At the September technology evening, Dr Kelvin Kemm, recipient of the Lifetime Achievers Award by the South African National Science and Technology Forum, talked about ‘Nuclear power as a future main energy source’. Dr Kemm, a nuclear physicist, environmentalist, iconoclast de luxe, business strategy consultant and founder of a lobby group called Green and Gold Forum, believes that a healthy economy needs wide appreciation for the role of technology.
He sees a bright future for nuclear power, especially in Africa where coal is a dirty depleting resource and solar and wind technologies, although having their place, are erratic and cannot generate sufficient sustainable electricity to provide cost effective solutions. The crisis is compounded by the fact that there are essentially no more hydro sites that could deliver significant amounts of power.
Dr Kemm receives the SAIMC presenter’s certificate from Johan Maartens, Debbie Scott looks on
Dr Kemm spoke about South Africa’s nuclear programme, the situation in Japan and the future of nuclear energy. He promotes the use of the pebble bed modular reactor in African electrical development, from the viewpoint that nuclear energy is essential to provide cost effective, sustainable power in Africa.
Known for his contrarian take on things, he stirs conventional thinking including the hype and politicising of global warming. He criticised the 10 green myths of global warming with the premise, “See the science and get the myth out your head”.
We thank Dr Kemm for his insightful talk, which was well received.
SAIMC site visit to Unilever’s Boksburg factory
On Friday 23 September the Jhb branch of the SAIMC organised a factory visit to the Unilever Factory in Boksburg. The visit was well attended, and despite being on a Friday afternoon, there were at least six people on the waiting list to attend. The tour started with a safety induction and an interesting presentation showing the history of the plant and the Unilever group.
We then moved to the control room for an overview of the DCS system, then onto the factory floor where we followed the manufacturing process. We were shown the different control philosophies being utilised, from centralised DCS to PLC/scada control using Fieldbus into the plant. We were also able to discuss aspects of the instrumentation in use around the factory. Our appreciation to Jon and Chris from Unilever who took us around the factory, answered our questions and explained how and why certain measuring and control principles are used in the factory.
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
The SAIMC Durban Branch hosted a technology meeting featuring a presentation by Abacus Automation on the practical role of AI in industrial automation, drawing considerable interest from attendees.
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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’.
Read more...From the office of the CEO: Power Hour goes national SAIMC
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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