees on an interesting journey on Asset Health Management: Tracking The Pulse Of Your Plant.
Read more...SAIMC: Johannesburg branch SAIMC
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The SAIMC Johannesburg Branch technical evening was hosted by Proconics Advanced Solutions. The topic of the session was ‘Turning Big 3D Data into Actionable Engineering Insights – Challenges and Smart Solutions’.
Read more...SAIMC User Advisory Council Annual Summit 2025 SAIMC
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October 2025 marked a pivotal moment for the South African automation and manufacturing community as the SAIMC User Advisory Council hosted its first annual summit under the SAIMC banner.
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The Johannesburg Branch of the SAIMC hosted a successful Technology Evening on 10 September. The event was well attended and generously sponsored by Phoenix Contact.
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