October 2011System Integration & Control Systems Design
Extensive processing experience in the food and beverage industry benefits clients.
In 1997 the hardware and equipment manufacturing division of Alfa Laval Automation was acquired by ABB, while David Ives and Hannes Dry took the intellectual property of the engineering element with them and formed Process Dynamics.
The Process Dynamics offices in Rhodesfield
Kobus van Niekerk joined the company in 1998, became a director in 2000 and, when Hannes Dry passed away unexpectedly in 2005, he and Erie Pretorius took over as partners in the fast-growing company. “With our collective 40 years of experience in the food and beverage automation industry we have been able to extrapolate this knowledge and transfer it to various other industries. Because food processing requires extensive input in terms of the complexity of engineering, we can truly say we are able to supply our diverse client base with the best and most cost effective automation solutions. Although our roots are set in the food and beverage industry, we have also made our mark within other industries such as water purification, pharmaceutical, material handling and power generation.”
Process Dynamics offers full turnkey solutions to its clients from conceptual design, detail design, software design and development, hardware design and supply, system integration, control panel and MCC design and project management through to installation, commissioning and service agreements. “In addition, we manufacture all the necessary control panels in-house, ensuring that the customer specifications are carefully taken into consideration and quality levels are strictly adhered to,” van Niekerk explains.
This Certified Level 5 BBBEE company is a registered Siemens solutions partner and PCS7 integrator. It is also a registered integrator for various other PLC and scada manufacturers, including Rockwell, Schneider, Adroit and Wonderware.
“We like to think, however, that rather than being a company driven by products and their selection, we have a more targeted focus on customer service. We believe in getting to know the processes of our clients intimately. It is only in this manner that you can develop an automation solution that is tailored specifically for their unique process requirements,” says Van Niekerk.
The company is based in Kempton Park and employs 18 people, including 10 engineers and three electrical/instrumentation installation teams. “We are an ISO9001 registered firm and we follow these guidelines through a well managed and audited system. In order to keep our engineers up to speed on technology developments, they attend regular training sessions with our principals. In turn, the knowledge they acquire from these courses is transferred to the clients who use these systems,” says Van Niekerk.
The company boasts a number of high-profile projects including: Parmalat Yoghurt Factory Link scada migration to Siemens WINCC, Various Siemens S5 migrations to Siemens S7 within Eskom, coal stacker/reclaimer refurbishments where new PLCs and HMIs were incorporated into the main control system via radio link, PCS7 extension of a previous Process Dynamics installation for a locally based distiller and control system upgrades for various breweries in Africa. “Approximately 60% of our projects are based in surrounding Africa, with the remaining 40% undertaken in South Africa,” says van Niekerk.
A belief in taking care of the needs of others is exhibited by the company’s CSI programme, which includes the educational sponsorship of a number of learners at a school in Benoni.
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