‘The evolution of emergency shutdown devices (ESD) in the process industry.’
The April Technology Evening for the Durban branch of the SAIMC will be held on 4 April at the Westville Country Club. Presented by Fred Venter, sales director of Valve & Automation, it promises to be an informative and interesting evening. With wide experience in the chemical and oil refining industries, Fred started off his extensive career at the Sasol 3 complex in Secunda and has since had in excess of 20 years instrumentation experience working with leading international control valve manufactures.
Fred’s presentation will be broken into three parts:
* FDT/DTM technology standardises communication and is widely used in our industry.
* Final control elements in ESD applications such as On/Off. These valves can show a tendency to get stuck and as a result might not operate on demand. This can have a severe impact to the functionality of a safety system with damaging results to the operating personnel, plant equipment and environment.
* Partial Stroke Testing (PST) – why and how? This test offers operators a tool to trouble-proof the functioning of ESD valves.
There is an easier way to measure temperature’ was the title of Steve Edwards’ (R&C Instrumentation) presentation at the Durban SAIMC March Technology Evening. With Steve’s extensive experience in the instrumentation field and R&C’s distributorship for infrared detectors and imagers, high temperature boiler inspection cameras and acoustic pyrometers, Steve was well positioned to give us an informative and interesting talk. The presentation included the theory and application of non-contact temperature measurement as well as portable equipment and infrared and acoustic pyrometers. On a more practical level, the presentation covered applications and problems associated with industries very specific to the KZN area – petrochemical, chemical, sugar mills and paper mills. It was enjoyed by all who attended.
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