‘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.
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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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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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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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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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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