The Johannesburg branch held its Technology Evening on 8 June, where Gary Friend, chairman of the Foundation Fieldbus Southern African Marketing Committee (FFSAMC), presented an overview of Foundation fieldbus and the efforts of the FFSAMC to ensure that there is proper training available so that users and potential users gain maximum benefit from this technology.
Johan Grobler (l) with Bjorn Matthews of the University of Pretoria, recipient of the Schneider Electric/SAIMC award for his thesis on robots and artificial intelligence
Foundation fieldbus has been around for many years, but has not had much publicity in South Africa until recently. Part of the problem is lack of knowledge about the advantages that the technology can offer.
It is an all-digital, serial, two-way communications system that serves as the
base-level network in a plant or factory automation environment. Based on an open architecture developed and administered by the Fieldbus Foundation, it is targeted for applications using basic and advanced regulatory control and for much of the discrete control associated with those functions, mostly in the process industry.
Foundation fieldbus was originally intended as a replacement for the 4-20 mA standard and today it coexists alongside other technologies such as Modbus, Profibus, and industrial Ethernet. Today it enjoys a growing installed base in many heavy process applications such as refining, petrochemicals, power generation, food, beverage, pharmaceuticals and nuclear applications.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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’.
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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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