SAME Jun 2010

THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010 1

BMG

2 THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010

THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010 �

Chris ReayChairman of the Working

Committee: Communications(SA Institution of Mechanical

Engineering)

AN ENGINEER’S VIEW

The World at Large

A well presented explanation of the build-up and collapse of the world credit markets is provided in a book called the Perfect Recession which shows the analogy with

the causes of the Perfect Storm that destroyed so much of the east coast of the USA in 1991. It identifies the coincidental phasing of some 12 independent effects, that happening on their own, would normally pass by unnoticed.

No bailoutHow should SA emerge from the recession? Investec convincingly pointed out that unemployment was our biggest threat, a feature that we have to solve ourselves. No bailout is available for that. How well is SA creating an environment that encourages the entrepreneur and the small businesses that are the backbone of growth in any economy? If SA were in effect a business corporation, would you invest in it when presented with some of the following attributes in a strategic plan? The Planning Com-mission believes it is acceptable to have a two and a half year sabbatical before it needs to put any plan forward (one year to form, 18 months before delivery). An integrated energy policy, crucial to confidence and forward planning, does not exist. So what do we have to consider?

Can we competeLabour market and labour laws: most employers try to automate where they can to eliminate labour that has first world rights in a third world environment. No fire and hire here that built most successful economies. Competitiveness: low down on the world scale and dropping. Education of citizens: like the curate’s egg, good in many parts, horrible

in many others. Our private schools are as good as you can get, and need to be nurtured to keep that standard. Many government schools in general need a big kick just to get the teachers to class in time. Even the Minister is shocked, and that says some-thing. Energy and power: per the new Eskom edict, the 25% increase will now happen 5 years in a row. Plug that into your cost planning. Effective skills development: blank screen. Some skills are marginally available while the world recovers and many projects end in SA. I place Engineers as a business and interact every day with employers and candidates; if you are not relating to your future skills need, you may be in trouble because the really good ones are still scarce. Too many employers of engineering resources believe Mr Perfect is waiting on the street corner for the call.

Skills neededThe huge intellectual capital tied up in retired-age Engineers remains unutilised due to a belief that these skills reside in the 30 to 50 age category. We need more effective Candidate Engineer training and paid mentoring as well as a lot more CPD than the minimum required for registration credits to help keep the institutional memory in the system.

There is big hope for tourism if we do not mug or steal from too many visitors. The World Cup should be a great event and I believe SA has done well against the forebodings of many critics. It could do wonders for putting us on the map, perhaps bringing skills (back) into the country, but we have to energise ourselves beyond the revenues of tour-ists. Will the intangible benefits of exposure and national identity outweigh the massive cost to SA of the event?

We need a game plan as a country. Where is it, Mr President and Mr Manuel? Let us not find that while we survived the recession, we lost the way to compete in the recovery.

A recent presentation by Investec Bank on the status of the world economy and the investment position shows that SA is in a lot better condition than many developed and emerging economies. Thankfully, whether by design or not, we were

saved from the direct effects of the credit crisis by the Credit Act, our traditionally high but realistic interest rates and rela-tively conservative banking system. In the USA it is estimated that some 30% of homes have mortgage liabilities that exceed

the value of the assets themselves. Millions of toxic loans comprising the structured investment vehicles of securitized assets whose values cannot be determined remain in the sys-tem as do the credit default swaps, the ultimately crazy and disastrous process of gambling with insurance products on

assets you do not own. And Europe now shows serious bank-ruptcy cracks.

We need a game plan as a country. Where is it, Mr President and Mr Manuel

� THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010

WARMANENVIROTECH VULCO CAVEX ISOGATE


Monthly Column8 Enter the Dragon

Cover Story11 A New Business Concept

Pipes Pumps & Valves13 Dewatering Mines17 No More Headaches

Bearings & Lubrication19 Digital Manual Greasing

Letter to the Editor21 Hands-on Training

POWER GENERATION TODAY23 Saving Energy With Burners

Produced by:PROMECH PUBLISHING,P O Box 373, Pinegowrie, 2123Republic of South AfricaTel: (011) 781-1401, Fax: (011) 781-1403Email: [email protected]: www.promech.co.zaManaging Editor Susan CustersEditor Kowie HammanAdvertising Pauline BouwerCirculation Catherine MacdivaDTP Zinobia Docrat/Sanette LehanieDisclaimerPROMECH Publishing and The South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering as well as any other body do not take responsibility for the opinions expressed by individuals.Printed by: Typo Colour Printing, Tel: (011) 402-3468/9

Official Publication ofTHE SA INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERINGand endorsed by:

CORROSION INSTITUTE OF SA SA PUMP MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION SA VALVE AND ACTUATORS MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION THE SA INSTITUTE OF TRIBOLOGY NUCLEAR INSTITUTE SA INSTITUTE FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS INSTITUTE FOR CERTIFICATED MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION OF SOCIETIES FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

28 Power Generation News

Bearings & Lubrication31 The Mystery of Machine Wear

Computers in Engineering33 Designing Defence Systems37 Environmental Clean-up

Regulars3 An Engineer’s View6 Institution News30 Nuclear Institute (SA Branch)39 SAIT40 Market Forum46 On the Move

Contents

The monthly circulation is 4 242

CopyrightAll rights reserved. No editorial matter published in “SA Mechani-cal Engineer” may be reproduced in any form or language without written permission of the publish-ers. While every effort is made to ensure accurate reproduction, the editor, authors, publishers and their employees or agents shall not be responsible or in any way liable for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies in the publication, whether arising from negligence or otherwise or for any consequences arising therefrom. The inclusion or exclusion of any product does not mean that the publisher or editorial board advocates or rejects its use either generally or in any particular field or fields.

June 2010 VOLUME 60 NUMBER 6

Featured on the Cover

BMGTel: (011) 620-1663Email: [email protected]


THE SA INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Council 2009/2010

Office BearersPresident .......................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G Barbic (George)President Elect ........................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... D Findeis (Dirk)National Treasurer ................................. K Nyangoni (Kudzai)

Branch ChairpersonsCentral ..................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M Cramer (Mike)Eastern Cape ................................................ W Rall (William)KwaZulu/Natal ........................................... AG Fileczki (Alex)Western Cape ........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prof B Collier-Reed (Brandon)

Portfolios:Communications .............................................. CD Reay (Chris)Education - Universities................... Prof JL van Niekerk (Wikus)Education: Universities of Technology............... E Zawilska (Ewa)Membership .................................................... E Zawilska (Ewa)Seminars and Workshops.................................. D Findeis (Dirk)Technology Programme ................................. SZ Hrabar (Steve)

Chief Executive Officer: Vaughan Rimbault

National Office Manager: Anisa Nanabhay PO Box �11, Bruma, 2026Tel: (011) 61�-�660, Fax: (011) �88-��6Email: [email protected] Website: www.saimeche.org.zaMembership: Central, Eastern Cape & KZN: [email protected] Membership: Western Cape: [email protected]

Company AffiliatesAinsworth Engineering

Alstom Power Service SA

Babcock Africa Limited

Bateman Engineered Technologies

Bosch Projects

Fluor SA

GEA Air-cooled Systems

Hansen Transmissions SA

Hatch Africa

Howden Power

Howden Projects

Industrial Water Cooling

KHD Humboldt Wedag SA

Megchem Eng & Drafting Services

Osborn Engineered Products SA

Rotek Engineering

RSD a division of DCD-Dorbyl

S.A.M.E Water

Sasol Technologies

SEW Eurodrive

Siemens

SNC-Lavalin SA

Spicer Axle SA

Spirax Sarco SA

Thyssenkrupp Engineering

Transvaal Pressed Nuts & Bolts

Ultra-Flow Engineering Services

Vital Engineering

Weir Minerals Africa

Winder Controls

Patrick John Broli - Developer & Presenter of “Aluminium” and “Plastics” Workshops

John Broli is a graduate in Chemical En-gineering of the University of Cape Town and holds a Masters Degree in Business Leadership from the SBL - UNISA.

John has worked with Dow Chemical Neth-erlands and for Dow in South Africa and the Afrox Group. John has been Managing Director at Chemplast for two periods from 1985 to 2008 and was Managing Director of General Chemicals for an interim period. He served as a Director of the Protea Chemicals Group from 1988 to 1989.

In late 2007 John and his partner acquired the renowned ‘Jones Industrial Mixers’ busi-ness and re-established this 50 year old business as a new independent company. John is Chairman and actively involved in Jones and the mixing industry. He is also a director of the company Engineers for Africa (E4A), which is involved in a Professional Development Program with SAIMechE.

He has had extensive experience in glo-balization programs in the South African engineering environment and has visited over 40 countries worldwide, including many global factories (including Russian and Chinese factories). He has presented technical seminars in the USA, Australia and other countries.

John has been a Registered Professional Engineer in Chemical Engineering since 1973 and is a member of SAIChemE, SAIMechE and the South African Chapter of OCCA.

John Broli

Don’t Miss Out!


THE SA INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

“The South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering Training Events Calendar: July - August 2010”

Whilst every effort is made to ensure that events take place as scheduled, SAIMechE reserves the right to change the schedule as circumstances dictate. A registration form and full terms and conditions may be obtained from Carey Evans on email: [email protected] or call (031) 764-7136. Also, detailed individual event programmes are available from Carey. Corporations wishing to book In-House Workshops may contact Linda Robinson on email: [email protected] or call (031) 764-7136.

“CPD Points”

Event Code Event Title Date Region

1 J2710 Philosopy of Mechanical Maintenance 14-Jul-10 Pretoria

1 C3610 Project Management - A Review of Essentials 15-Jul-10 Cape Town

1 D3110 Heat Transfer in Practice - Via Conduction & Convection 21-Jul-10 Vereeniging

1 D3210 Heat Transfer in Practice - Evaporative Cooling & Drying Processes; Radiant Heat Transfer

22-Jul-10 Vereeniging

1 H3310 Stainless Steel - Complete Overview for Engineers Including Design with Stainless Steel

28-Jul-10 Rivonia

1 A3110 Heat Transfer in Practice - Via Conduction & Convection 28-Jul-10 Durban

1 A3210 Heat Transfer in Practice - Evaporative Cooling & Drying Processes; Radiant Heat Transfer

29-Jul-10 Durban

1 E1610 Improving Plant Safety and Design by Understanding Legislation and Process Safety

05-Aug-10 East Rand

2 B0910 Refrigeration Explained 11 to 12-Aug-10 Port Elizabeth

2 F3010 Root Cause Failure Analysis 11 to 12-Aug-10 Rivonia

1 E1710 Engineering and Design for Process Plants 18-Aug-10 East Rand

2 A0910 Refrigeration Explained 18 to 19-Aug-10 Durban

1 E1810 Materials- Selection Specification and Welding Technology 19-Aug-10 East Rand

2 D0910 Refrigeration Explained 25 to 26-Aug-10 Vereeniging


On closer inspection, you might spot a monk with a small bucket of water and a brush going up to each of the brightly-coloured dragon heads at

the front of these long boats. The monk dips the brush into a bucket before ceremoniously dabbing it across each eye of the dragon. This ‘awakens’ the dragon before twenty-odd people jump into the boats to race against each other along lanes plotted on the water.

The boatA dragon boat is powered by humans and is tradi-tionally made of teak to various designs and sizes. It forms part of a family of traditional long boats found throughout Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands. The Mokoro, carved out of a single tall log from a tree trunk and used in swamps all over Africa for transport and fishing, is probably the only African

version of a traditional long boat.

Dragon boats, now generally made from fibreglass, are used in this team-paddling sport which originated in China over 2 000 years ago. In modern times, it emerged as an international ‘sport’ in Hong Kong in 1976 to attract tourism. For competition events, dragon boats are generally rigged with decorative Chinese dragon heads and tails. In Chinese my-thology, dragons are traditionally believed to be the rulers of rivers and seas.

ClubsSouth Africa has Dragon boat clubs all over the country and the members aren’t necessarily Chinese or Taiwanese people. Not with names like the Bokka Bokka team or the amaBele Belles, a team consisting of ladies who are breast cancer survivors. “SA Mechanical Engineer” speaks to

Lionel Benham of the Golden City Dragon Boat Club based at Wemmer Pan in Johannesburg about this sport, today often utilised by corporate companies for team-building exercises.

“Modern dragon boat racing is organised at an international level by the International Dragon Boat Federation, a member of the General Association of International Sports Federations, which recognises two types of dragon boat racing activities, namely sport racing and festival racing,” Lionel explains.

Enter the DragonWhen next you drive past any of the city lakes, Zoo Lake, Centurion Lake, Wemmer Pan, Florida Lake, or any of the harbours, or one of our many river resorts and you spot a

regalia of long brightly-coloured water vessels, you’ve more than likely spotted a traditional Chinese festival. The date is

bound to be the fifth day after the fifth moon on the lunar cal-endar, usually around the end of May or it could very well be the tenth of October 10/10, two dates when all Dragon boat enthusiasts get together to participate in a racing event cel-

ebrated around the world.

MONTHLY COLUMN

Lionel Benham of the Golden City Boat Club

Full steam ahead, the calle getting ready on the dragon’s head to grab the flag

Dragons are traditionally believed to be the rulers of rivers and seas


MONTHLY COLUMN

“Festival races are the more traditional and informal types of races where the rules may vary from one event to the other.”

The flag“A Taiwanese practice, for instance, is to have a ‘flag grabber’ on the dragon’s head to determine the winner,” Lionel says. “In the old days, there were no photo finish cameras, so close races were adjudicated by a panel of judges who observed which crew was the first to pull, grasp or grab a flag that rested on a buoy positioned at the finish-ing line for each racing lane. If the grabber misses the flag, the finish is only recognised once the tail of the boat crosses the finishing line.”

The standard crew of a contemporary dragon boat is around 22, comprising 20 paddlers in pairs facing toward the bow of the boat, one drummer or caller at the bow facing toward the paddlers, and a sweep or helmsman at the rear of the boat. “The paddlers sit facing forwards and use a specific type of paddle which, unlike a rowing oar, is not rigged to the boat in any way,” says Lionel. “Dragon boaters are paddlers, not rowers or oarsmen. The art of dragon boat racing lies in synchronising the paddlers which is controlled by the leading pair, called pacers, strokers or timers.

The beat“The drummer leads the paddlers throughout the race using his or her rhythmic beat to indicate the frequency and synchronicity of all the paddlers’ strokes,” explains Lionel. “An expert level caller will be able to gauge the power of the paddlers through the sensation of acceleration and deceleration, transmitted through the hull. They physically ‘feel’ the boat action through their feet and muscles.”

Colourfull dragon

boats on the banks

of the Vaal River before competition

A key aspect of paddling is for the blade and shaft of the paddle to be outboard and as vertical as pos-sible in orientation. “This means that the paddler has to lean part of his or her body outboard in order to maintain optimal paddle attitude,” says Lionel. “If this is properly executed at the catch, then the gravitational weight of the paddler ‘falling’ on and driving the blade, generates an enormous impulse power that is not otherwise achievable. It is similar to the high-brace type of paddling used in white water rafting and sea kayaking.”

CharitySouth African teams of mixed gender and mixed ages have successfully competed in many international dragon boat competitions. “One of our teams got a silver award a few years back,” Lionel says. “The international championships are held in Canada next year and I have great expectations for some of our guys and gals.”

But it’s not always about competing. “Apart from team-building exercises for corporates, we often do charity events and donate the profits to various organisations,” says Lionel in conclusion. “The breast cancer ladies team, which has a paraplegic lady for whom they’ve built a special seat into the boat, has participated internationally in many events. Similarly, we have a team of school boys from Soweto that’s rapidly making its mark on dragon boat racing in South Africa.”

Lionel Benham, Golden City Dragon Boat Club, Tel: 076 130-8734, Email: [email protected]

They physically ‘feel’ the boat action through their feet and muscles


Is your world corroding ?

Munters has a range of Technology and Solutionsto prevent and control corrosion.

22 Angus Crescent, Longmeadow East Business Estate, ModderfonteinP O Box 4539, Edenvale, 1610

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One of the main ob-stacles in achieving maximum productivity is the shortage of skills

and expertise to keep the machinery in industry running at optimum per-formance. BMG is now rolling out a unique business concept where they assist their clients to achieve maximum plant efficiency and at the same time reduce operating

costs. “SA Mechanical Engineer” speaks to group technical director at BMG, Dave Russell, to find out what it’s all about.

Productivity“The concept combines a series of uncomplicated solutions to pre-identified energy and productivity inefficiencies,” Dave says. “The solutions include changes to maintenance practices which may, or may not, involve investing in new or updated machinery. This solution’s widespread appeal lies in the ease of application and sustainability using predominately low tech, everyday interventions which are fully

supported by us at the operating site.

“In a nutshell, World Class Production Efficiency (WCPE) combines energy efficient product solutions with reliability engineering practices to swing the balance of operating cost and productivity in the favour of business competitiveness,” he adds. “Al-though individual circumstances vary considerably, our WCPE solution can deliver around 30% energy saving to a process plant right now. In addition, up to 15% reduction in maintenance costs and 8% improvement in productive asset availability, can flow from the initiative.

Energy“Apart from considering energy efficiency, we look at the total package of services and products that will enable a production environment, whether it’s a mine or a manufacturing concern, to get the maximum output from their operations,” Dave explains. “Our vast range of power transmission equipment puts us in a unique position to assist our customers in selecting the appropriate and right size equipment to maximise uptime and profitability.”

Reliability engineering in essence means that BMG assists the customer in running his or her plant consistently to get the maximum out of it without having to put in additional production or processing lines to achieve a higher output,” says Dave. “Just one example is doing away with regular shutdowns where parts that may not need replacement, are replaced for the sake of it. The idea is to only fix things that need to be fixed.

Predictive maintenance“The old way of summarily replacing things because that’s what you always do during a maintenance shutdown is costly and unnecessary,” says Dave. “Reliability engineering means maintenance is only carried out where we detect maintenance is due to be done.”

“But predictive or planned maintenance also does not mean waiting till the equipment breaks down,” Paul McKinlay, director at BMG adds. “We equip the critical equipment on a plant, for instance, to detect an issue before it turns into a failure. Typically we can detect a catastrophic failure about forty days

A New Business Concept

South African companies are increasingly competing against international con-

cerns, both in South Africa and export markets. The

surest way to achieve an ad-vantage depends on efficient productivity which can only be achieved when a plant is

run at optimum performance levels in terms of energy

consumption and mechanical health.

Dave Russell – BMG Technical Director

Paul McKinlay – BMG Bearings Di-rector

The old way of summarily replacing things because that’s what you always do during a maintenance shutdown is costly and unnecessary

COVER STORY


before it actually happens using condition-based maintenance methods and equipment.”

“It’s all very well making this statement but we actually have data to back up our claim,” says Dave. “For example, we select a particular piece of equipment in a factory, mine or power station and for six days we monitor the energy consump-tion of that particular piece of equipment. We consider the quality of the electricity supplied to it, the environmental factors like hot or cold days and all factors that may have an influence on the machinery’s performance. Over six days we get a good average which becomes a baseline for that machine in terms of electrical consumption.

MechanicallyOn the mechanical side, BMG does exactly the same thing over six days to establish a base line of the mechanical condition of the machine. “With special monitoring equipment, we record the condition of the lubrication, the condition of the bearings, couplings and gearbox, everything that forms part of that particular machine,” explains Dave. “The two baselines are compounded to form a study we call Measurement and Verification. From this we can then make a collection of recommendations which might start with replacing a motor with a high efficiency one and continue through all ele-

ments of the machine to achieve a compounded savings result.

“The study will also tell us if the motor is in fact the right size, for example,” adds Dave. “In terms of electric motors our experience is

that most

motors run at 50% of capacity, a con-sequence of over-engineering. Replacing this motor with a high efficiency motor of the same size, for example, will not bring about any savings. You have to be able to quantify how much the motor is loaded over a period of time under all the various conditions. Only then can

you achieve a saving be replacing it with a more efficient one of a lower capacity.

An effect on performance“In this way we then go through all the mechanical parts of the equipment such as couplings, control systems, gearboxes and so on to see what can be replaced with more efficient components,” Dave says. “When all the results are compounded, it may very well turn out that no parts need to be replaced, but that adjustments need to be made to achieve better performance. Just correcting belt alignment or adjusting tension on a V-belt can have an effect on performance.

“Once the changes have been made, we go back again and do an energy consumption audit using our baseline equipment as well as a mechanical condition audit. From this data, we’re able to very definitely confirm improvements,” Dave says. “In this way, we work our way through each individual piece of mechanical equipment to find and apply solutions for each one.”

Smart equipmentApart from expanding the engineering expertise base within BMG in order to carry out WCPE for their clients, the company has acquired exclusive rights to a whole range of condition monitoring equip-ment from SPM in Sweden. “We supply, service and use this equipment which ranges from very simple handheld monitoring devices to the latest sophisticated systems which measure the condition of slow rotating bearings,” explains Dave.

“SPM is the company that invented shock pulse technology, a unique way of measuring the condi-tion of bearings giving a long early warning period before failure is likely. They have just released a system whereby you can reliably measure bearings rotating at speeds as low as four rpm, something that we have never been able to monitor reliably in the past.

They thrive“Any company that strives for a long and sustain-able future needs to be best in the world so that they can compete in the global market,” says Paul in conclusion. “This means we all need to drive concepts that will improve our efficiencies and effectiveness. We see this concept as a means of achieving a distinct advantage for all our customers. If they thrive, we also ensure a long and sustain-able future ahead.”

Dave Russell, BMG, Tel: (011) 620-1663, Email: [email protected]

NSK HPS energy efficient bearings

In terms of electric motors our experience is that most motors run at 50% of capacity, a consequence of over-engineering

COVER STORY

THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010 1�

PIPES, PUMPS & VALVES

A lthough some mines are inop-erative (‘dead’) mines, they still need to be dewatered to avoid contamination of underground

water and keep the water at an acceptable and safe level.

The fact that the pump station is so far underground, yet still needs to be main-tained, means that a dead mine has to have a supply of fresh cooled air for people to service and operate the pumps. In fact, such a dead mine has to be operative just like any active mine in terms of power supply for hoists, ventilation, cooling and lighting, costing millions in annual operating costs.

Special pumpsThis needn’t be the case. “SA Mechanical Engineer” speaks to Chris Munnick, managing director of Ritz Pumps South Africa, a company that has had the solution for this very problem for many years, but the technology is not generally known or applied in South Africa.

“Our core business is mine dewatering, whether it is an active or a dead mine,” he says. “Our pump application was developed specifically for this pur-pose and has for many years been used in mining everywhere else in the world.”

Above ground pumping“The beauty of our system is that our pump is assembled above ground and then “Free Hung” suspended from surface so you don’t need un-derground access to get to the pump station as is generally the case in South Africa.” adds Chris. The pump is simply suspended in the shaft open-ing where it can free hang to 1000 meters with piping from 80 nb to 600 nb and achieve heads of 1500 meters, or we can even drill a borehole from the surface straight down into the water source, suspend and hang pump into the water and pump out directly without having to go through the shaft with a complex piping system as is required for the traditional underground high pressure pump station setup.”

“The system isn’t only for old mines. New mines in Australia and up in Africa are now installing our system from the beginning,” says Chris. “Although it is sometimes challenging to retrofit our system, it is very cost effective to install it on new mines where the conventional mine dewatering system of building an underground pump station today literally costs millions more. One of the greatest advantages is that if we know where the water is, we simply go straight down to it through a borehole and don’t need a shaft to get the water out.”

The technology“The use of single-suction submersible motor pumps for pumping huge quantities or from great depths is associated with extreme loads on the unit,” says Chris explaining the design of their HDM (Heavy Duty Mining) pump system that comes in a wide range of sizes. “The higher the pump performance, the stronger the axial thrust exerted on the pump, the motor and its thrust bearing. The consequences of this are overloading and untimely shutdown.

Just the other day mine dewatering in South Africa made the headlines because of the contamination it causes to clean water resources. In an acid mine dewatering (AMD) operation on TV we saw huge pumps, 750 metres underground, pumping millions of litres of contaminated water through huge pipe works to the surface where it is meant to be treated and purified.

Dewatering Mines

A typical raw water pumping station installation

Although it is sometimes challenging to retrofit our system, it is very cost effective to install it on new mines

1� THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010

“The solution is to double up, meaning greater durability. This is what our design is all about, a double-suction pump that provides full compensa-tion for axial thrust. In short, the HDM is designed for a longer life.”

How it worksWith the HDM system, two contra-rotating submers-ible motor pumps are arranged on top of each other and driven by a continuous pump shaft while the suction branches of the two pumps are located at the ends of the HDM module. “Each of the two pumps transports half the capacity to the middle of the pump at full pressure,” explains Chris. “There, a deviating stage directs the flow to the pressure line via the external casing channels. The double-suction design completely compensates the axial

thrust while loads on the unit are kept to a minimum and the thrust bearing is no longer sub-jected to tonnes of thrust. This significantly reduces wear and tear resulting in the extended service life we’re achieving.

“Furthermore, the division of work between the two pumps not only achieves complete compensation for axial thrust, our impeller tip speeds are reduced having less wear and it also halves the suction velocity outside the pump,” adds Chris. “This protects the well walls around the intake openings and minimises the intake of abrasive solids and silt. There’s an even more compelling benefit. With half the delivery flow going to each pump, smaller impeller intake cross-sections are possible and therefore lower circumferential velocity in the seal gaps.”

ModularEvery HDM pump is a once-off as each one is tailor-made from standard modules for each specific application. There’s the hydraulics module that utilises the optimum combination of impeller, diffuser and casing, leading to the best possible adaptation to


The double-suction design completely compensates the axial thrust while loads on the unit are kept to a minimum and the thrust bearing is no longer subjected to tonnes of thrust


a desired operating point at extremely high efficiency.

The materials module provides a wide choice of materials enabling flexible adaptation to suit all combinations of chemical or abrasive operating conditions.

The motorFinally, even the motor is modular. “Each HDM features a heavy duty motor specially adapted to power usages of up to 14 000 volts and sizes up to 6 500 kW,” says Chris. “As unbelievable as it may sound our electric motor design is unique in that it is filled with water for cooling. Like many great innovations, the principle behind our MC-T (Modular Cooling Technology) is amazingly simple. It’s all about motion.

“On the lower shaft end of the rotor there is a suction and pressure-optimised pump impeller. One of its two main tasks is to cool and lubricate the nearby axial bearing, but it also ensures a constant flow of cooling liquid in the right direction. The liquid moves upwards through the inside of the motor and here cooling channels, developed in-house by us, define the precise route via all thermal sources to evacuate heat effectively. When it arrives at the top, the heat in the liquid is transmitted to the outer wall of the motor and there the heat escapes through the surface to the medium being pumped. And then the whole procedure just starts again. For really high temperature conditions, the cooling performance


Chris Munnick, managing director of Ritz Pump South Africa

can be enhanced through the use of additional heat exchanger modules fitted onto the unit.”

BEEThis technology is not new, but it has not yet been explored fully by the South African mining industry. “Some engineers seem to be set in their ways and don’t like to try things they’re not familiar with,” says Chris in conclusion. “Apart from that, the fact that Ritz Pumps South Africa is a black-owned company has also not drawn any attention locally whereas mining companies higher up in Africa are now installing our pumps. Fact of the matter is, anybody who is serious about dewatering must come and talk to us. We have purpose designed systems to solve any dewatering problems cost-effectively.”

Chris Munnick, Ritz Pumps South Africa, Tel: (011) 397-5616, Email: [email protected]

As unbelievable as it may sound our electric motor design is unique in that it is filled with water for cooling

Our job board continues to display a wide variety of excellent job positions that you can review and apply for on-line. Keep your cre-

dentials on our secure and confidential database.

We include the projects for:Eskom, Gautrain, PBMR, The SA Oil and Gas

expansion, and International options.:Login to www.engineerplacements.com

Engineer Placements



As most control valve users will testify, the reality is really quite different. Problems are encountered and stress levels rise as the pressure to resume production means

that either additional overtime costs are incurred or some work is not completed as originally planned, often both!

Nothing worseThere are two commonly encountered problems that conspire against headache-free maintenance

No More HeadachesAll control valves require maintenance and repairs at some time. Valve spares are ordered, the work is pro-grammed, and labour is allocated to carry out the work. The work is completed effortlessly and production

resumes without delay or so the theory goes.

and repairs. The first is the ease with which the old valve internals can be removed and replaced. The second is achieving the design performance from the control valve once the work is completed (the shut-off class specified and the stem seal life predicted). In time-pressure situations, there is nothing worse than reworking the valve because it is not performing correctly.

Equally, it is frustrating when the work appears to have been done correctly, only to find that the service life of the valve has reduced and the main-tenance work has increased. Why can’t the design of a control valve be such that assembly is simple and even those with little experience could achieve excellent results, quickly and easily?

Spirax Sarco engineers tell us that their control valve does the trick. Their Spira-Trol product is a headache-free general service control valve for today’s demanding industries.

The culpritThe culprit here is the screwed in seat that has become seized in the body. This requires the valve to be removed from the pipeline and all work must then be carried out in the workshop. Immediately, this adds to the total time originally planned to complete the task.

Removal of the screwed in seat then needs easing fluid to be applied, followed by time to allow it to penetrate the threads. Considerable force is then required to take the seat out, often using a long lever by those who have encountered the problem before. The total time taken to remove the valve from the line and to then remove the seat from the body can be many hours.

No toolsSpira-Trol uses a clamp-in-place design, which means that the seat can be lifted from the valve body easily and quickly by hand, without any tools. The work can be carried out with the valve in the line, where it is safe to do so and in a matter of minutes rather than hours.

All control valves use gaskets and traditionally they form a sandwich between two components, body and bonnet, and seat and body for example. While this arrangement is a well tried and tested method of forming a seal, the problem is that the gasket can become a source of misalignment, where greater compression on one side of the valve bonnet or seat can cause a slight, out of square in the assembly.

PIPES PUMPS & VALVES

Why can’t the design of a control valve be such that assembly is simple and even those with little experience could achieve excellent results, quickly and easily


When the plug is forced into the seat by the actua-tor, a side loading to the valve stem is experienced and this reduces the stem seal life.

Thoughtful approachSpirax Sarco has adopted a different and more thoughtful approach. The gaskets are set in a recess called a primary mating face. As the bonnet nuts are tightened, the primary mating face compresses the gasket and a seal is formed between the bon-net and body, and between the body and the seat. Once the bonnet nuts are set to the correct torque, the secondary metal to metal mating faces come together to ensure the alignment is square. Pro-vided the correct torque is applied to the bonnet nuts, ‘squareness’ of both the bonnet and seat are guaranteed.

Why does a fixed seat position make the job harder? The problems of alignment are exacerbated by the fixed position of the screwed in seat. Any slight misalignment can cause the plug and seat not to engage correctly, and lead to poor shut off, and side loading to the valve stem, which reduces the life of the stem seal.

PIPES PUMPS & VALVES

Free to floatOnce again, a different approach is used. The clamp in place design of the internals means that the seat is ‘free to float’ until the bonnet assembly is tightened. This allows the seat to adopt the correct position with regard to the plug and ensures the design shut off is achieved.

It also ensures the seat / plug positions are not a source of side loading, which reduces the stem seal life. A simple procedure of raising the valve stem and then pushing the plug down onto the seat, before tightening the bonnet nuts, ensures the correct position.

Large choiceThese valves are available in all popular materials; cast iron, SG iron, carbon steel and stainless steel. Most common dimensions are DN15 to DN100, with pressures from PN16 to PN40. Depending on the application there are many options from which to choose, including reduced Kvs, soft or metal sealing, low noise trim and gland seal with PTFE, graphite or bellows. For global demand there are ‘true’ types according to EN (DIN) or ANSI and the internal components are the same for both.

Bobbie Brooke-Taylor, Spirax Sarco, Tel: (011) 230 -1300, Fax:(011) 230-1333, Email: [email protected]

Any slight misalignment can cause the plug and seat not to engage correctly


BEARINGS & LUBRICATION

Additionally, manual greasing, even with an experienced greaser, is never exact. Often too much or too little grease is pumped into the bearing, defeating the purpose

of lubrication in the first place. But don’t despair, manual digital greasing has arrived on the South African scene and promises to take the uncertainty out of manual greasing forever.

Computerised system“SA Mechanical Engineer” speaks to Vincent Cor-reia, technical manager at TriboSA in KwaZulu Natal, distributors of the Assalub LubeRight system, a computerised manual lubrication system now available in South Africa. “Historically, especially in harsh operating environments, manual lubrication

regimes are seldom effi-cient,” he says. “Multi-task operational requirements mean that time-consuming, labour-intensive greasing schedules run an ongoing risk of neglect by either under or over-lubrication. Under lubrication causes premature wear and down-time while over lubrication can have similar effects and is wasteful in any case.

“The LubeRight system is a manual lubrication program that enables an exact dosage to each lu-brication point, according to the recommendations of the bearing manufac-turers,” Vincent explains. “An integrated measur-ing device, fitted onto an ordinary standard hand grease gun, measures the exact amount of grease be-ing fed to the lubrication point, verifies the dosage for every lubrication point and, at the same time, tracks historical lubrication

activity for each lubrication point.

Error eliminated“Considering that a plant like a milling operation can literally have thousands of grease points, it is understandable that human error will take place, but with the LubeRight system human error is completely eliminated,” stresses Vincent.

“In addition, it provides the user with a complete greasing administration program to manage a multi-tude of greasing points precisely, extending bearing life as well as eliminating lubricant waste.”

How it worksAll lubrication points on a machine are equipped with a RFID (radio frequency identification) tran-sponder chip fitted to the grease nipple. “The RFID transponder is baked into an epoxy resin, which is mounted permanently onto each grease nipple,” says Vincent. “Each transponder has a unique

Manual greasing of machinery is still widely used, especially out in the field where bearings have to be greased daily to avoid premature wear. Manual greasing is open to human error where one or two grease nip-

ples can easily be overlooked when the greaser is in a hurry, tired or distracted on his rounds.

Digital Manual Greasing

The complete LubeRight system

Historically, especially in harsh operating environments, manual lubrication regimes are seldom efficient



number which corresponds with data captured on the LubeRight database program on a PC. This program produces weekly schedules showing only the points that are due for lubrication.

“These weekly schedules are then transferred from the PC to the grease meter and when the lubricator connects the meter to a nipple, the grease meter automatically displays the amount of lubricant that should be put into the grease point,” explains Vincent. “As the lubricant is pumped in, the grease meter displays a count-down to zero, the idea being not to lubricate beyond zero. The greaser disconnects the meter and continues to the next point.

Admin“Once all the points have been greased, the infor-mation on the grease meter is synchronised back to the software database on the PC,” adds Vincent. “At this point, any grease points that may have been missed are immediately indicated and the greaser can then go back to do them accordingly.

“The program tracks and records all lubrication activities including missed points, over lubrication and under lubrication as well as points lubricated out of schedule.”

Case studyThis report-back comes from a client who has used the LubeRight for a while. “Our system selection has been totally vindicated by the fact that we have had ten trouble-free months since installing the system. Internal inspection of the problematic high speed fan bearings has demonstrated the benefits that using just the right amount of lubricant can

The grease nipple with RFID tag

bring in terms of extending bearing life. In addition, we have reduced our grease usage by over 60%.

“With operational mainte-nance demands peaking before and after weekends, the benefits of the system have made us move the lubrication schedule to mid-week ensuring op-timum recorded lubrica-tion, so that the risk of bearing failure caused by lubrication deficiency, is minimised. Costs are now much more controlled through maximising bear-ing efficiency and life.”

Other lube systemsTriboSA also has a multi-line and dual line greasing

system from Assalub. “The multi-line system is an automatic centralised lubrication system for greases up to penetration NLGI 4,” says Vincent. “Due to its design and execution, the system has a very high reliability and a long mechanical life. The lubricators have up to 12 separate outlets with individually-adjustable feeds. In combination with progressive feeders, you may connect up to 150 lubrication points within 10-20 meters from the lubricator. The lubricators are electrically driven and can be run continuously or intermittently.”

A unique feature of this system is that the discharge from each individual outlet is fully adjustable. “The unique pre-feeder utilises a grease scraper vane and oscillating pre-feed roll which homogenises the grease and forces it into the pump unit cylinder. This ensures proper filling of the cylinder even with short plunger strokes and problem-free pumping of heavy greases.”

Dual-lineThe dual-line is an automatic central system for greases up to NLGI class 2. “This is a very reliable system that can easily be enlarged or modified as the dosers are of the modular build-up type,” Vincent says. “The dual-line system can be used for both very large as well as very small applications. It is used in industries including the paper and pulp, steel, metal, cement and power industries for the lubrication of ball or roller bearings, slide bearings, cylinder bearings, slides and open gears.”

Vincent Correia, TriboSA, Tel: (039) 975-2002 Mobile: 082-418-5769, Email: [email protected]

The program tracks and records all lubrication activities including missed points, over lubrication and under lubrication as well as points lubricated out of schedule


LETTER TO THE EDITOR

H i Chris,Thanks for your “Leave it to the Profes-sion” article in April 2010. I support your views.

Let me support your proposal that the VA’s (Volunteer Associations) plus engineering professionals should train and be responsible for the future engineers of our country.

Personal experienceLet me give you my personal experience as a case of how to, and how not to, undertake training.

I graduated from Wits in 1956 with a mechanical degree, and went to the OFS to do a mines pupil-age at President Brand in 1957.

I arrived at the mine, was greeted by the RE, Arthur Resin, with “another graduate, what the hell am I to do with you? Take your tools to the workshops, I suppose you do have tools?” I had received no apprenticeship training but as a matter of fact I did have a box of tools. The training I received was very hands on. There followed a period in the Fitting, Electrical and Boiler shops. I am still a lousy welder, however.

I was sent underground to do an artisan’s job, both mechanical and electrical. I spent a few days with artisans, and then was given my helper and a section to run.

Section to runThe section had diesel locos, battery locos, scraper winches, Eimco rockershovel loaders, and ventilation fans, together with a semi portable Carrier cooling

Hands-on Training?plant [30 ton capacity]. I reported to a charge hand and a foreman. I was left on my own unless things did not run satisfactorily.

I did the electrical and mechanical work on my own to a large extent, the black helper and carrier of tools guided me around the various working places. Later I was appointed Charge hand Fitter, and ran sections of artisans. Later I appointed as Foreman Fitter covering the u/g and surface winders, pumps, and main fans. This was all within about 9 months of having joined the mine.

Day and nightI then was put in charge of the erection of a sec-ond-hand winder u/g on a sub vertical shaft. I had fitters and electricians reporting to me. Later I was on a sinking shaft for a fortnight, more observing than anything else.

Then a period of being nightshift foreman doing the final installation of the Reduction Plant extensions. This covered the installation of conveyors, pumps, electric motors [most of which I connected up] and supervised the steelwork erection for overhead walkways. At the same time I did the cost control and ordering of items that were needed to complete the job for the day and night time work.

Later a period as RE secretary when the secretary went on leave, and time in the drawing office and ventilation dept measuring air flows and tempera-tures u/g. A brief period with survey, again u/g, measuring up face advance in the stopes. I was appointed Acting Shaft engineer on a couple of oc-casions when the engineer was on leave, and also Workshop Engineer for the same reason.

Essential subjectsI had also been released by the mine manager two

afternoons a week for my two years in addition to my duties, to teach/lecture at the tech to students covering Electrical, Physics and Maths. This was because there was no lecturer in Welkom to cover this need. AAC were concerned that their senior apprentices, learner officials, and others were not being taught essential subjects for their national examinations.

At the same time I was swotting for my Mines and Works GCC. This I passed first time in early 1959, and was appointed, officially now, as a Sectional Engineer. I had time as such on mines.

Into industryEnough detail, but now in summary form, I later ran a small industrial company for AAC, was appointed a Divisional Engineer,

I did a double take, asked him to repeat the question thinking I had missed a point in a fairly noisy working area


a sort of Assistant Consulting Engineer, OFS, and at the same time I was the AAC representative for the Eskom HV distribution for the AAC OFS mines. During this time I went back to Wits for two years on evenings to get a GDE Industrial diploma.

Later I was sent to the OFS as an ARE and later became an RE on a gold mine. I left AAC in 1970 to go into industry making mining machinery.

Now the converse of my trainingAs the Managing Director of a large company making mining machinery, both mechanical and electrical, [I was a very hands on manager] we encouraged plant visits by mining personnel.

We made scraper winches, Eimco loaders, battery locomotives, mining rail turnout/crossings, mine hoppers, etc. There was a lot for young mining engineers to see in manufacture.

About 1994 or 1995 a big visit was arranged for Vaal Reefs pupil engineers, senior apprentices, and learner officials to come up to us. Since the group was large, we broke up the group into about 6 - 8 people per company representative to take them around and to answer questions.

YoungstersI selected a group, mainly pupil engineers who were soon to write the GCC examination.

We had about 27 acres to walk around, and thus it had to be done fairly briskly We went past stored completed machines awaiting dispatch in many areas.

At one such area, I was asked “Mr Parker, what are these machines, there are so many of them?” I did a double take, asked him to repeat the ques-tion thinking I had missed a point in a fairly noisy working area. He repeated the same question.

Absolute basicsNow he was looking at scraper winches, the most

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

basic of materials handling equipment u/g in gold and platinum mines. This winch was to the mines as basic as a shovel is to your gardener. I would guess the mines had over 70 000 or more scraper winches u/g at the time.

I asked him how much time he had spent u/g. He told me he had gone u/g on a visit to see the pumps on a morning visit. The rest of the two years he had spent in the training centre. Now he was about to write his GCC. Presumably he would be appointed a shaft engineer, to be the font of all wisdom to foremen and artisans, and able to give them advice on how to solve problems, and to operate in a safe and efficient manner.

Window dressingPlease, the training here was window dressing in order to get the Government subsidy money. The standard of training was totally inadequate, produc-ing in my opinion, engineers who would have been a danger to themselves and the personnel reporting to them. Had there been any peer review, as you suggest, with actual visits checking up on experience received, things would have been much better.

I am sure I was very lucky indeed with the train-ing I received, and I tried, in later years, to repeat this type of thing with incoming personnel under my control.

Two extremesI have always been a believer in the saying; “The best fertilizer a farmer has is his own feet in the fields” In other words on the job, actual job training is as necessary as theory in a classroom.

Just two extremes, which serve to reinforce your proposals. I am sure my operating as an artisan was not legal in union terms, but nobody objected in the 1950s. The training I received was of inestimable value in later years making, and selling, mining equipment for sale all over the world.

Just some thoughts to add to your armoury

All the bestMike Parker

Please, the training here was window dressing in order to get the Government subsidy money


Thermal power plants, including those that use fissile elements or burn coal, petroleum, or natural gas, as well as heat engines in general, do

not convert all of their thermal energy into electricity. In most heat engines, a bit more than half is lost as excess heat.

Saving Energy With Burners

An emerging need in South Africa for cogeneration technology is an area where modern burner technology can play a crucial role in reheating air and gas which is

normally discharged and lost to atmosphere.

By capturing the excess heat, cogeneration, also referred to as combined heat and power (CHP), uses heat that would be wasted in a conventional plant. Potentially such a system can reach an efficiency of up to 89% in a cogeneration configuration, com-pared with 55% for the best conventional plants. This means that less fuel needs to be consumed to

produce the same amount of useful energy.

The oxygen burnerEastleigh Combustion, a combustion engineering specialist company in Benoni has been in the burner engineering business in South Africa for over 25 years, constantly bringing in new technology from their principles such as Eclipse in Holland. “SA Mechanical Engineer” speaks to Fritz von Graszouw. “We’ve just completed a South African first for Eastleigh with an oxygen fuel burner using oil,” he says.

“The burner is for a new rotary furnace smelter Fritz Von Graszouw of Eastleigh Engineering

Less fuel needs to be consumed to produce the same amount of useful energy

POWER GENERATION

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DisclaimerPROMECH Publishing does not take responsibility for the opinions expressed by individuals.

Printed by: Typo Colour PrintingTel: (011) 402-3468/9

CopyrightAll rights reserved. No edi-torial matter published in “Power Generation Today” may be reproduced in any form or language without written permission of the publishers. While every effort is made to ensure accurate reproduction, the editor, au-thors, publishers and their employees or agents shall not be responsible or in any way liable for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies in the publication, whether arising from negligence or otherwise or for any conse-quences arising therefrom. The inclusion or exclusion of any product does not mean that the publisher or editorial board advocates or rejects its use either generally or in any particular field or fields.

The Primefire 100 burner’s flame

2� THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010

POWER GENERATION

high level of impurities in the materials being processed.

Control unit“In conjunction with our principles in Holland, we designed the control system for the Eclipse Primefire 100 burner system. The control unit was designed and built by us here and we were also contracted for the installation of the complete system,” Fritz adds.

“At the heart of a standard burner like the Primefire 100 is the control system. Through the use of microprocessors and a series of valves, the control panel regulates a feed of LPG gas, pure oxygen, an oil feed and a line of compressed air to the burner to reach a specified temperature and maintain it with a constant flame pattern.

Low NOX“This type of oxygen fuel burner has,

like all our burners, particularly low NOX and par-ticulate emission characteristics and has become the industry standard in many applications in Eu-rope,” he adds. “The burner, a very popular model used in the glass production industry, produces a

Flue Fire burner technology in a co-generation application

1976

93

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Mobil’s range of top tier synthetic lubricants can lower operating costs by reducing power consumption, extending machine life and

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Keep your business running smoothly with Mobil Synthetic Lubricants.

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where they take the lead out of old used car bat-teries. The burner fires using a mix of oil and pure oxygen to reach a temperature of around 2 000ºC. This elevated temperature is necessary due to the

If the engines are not in operation, the burner can be fired in auxiliary air mode


Safety first“While the consumption of gas in all its forms is set to grow rapidly in the coming years due to it being available more readily, the application range is bound to also expand to industries that never really utilised it to the full before,” says Fritz in conclusion. “For this reason we should all be more aware of the safety aspects associated with gas installations. New regulations have just been promulgated and we’d like encourage everyone in the gas industry to become compliant as quickly as possible. It is in the interests of one and all to make gas the safe fuel of the future.”

Fritz Von Graszouw, Eastleigh Combustion Engineering, Tel: (011) 969-1992, Email: [email protected]

Burner technology in a boiler application

conventional shape flame and has multiple fuel capabilities ranging from natural gas to light and heavy oil fuels.

Its natural gas capability makes it a perfect candi-date for a wide range of applications where people will, in the near future, have access to compressed natural gas through the virtual gas pipeline system now being launched in South Africa.” He explains to us that the virtual gas pipeline consists of a large amount of containerised gas which is brought to site in a configuration called Mats. This is new technology being established in South Africa right now whereby compressed natural gas (CNG) will become available for a much wider range of ap-plications than before. Test vehicles, for instance, have already been converted to run on this gas system and the Mats are used to supply and store the CNG at gas filling stations.

Co-generationIn one Eclipse case study, a Flue Fire Burner was utilised to provide supplementary heat coming from 9 to 12 gas engines to one common steam generator. Due to the low oxygen content in the exhaust gas, the burner was provided with a 100% primary combustion air supply.

If the engines are not in operation, the burner can be fired in auxiliary air mode. The burner consists of four burner rows with 25 burner modules each and is suitable to fire natural gas, coke gas or a mixture of 80% steel gas and 20% natural gas.

Power generationThe Eclipse FlueFire is specially designed for supplemental firing of cogeneration and combined-cycle installations. In power generation stations, the exhaust gases from gas turbines contain a significant quantity of energy in the form of heat. This energy can be used either directly in heating processes or to generate steam, which can again drive steam turbines to generate more electricity.

When the heat requirement is greater than that available from the turbine exhaust gas-es, supplementary firing can be applied. Eclipse has designed the Flue-Fire burner specifically for this purpose. It is an in-duct burner which can be located directly in the exhaust gases between the turbine and waste heat boiler. The burner is also suitable for fresh air operation or incineration applications.

Flue Fire burner technology in a co-generation application

POWER GENERATION

For this reason we should all be more aware of the safety aspects associated with gas installations




POWER GENERATION NEWS

New service dealers The Tognum Group company MTU South Africa (PTY) Ltd, supplier of engines, complete propulsion and power systems in southern Africa has recently appointed new service dealers in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa to extend its reach and quality of service to customers throughout Sub Sahara Africa.

The service dealers are Stag Engineering Nigeria Ltd, R&S Diesel Pro Services in Zimbabwe and AfrEquip in South Africa. As leaders in their respective sectors, the appointment of these service dealers will ensure quality service delivery to MTU SA customers. Their employees have undergone specialised training on the product range at MTU SA’s Johannesburg training centre.

“As with all mechanical equipment, it is necessary for en-gines to be serviced regularly to ensure that they operate at full performance over their entire service life. Customers demand quick and efficient technical support and we there-fore continually review the company’s network of approved service dealers throughout Sub Sahara Africa” says Michael Baumann, Managing Director of MTU SA.

Electro mechanical company, Stag Engineering, specialises in the sales, after sales maintenance, servicing and overhauling of mainly gensets.

Engine specialist, R&S Diesel Pro Services in Harare focuses on the service, maintenance and overhaul of diesel engines for a wide variety of applications.

And, AfrEquip, based in Empangeni Rail, Kwazulu Natal, is the leader in forestry mechanisation in southern Africa. The company imports, sells and services heavy forestry machines, with an increasing number being powered by Mercedes Benz engines.

For more information about MTU please visit www.mtu-online.co.za

Thermal services Hatch Energy Thermal division Leader Jan Fourie, of South Africa says that with increasing global commitment to re-duced emissions, many coal-fired plants are being decom-missioned, retrofitted for cleaner operation, converted to cleaner fuels or replaced by new and cleaner combustion techniques.

“Hatch provides professional and technical services, and due diligence for thermal plants around the world,” adds Jan.

One such project saw Hatch and a joint-venture partner providing EPCM services to the greenfield Koniambo pyro-metallurgical facility in New Caledonia, which features a 60 000-ton-per-year ferronickel smelter for the extraction of nickel from saprolitic ore mined from the Koniambo ore body.

Hatch Africa has played a key role at Koniambo, having carried out a power-station-design peer review on the au-tomation system of the power plant to ensure compliance

to standards, design of systems and to ensure that the power station operates to the requirements of the metallurgical plant.

Hatch Africa is also responsible for the construction manage-ment of the power plant area on the overall project, notes Jan. The project is currently in the execution phase with major equipment contracts in the evaluation and negotiation phase. The estimated development cost of this project is around U$ 4bn.

In South Africa, Richards Bay Minerals is undertaking a development program for the installation of a cogeneration plant that will use 30 000 Nm3 of CO furnace off-gas per hour to support the reduction of its carbon footprint and reduce the exposure to demand constraints imposed by the national electricity utility.

The co-generation pilot plant is the first phase of a potentially larger co-generation project, comprising 20 generation sets to generate approximately 30 MW of electrical supply for internal use over the plant’s 30-year life.

The Co-Generation pilot plant will utilise the CO gas to gener-ate an estimated 4 5 MW of electrical supply utilising three GE Jenbacher machines.

Further afield in Botswana, Debswana Diamond Company operates four diamond mines, namely Jwaneng, Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa.

“In recent months it became apparent that Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) will be challenged to provide sufficient power to Botswana due to shortfalls in generation capacity. As a result, Debswana has appointed Hatch Africa to investigate different sources of generation to compliment any shortfall which may arise from BPC, either as peak supply or a base load supplement,” explains Fourie.

Hatch, Woodmead, South Africa, Tel: (011) 239-5300, Fax: (011) 239-5790, Centurion, Tel: (011) 844-1344, Fax: (011) 612-9614, Website: www.hatch.ca

Consistency of supplyReatile Energy, a subsidiary of empowerment company Reatile Resources, has acquired a 25% shareholding in Egoli Gas, the city’s historical piped gas supplier since 1892. Reatile Energy also owns a majority interest in Reatile Gaz (a joint venture with Engen that markets and distributes Liquid Pe-troleum Gas, or LPG).

Reatile Energy funded the transaction through a combina-tion of its own funds and other funding obtained from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). The transaction was effectively finalised on 29 April 2010.

This deal signals promising developments in the natural gas sector in the greater Johannesburg metropolitan area. “This is an important strategic step for both companies: Reatile will extend its business to leverage opportunities in the natural gas market; while Egoli Gas will focus on building its corporate customer base with our existing customers,” says Simphiwe


POWER GENERATION NEWS

Mehlomakulu, Chairman of Reatile Energy.

Adds Bheki Vilakazi, Managing Director of Egoli Gas: “We aim to expand our natural gas network rapidly in Johannes-burg, focusing on an anchor corporate customer base – and Reatile is associated with key companies and partners in the corporate and industrial sectors in South Africa.”

Bheki points out that the rationale behind partnering with Reatile Energy is due to their substantial technical background in the energy sector, especially since the company has close ties with established gas and energy industry players. Fur-thermore, the transaction will significantly improve the BBBEE status of Egoli Gas.

Natural gas will mainly be used for cogeneration – heating and cooling applications – in large corporate buildings and develop-ments, he explains. “There will thus be more choice available to customers, and less reliance on electricity as a sole source of supply for power needs.

Furthermore, Reatile`s inten-tion is to grow volumes and reduce gas losses. We there-fore view technology (co-gen-eration and tri-generation), as strategic in growing the market,“comments Bheki. “Gas is available 24/7/365, is energy-efficient, environmentally-sound and cost-effective.”

Bheki Vilakazi, Managing Director, Egoli Gas, Tel: (011) 356-5000, Email: [email protected]

Left to Right: Quintus Joubert (Director, Egoli Gas), Pierre Joubert (Director, Egoli Gas), Simphiwe Mehlomakulu (Reatile Chairperson), Bheki Vilakazi (Managing Director, Egoli Gas)

Scaffolding, insulation and refractoryHlakani Maintenance Pty (Ltd) is a black women owned company that focuses on lagging, scaffold-ing and refractory services in the power generation sector.

HSCS has been audited by Eskom for the delivery of scaffolding, refractory and insulation ser-vices. HSCS Projects combined the expertise of three companies to vendor a one stop service to clients, ie, HSCS – Marketing, boiler & related plant experience; ISECO – Insulation, refractory & scaffolding; Top Fix Scaffolding – Expert access scaffolding.

One key advantage is that Hlakani Maintenance has access to pat-ented boiler scaffolding designs from Top Fix Scaffolding, erection and dismantling times for scaf-

folding are shortened.

For lagging and cladding, the expertise and world class machines from Iseco will add to quicker turnaround times. Insulation applications from -60C up to 1800C can be handled. The Insta-Clad machines offer CNC manufactured cladding components. This shortens site assembly by up to 50%.

Gerhard Holtshauzen (Pr Eng), Technical Manager - HLAKANI Maintenance, Tel: (013) 246 1824, Fax: (013) 246 1835, Email: [email protected]

Scaffolding

�0 THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010

NUCLEAR INSTITUTE (SA BRANCH)

Then came a visit to this country by a Korean ‘special presidential envoy’ and then a reciprocal visit in May by Minister Dipuo Peters. She

evidently told the Koreans of Government plans for further nuclear stations in this country but stopped short of indicating whether they would be invited to bid. It would surprise me, with absolutely no inside information, if they are not.

The South Korean nuclear success story from the 1970s is amazing. The first units were supplied, turnkey, by Westinghouse.

Construction of the first unit at Kori began in 1972. The Koreans, however, were determined from the outset to become independent of out-side suppliers. They did pick up four Canadian and two French reactor units along the learning curve but by 1999 were commissioning their own OPR-1000s, OPR standing for Optimised Power Reactor. They are now building four APR-1400s, APR being Advanced Power Reactor and, as stated above, have just sold four to the Arabs. Altogether in Korea there are twenty units in operation and eight under construction.

The 1400 MW APRs now on offer are pressurised water reactors based on the Combustion Engineering System 80+ concepts but upgraded, particularly with severe accident mitigation systems, to Generation III+ standards. The design does not go as far in respect of severe accident management as does the Areva EPR with its double containment and molten core catcher. KEPCO, the designer/builder/operator of the Korean stations is, however, confident that the design meets all current US licensing criteria.

New Kid on The BlockOne has always been aware of nuclear goings on in Korea but it was always the North that stole the limelight, and always for the wrong reasons. The South was never a prominent player on the world nuclear stage. Until now. The world suddenly woke up last December with the sale of four power reactors of South Korean design and manufacture to the United Arab Emirates. The wake-up factor was the reasonable price, $20,6 billion for

4 x 1400 MW for a turnkey project with essentially zero local content.

There has clearly been tremendous investment in human capital. KEPCO employs some 18 000 people. Their literature mentions an International Nuclear Graduate School offering masters and doc-toral courses in nuclear business and technology, an International Nuclear Safety School, a Nuclear Training and Education Centre for nuclear policy and R & D people, and several other establishments for site construction personnel, operators, maintenance and licensing staff.

All this development mirrors progress in the country as a whole. A startling statistic is the growth in the per capita GNP from $87 (in 1962 dollars) to $20 450 (in 2007 dollars). Even allowing for inflation, that’s astonishing. The Koreans evidently like to compare their country with the Philippines where, starting from a higher base, the figure has risen to just $1950.

The corresponding figure they gave me for North Korea was $1150. Both countries appear to have been ruled by dictators, progressively capitalistic in the South, communist in the North.

I tried to discover the embassy explanation for the evident phenomenal growth. Literacy presumably helped. Even in 1966 the literacy rate was 91%. Parents, according to the literature, are passionate about their children’s education. Otherwise, there has evidently been decades of enlightened leader-ship manifested, doubtless, in generous funding for development.

Certain phrases leap out of the KEPCO literature. ‘Punctuality, diligence, way of working to meet the deadline without fail’. ‘Sacrifice holiday, vacation and time with family’. ‘Still work the longest hours amongst OECD member countries’. ‘Efficient control of students, religious and civic groups and trade union activists’. One can only marvel.John Walmsley, Email: [email protected]

Yong-gwang Nuclear power station, South Korea

John Walmsley

Altogether in Korea there are twenty units in operation and eight under construction

THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010 �1

The concept of analysing an oil sample from a machine or component is identical to that of taking a blood sample from a person to determine the patient’s health. Similarly,

analysing oil samples provides diagnosticians with an insight into the health of equipment ranging from earthmoving units, transport fleets and processing plants to ships and aircraft.

Oil analysisFor a glimpse into the scientific process of condi-tion monitoring through oil analysis “SA Mechani-cal Engineer” visits WearCheck’s headquarters in Pinetown near Durban to speak to managing director Neil Robinson. “Generally people realise the im-portance of condition monitoring, but it is equally important to have it done properly in order to get value for money,” he says. “We spend a lot of time and money educating people about the benefits of condition monitoring and once they see the value, they simply don’t turn back.

“During tough economic times like we’ve just gone through, it becomes crucial to maintain equipment rather than replace it,” says Neil. “In spite of the downturn, a lot of machinery was brought into the country to cope with the amount of construction work, but it seems everyone realised they had to get optimum use out of machinery. This could only be achieved with proper regular maintenance supported by condition monitoring which has been reflected by a steady increase in our business during the recent tough times.

Reducing costs“It has been proven over and over that oil analysis is an effective method of reducing maintenance costs, improving productivity and providing peace of mind in industries which operate large fleets of plant, equipment or heavy-duty vehicles,” says Neil. “By putting cleaner fuel, air and oil into a machine, it will last longer and operate more efficiently, thereby improving productivity and saving costs.

“Oil analysis acts as an early warning system, giv-ing maintenance managers the security of knowing that most problems will be identified before serious damage is caused. In addition, oil analysis can help to identify fuel system and combustion inef-ficiencies which, when rectified, decreases harmful emissions into the atmosphere.”

The facilityNeil takes us through the facility in Pinetown which, in essence, is a series of laboratory sections fed by a well-oiled supply chain management system that brings oil samples in from across the country, channels it to the right laboratory, generates reports and then in the end dispatches the reports back to customers. “In order to get consistency in test results, this facility is where all quality standards are generated and maintained and filtered through to our other labs,” explains Neil.

“So, regardless of which of our labs across the country receives an oil sample, the test results will always be the same. All the test results from the different labs come here and are diagnosed here. Reports are then produced here and made available to customers through the usual means of internet or email, regardless of which branch office the oil sample was submitted to originally.

The people“Our analysts and diagnosticians are very special

Knowing what’s going on in your engine or gearbox in terms of its state of health is no longer the dark mystery it was in

the past. More and more people, especially the owners of old machinery, have long since realised the value of analysing ma-chinery oils on a regular basis as a means of keeping tabs on

internal wear to avoid unexpected and costly breakdowns.

The Mystery of Machine Wear

Neil Robinson, managing director of WearCheck

A small collection of parts, damaged through a lack of proper lubrication


It has been proven over and over that oil analysis is an effective method of reducing maintenance costs

New Kid on The Block


people who are carefully selected,” says Neil. “What we need in a lab in terms of an analyst is someone who can concentrate on the same thing accurately, day in and day out.

Analysts use sophisticated equipment to test oil samples

“We’ve found that the graduates, such as chemical engineers, tend to get bored be-cause they want to fiddle and explore which tends to lead to inconsistencies. We have nineteen laboratory analysts who work on a workstation for a month at a time before moving onto any one of the next eight test stations that an oil sample goes through.”

DiagnosisThe test results from the analysts then go to a team of seven diagnosticians who are qualified engineers with experience of the industries Wearcheck is serving. “Their job is to look at the information that comes out of the laboratory and, together with the knowledge they have of the particular machinery and its application, diagnose potential problems,” Neil explains.

“At the same time they have to consider factors like how the sample was taken. They

don’t want to condemn a machine just because the sample wasn’t taken correctly, for example. So they also need to be attuned to the field conditions that can influence the analysis.”

At liberty“If they see dirt of a particular size, for instance, the chances are that it hasn’t come from inside the machine, but more likely from the way the oil has been sampled,” elaborates Neil. “Another mistake often made in sampling is that the client rinses the sampling bottle with diesel or petrol, but we can usually pick this up in our tests by cross referencing other characteristics in viscosity.

“However, we can’t always be a hundred percent sure of this and will only suggest to the client that it could be the problem,” adds Neil. “ Our diagnosti-cians are also at liberty to internally request more tests from the original sample before they contact the client. If it is out of the ordinary, they’ll contact they client. In the case of course dirt, for example, we’d suggest the client either look for a severely damaged filter or check the sampling technique being used.

Value for money“As I’ve said before, condition monitoring through oil analysis has for many companies proven to be value for money,” says Neil in conclusion. “However, it’s not a magic wand that solves all problems. It’s a two-way process where we need as much information from the client as they’re able to sup-ply in order to make an accurate diagnosis. They in turn will get a better life out of the equipment. I encourage clients to ask questions, the more we know about each other the better we can solve their problems.”

Neil Robinson, Wearcheck, Tel: (031) 700-5460, Email: [email protected]


Oil analysis acts as an early warning system, giving maintenance managers the security of knowing that most problems will be identified before serious damage is caused

THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010 ��

Today’s missiles, for instance, are guided by a laser control system that constantly checks the target and steers the missile to follow the target’s path wherever it goes.

In response, you’d need something that not only picks up the laser beam and guided missile, but also accurately identifies it so that the correct countermeasure is deployed to steer the missile away or destroy it.

LocalSystems like this are designed and built in South Africa by Saab. “SA Mechanical Engineer” speaks to design manager Paul du Plessis, a client of Mecad Systems, which provides the core design and docu-ment management software solutions Saab uses in the mechanical design of defence equipment.

“Although our roots are in the aviation industry, we’ve also moved into the development of defence systems for the maritime industry,” says Paul. “Lately we’ve been concentrating on land vehicles such as tanks and armoured vehicles with poten-tial collateral application for the defence of fixed installations.

Heading your way“For this purpose we’ve developed a scalable system called LEDS, a Land Electronic Defence System

COMPUTERS IN ENGINEERING

Design software has changed the face of modern warfare. Sophisticated electronic warfare systems have sufficient in-telligence to make instant decisions and react long before a

human can blink an eye. To make the development of defence equipment even more complex, each new attack system that comes onto the market promptly creates the need for a coun-

termeasure.

Designing Defence Systems

Prototype models of the LEDS system for various application mounting

Each new attack system that comes onto the market promptly creates the need for a countermeasure

�� THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010

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which in essence detects any targeting system that uses laser technology to direct or aim weaponry at you,” explains Paul. “Basically the LEDS system will not only detect the laser, but also indicate what it is, which direction it’s coming from and automatically deploy appropriate countermeasures correctly both in terms of time and spatial position. This causes the missile or bomb that’s heading your way to miss the protected vehicle in a high percent of cases.”

LEDS consists of several variants, some of which are still developmental. In essence all the variants consist of a sensor suite, a central ADC (Active Defence Controller), HSDL (High Speed Directed Launcher) fixed dispensing mechanisms and coun-termeasures options consisting of active signature management that suppresses external fire and changes the vehicle heat and radar signature, fast multi-spectral smoke ammunition that instantly obscures the line of sight of an attacking weapon system, and counter-munition options that deto-nates the approaching ammunition before it hits the vehicle.

Response timeThe LEDS system is so intelligent it can even de-termine whether the missile will actually hit you or not, and react accordingly.

The system response time is phenomenal and it has the ability to defend the vehicle against close- in threats. It is not uncommon during urban combat to be fired upon with an RPG at a distance of less than 25 m. The time from an RPG fired at such a short distance until successful defeat of this RPG by the LEDS system is typically less than 200 milliseconds. To put this in perspective, bear in mind that the average human takes 240 ms to blink his eye.

SoftwareThe development of systems like LEDS as well as


Paul du Plessis, design manager at Saab South Af-rica

The LEDS system mounted on a tank

Models of the LEDS system in the design stage

the effective integration of the system on vehicles is all done in a variety of design software packages from different vendors. All the different components, some of which are manufactured by subcontractors have to be married into one product design and turned into an efficient operational solution using Saab proprietary operating software. Saab’s clients

The time from an RPG fired at such a short distance until successful defeat of this RPG by the LEDS system is typically less than 200 milliseconds


typically have unique requirements for the same product, all off which have to be managed very precisely to ensure customer satisfaction.

“On the mechanical design side we use SolidWorks’ parametric 3D modelling software extensively be-cause it is so easy to pull in design models from all the other 3D packages,” says Paul. “Some may well have been designed overseas in Catia, while the electronic boards were designed in another specialised package, while the logic operational functions were developed using dedicated software. To bring all the different designs together, we use software developed in-house.”

A prototype model built in rapid prototyping to check the layout of a control unit for the LEDS system

Features“I have been a designer for over thirty years and still it’s often difficult to get engineers to see things three di-mensionally,” says Paul. “SolidWorks’ visualisation capability is exceptionally powerful so 3-D is no longer a problem because you can rotate, move and in-tersect a model easily to demonstrate exactly what you have in mind.

“Apart from easily exporting models to PDF files that can be emailed to a client, or subcontractor E-Drawings has made a significant impact on com-municating visually both for internal development teams and with clients. You create a simple model that can be viewed from all angles, in and out, and email it your client who does not need any CAD software to view it. It’s a self-executing file that he can open directly to view just as you would in SolidWorks.

Managing documents“To manage all the mechanical designs and all the different versions on each design, from component level right through to the complete vehicle fitted with defences systems like the LEDS system, we’ve opted for PDM Works from SolidWorks,” says Paul. “You can

appreciate the enormity of this task if you consider that all military equipment is usually extensively serialised to ensure very definite configurations which often differ from one customer to the next.”

“In the beginning we relied heavily on Mecad to get PDM Works configured to do what we need, but it has since proved to be the perfect solution for our complex mechanical CAD data management needs,” Paul says in conclusion. “The greatest thing about this vendor is that they listen to their users. We’ve often commented on features we’d like to have and when the next version comes out, you’ll find it’s there.”

Robert Pereira, Mecad Systems, Tel: 086.111.2236, Email: [email protected] – Paul du Plessis, SAAB, Tel: (012) 672-6214, Email: [email protected]


We’ve often commented on features we’d like to have and when the next version comes out, you’ll find it’s there


A much better approach it is to undertake a thorough study of the proposed plant design, including process engineering to model the process kinetically and thermodynamically.

This broad approach leads to an accurate under-standing of the process impact on the gas cleaning system: gas flow rate, energy released to off-gas and gas composition. Various operating scenarios can also be catered for and the gas cleaning plant required operating range is determined. Only once all of the above has been completed can accurate specs be drawn up to ensure effective filtration in real-life plant operation.

A solutionA company that now offers a total solution when it comes to challenges like designing gas cleaning systems for process plant is Resonant Environmental Technologies based in Centurion. “SA Mechanical Engineer” meets the team of young engineers from Resonant to talk about recent projects that have put this company at the international forefront of fume control system design.

“From just a handful of design and analysis en-gineers delivering consultative design analysis a

few short years ago, we’ve grown to a staff of over twenty specialists in three companies under one roof,” says Chris Coetzee, director of Resonant Solutions. “Resonant Environmental Technologies takes our consulting and design engineering offering into turnkey projects where we also manage the fabrication and installation of plant, specifically in the air pollution control industry.

Cleaning up Russia“A fortunate break for us has been the very large projects we’ve undertaken in this field in Russia. Our Engineered, Project Managed, Construction

Managed approach (EPCM) and project experience is therefore fine-tuned,” adds Chris. “As we progressed with these Russian projects, which originated from doing a comprehensive flow analysis of their plant, we soon realised that we also needed design engineers on the automa-tion side because this is where you have an opportunity to build IP (intellectual property) into your design in order to distinguish yourself in the market.

“This gave birth to our third company, Resonant Automation, which is run by two brilliant automation design engineers.”

PersuasiveThe Russians first saw Resonant’s work when Olof Vorster, director of Environ-mental Technologies delivered a paper overseas on a local flow analysis project. “At first we were reluctant to get involved so far away and in conditions that are totally foreign to us,” he says.

“Their plants run in sub zero temperature conditions which is something we had to quickly adapt to. Rus-sian industry is under severe pressure to clean up the fumes they release into atmosphere and when they studied our analysis, they persisted in persuading us to work with them. We’ve completed one plant, are busy with the second one and the third, fourth and fifth one is on the drawing board.”

Local marketThis experience, of designing and building large filtration systems that typically handle two million cubic metres of gas flow an hour, has put the com-pany on the map in terms of the design, analysis,

Traditionally when you build a process plant and you need to fit an air pollution control system, you draw up specifications of the expected flows, then various filtration system manufacturers tender for the job. These manufacturers work solely on the information supplied which more often than not ends up being slightly off the mark, so the system does not perform quite as it should. Because the end user ‘calls the tune’, the onus

rests on him. OEM’s usually don’t accept responsibility if gas flows or emissions don’t fall within spec.

Environmental Clean-up

The team from Resonant (front L to R) - Jan Moodie, Nico Barnard, Chris Coetzee, (Back L to R) Luther Ekl, Olof Vorster, Martiens Serfontein and Matthew Cramb


A fortunate break for us has been the very large projects we’ve undertaken in this field in Russia


construction and commissioning of gas cleaning plant. They now plan to roll this offering out in the local market. “In South Africa you can buy air filtra-tion equipment from a dozen good suppliers, but just the equipment does not fully solve industry’s air pollution problems,” Olof explains.

“Our new design methods that can calculate the off-gas from a ferroalloy furnace, for instance, means that our specs are much more accurate than ever before.

Turnkey“We’re able to design the system right through to the chimney stack in full confidence that the job will go well,” adds Olof. “This solution is offered

either on a consultative basis for the design and drawing up of specifications only, or, as with the Russian projects, as an EPCM managed project. One of the niche specialities we’ve now developed as a result of the projects we’ve done so far, is tall free standing stacks from 20 meters to 100 meters. To date we’ve designed and built several, including a ninety-metre high stainless steel stack replacing an old corroded stack which we also had to demolish at a vanadium producer.” These stacks play an important role in limiting ground level concentra-tions of pollutants due to dispersion.

The scope of work Resonant covers ranges from the design, analysis and simulation of forces in steel reinforced foundations, through the filtration systems and flow, right through to the outlet through stacks. This includes the automation of plant, gas clean-

ing systems and all other mechanical automation in such a plant. High end engineering in the form of finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) also forms part of the everyday solutions Resonant provides

Software“The secret to our success lies in acquiring the right tools and the people qualified to use a variety of software packages,” says Chris, “otherwise projects of this nature would be impossible. The average age of our team of engineers is 27, but they’re picking up experience rapidly and have to date come up with brilliant new concepts that have proved to work in the field.

“You not going to get a software package that can do everything you need, so we’re also constantly developing enhancements to standard software packages to allow us to get the required results. In this way, we’ve come up with unique solu-tions which gives us an edge.”

Fresh ideas“Industry is sick and tired of catalogue solutions where clients have to pick a product from a list and make do,” says Olof in conclusion. “Industry is looking for properly-engineered solutions. The fact that we’ve developed from a purely consultative engineering company to a comprehensive engineered solutions provider in just a few years proves that industry’s requirements have become much broader. Clients want engineered solutions, from the foundations right through to the top of the chimney.”

Chris Coetzee, Resonant Solutions, Tel: (012) 665-1446, Email: [email protected]


Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a model of Resonant’s solution, now installed. It is a bagfilter system with a capacity of 2.2 million Nm3/hr now already operating in Russia

We’re able to design the system right through to the chimney stack in full confidence that the job will go well


SAIT

The objective of this project is to de-termine the cost and energy saving

potential of tribology to South Africa. Since tribology is about the under-

standing and control of friction, and friction consumes energy and gener-ates wear, this objective can be seen

as to determine the extra cost of ener-gy lost due to friction, and the cost of wear that could otherwise be reduced or eliminated, since wear consumes

machinery.

Because tribology is universal it cov-ers all of industry, both government and private sector, and all forms of mechanisation. The objectives of

this study will be to establish both the costs and potential savings by industry type and by applica-tion, considering the following cost areas:

• Energy, consumption and savings potential

• Environment

• Maintenance

• Replacement costs

• Breakdowns

• Potential to increase component life

• Potential to increase equipment and machinery utilisation from greater mechanical efficiency.

The outcome of this study will then be to benchmark the country and highlight areas of concern where greater effort is required, for example in certain industries or applications, in general education, specific education, or research and development.

Our initial priority was to obtain as much information as possible from international sources to guide the process and ensure that we didn’t end up re-invent-ing someone else’s wheel. While we gained a lot of information, particularly by attending the annual STLE conference and World Tribology Congress 2009, we were also able to advertise our project at these events. An unexpected outcome was that we have now become a founder member of a much larger project to assess tribology globally.

Locally, our first priority was to gain as much general information from industry as possible through a web based questionnaire. Although the question-naire went out to several thousand tribologists and engineers, and was opened by over a thousand, the meaningful data received did not adequately cover industry in general.

Our second, and most time consuming priority was

Tribology Project 2010to implement a series of interviews across industry. These visits have been divided into component suppliers and industry.

Major findings thus far have been surprising:

• Typical bearing life today is about one third of what it was about 20 years ago; this applies to both rolling element and plain bearings.

• Gearbox life over the same period has reduced by up to 80%.

• Lubricators are often seen as a misfit in the organisation.

• There is a major loss of skills throughout in-dustry, from plant lubricator level and engineers to senior management and the Bureau of Standards; examples of this are:

o The level of knowledge with reference to a re-quest for quotation is insufficient, with the result that the incorrect equipment can be procured.

o Root cause failure analysis is not applied, or is simply not performed, and no corrective action is implemented.

o Minimum lubricant specifications established by the SABS and requested by industry are in some cases obsolete or inappropriate for the country’s needs.

• Shortened equipment life is attributed to lack of basic maintenance skills; equipment alignment and lubricant cleanliness are seen as the dominant causes.

• CEOs and CFOs are short term cost driven, and do not see the benefits of sound tribology

• Procurement is short term cost driven; failures have been recorded where insufficient knowledge of lubricants has resulted in the use of sub-standard components resulting in expensive failures.

Training and tertiary education standardsAt a tertiary level education in the engineering dis-cipline is sound, but this education typically does not include tribology or lubrication. At lower levels reduced apprentice and artisan training appears to have omitted tribology and lubrication entirely.

We look forward to completing this project and re-establishing tribology in its rightful place in industry. As always, if any reader has any information or experience relevant to this project, or would like to contribute any information for the project, please get in touch with Gillian Fuller, SAIT Secretary, Tel: (011) 802-5145/6/7/8, Fax: (011) 804-4972, Email: [email protected], Website: www.sait.org.zaPatrick SwanProject Manager, SAIT

Patrick Swan

Component suppliers surveyed have been suppliers of plain and rolling element bearings, gearboxes, hydraulic design and components and heavy transport equipment. Industries surveyed are metal beneficiation, chemicals, pulp, transport and local government. These surveys are of course on-going so that all major sectors of industry and component suppliers will be surveyed.


Market ForumAfrimold gaining momentum Afrimold 2010, the trade exhibition for mould-making, tooling, design and application develop-ment, is gearing up for a successful debut event at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg from 16 – 18 Aug 2010. Show times are 16 and 17 August 10h00 to 19h00 and 18th August 10h00 to 18h00.

Prestigious exhibitors who have already secured their places at the inaugural event include 3D Solids, Retecon and Bohler Uddeholm Africa.

A high level conference program is planned to run concurrently with the afrimold exhibition which will address tooling technologies from design through manufacture and conversion and include all the manufacturing disciplines such as plastics, metal forming and foundry (low pres-sure, high pressure and sand casting).

In addition, specific industries will be targeted including automotive, consumer, medical, build-ing, defence etc.

The exhibition has received the endorsement of the “The Toolmaking Association of South Africa (TASA).

Ron MacLarty, Afrimold South Africa, Tel: 072-353-6699, Fax: 0865-16-2975, Email: [email protected], Website: www.afrimold.com

Festo sets the tone for dancing trolleysFesto, has supplied Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) with four automated systems for clamping and releasing trolleys used to carry car seats on the company’s production line.

Festo installed and commissioned the systems after-hours, so as not to disrupt the Mercedes-Benz C-Class production cycle.

Festo has supplied ADN 50 compact cylinders, air pilot valves, VZ timers, air preparation units and foot valves for the implementation of each system. Each system controls a break shoe which allows the trolleys to be retained in position until required. Once a trolley is needed on the production line, it is released to travel down an inclined ramp.

The trolleys move down the inclined ramp, acting under the forces of gravity, in a controlled fashion. Once the trolley reaches the bottom of the inclined ramp it is released as required, to provide trim for the corresponding vehicle unit.

“These systems work independently but parallel to each other, handling on average ten trolleys each any given time. If you watch all four systems in operation you get the impression that the trolleys are ‘marching’ or ‘dancing in unison’. This level of precision has improved both the safety of employ-ees and reduced the risk of accidental damage caused by runaway trolleys,” says Erwin.

Joanne Dexter, Festo (Pty) Ltd, Tel: (011) 971-5560, Fax: (011) 974-4203

Festo supplied Mercedes Benz South Africa (MBSA) with four automated systems to clamp and release the trolleys used for carrying car seats to the production line at MBSA’s East London plant

Upgraded pumps and valves The mining and minerals processing industry welcomed both the upgraded and new pumps and valves being launched onto the market by Weir Minerals Africa.

The company’s Isogate knife gate valves have been spe-cifically designed for a heavy duty abrasive environment and according to product manager: cyclones & valves, Jeffrey Lat-egan, not only reduce downtime but improve efficiencies while lowering overall ownership cost. The design enables users to remove just the rubber sleeve and not the entire valve.

In a drive to provide custom-ers with upgrades to older technology without neces-sitating wholesale equipment replacement, Weir Minerals has developed a centrifugal or expeller seal which can be retrofitted to the company’s AH pumps. This new technology eliminates the need for a flushed gland and reduces water consumption. This not only enhances pumping efficiency, but increases savings, thus improving the customer’s bottom line. Upgrades to the impeller and matching throat bush will see significantly improved wear characteristics as well.

Product manager: slurry pumps, Rui Gomes, also men-tions the horizontal froth pump as yet another example of upgraded technology. “The existing Warman AH design has been improved, allowing the pump to be used in horizontal froth pumping application, which enhances efficiencies. The footprint of the horizontal design is also smaller than the conventional tank design.”

Rene Calitz, Weir Minerals Africa (Pty) Ltd, Tel: (011) 929-2622, Website:www.weirminerals.com

Rene Calitz

THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010 �1

Market ForumDischarge qualityConstruction of the Sheffield Wastewater Treatment Works north of Ballito was completed towards the end of 2009. Installation of mechanical and electrical work has been finalised and the project has now been commissioned.

“The 3,0 km of 800 mm diameter trunk sewer to the works has been handed over and is efficiently in use,” says Morrell Rosseau, a director of SBA, part of the B & A Group. “The wastewater treat-ment works will initially handle 6,0 M/d and will receive sew-age from developments between Salt Rock and Sheffield Beach. However, certain structures, as well as a modular layout, were implemented for the works to ultimately handle a flow of 18 Ml/d.

“This wastewater treatment works, which has enabled fur-ther development in the area to progress, has been designed to achieve an effluent discharge quality above the normal general standard.”

SBA was responsible for the design of the civils, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation services for this project. The total value of works and trunk sewer was R42-million.

Morrell Rosseau, Stemele Bosch Africa, The B & A Group, Tel: (031) 250-0500, Fax: (031) 250-0502, Email: [email protected], Website: www.stemeleboschafrica.co.za

Ethylene purification unit The Sasol Limited board has recently approved the construc-tion of a R1.9 billion ethylene purification unit at its Sasol Polymers plant in Sasolburg. The plant is expected to go on stream in the second half of 2013 and will be ramped up to full capacity by 2015.

The unit will enable the Sasol Group to add further value to its monomers feed streams originating from the Secunda complex and will boost ethylene production by approximately 48 000 tons per year. The ethylene will be used in the manufacturing of polyethylene and will greatly benefit the plastics conversion industry in South Africa that currently imports large quantities of this raw material.

This investment confirms Sasol’s commitment to the South African chemical industry and will enable significant down-stream value addition in terms of locally-manufactured consumer products such as plastic bags, packaging materials and containers.

Jacqui O’Sullivan, Tel: (011) 441-3252, Email: [email protected], Website: www.sasol.com

New port tugs Actom Mechanical Equipment (formerly Alstom Mechanical Equipment) has once again been awarded a contract for the manufacture and supply of high performance main propul-sion diesel engines for new tugs required by the National Port Authority (NPA).

The company, the local agents for leading international diesel engine manufacturers MAN Diesel, has supplied the engines


Market Forum

A view of the two MAN diesel engines powering one of two tugs recently supplied for deployment at Coega port. A third tug for Coega and two smaller tugs for Durban are due to be supplied later this year.

Distributorship agreementTectra Automation has been appointed official distributor of J. Schmalz GMBH vacuum components in South Africa. The agreement was signed late last year and sees Tectra Automation distributing the range of vacuum components and gripping systems.

The Schmalz Vacuum Gripping Systems range, now distributed by Tectra Automation, extends from layer and large-area gripping systems to complete vacuum spiders

According to Erika Bennion, Divisional Manager: Pneumatics, Tectra Automation, the German-based company was looking for a reliable distribution partner in South Africa that had access to their market.

“Schmalz has been in business for over 100 years and has an excellent reputation in the industry. The company is known for world-class vacuum components that are competitively priced.

“These products are an excellent complement to our existing pneumatic product range and offer our customer base ad-ditional benefits. In addition, Tectra is better poised to sup-

port clients already using Schmalz components as many handling machines arrive from overseas with the German components fitted as standard.”

Erika Bennion, Tectra Automation, Tel: (011) 971-9400, Fax: (011) 971-9440, Email: [email protected]

for all new tugs acquired by the NPA in recent years for deployment at various South African ports, either as replacements for older tugs or for expansion of the fleet.

The latest order, placed by Durban-based ship-builders Southern African Shipyards, the company contracted to build and supply the Voith Schneider tugs, is for four engines, each with a power output of 2640 kWb at 800 RPM for two new tugs.

The engines will be of the same size and power as those supplied for three tugs earmarked for the port of Coega, each with a bollard pull of 70 tonnes, that formed part of the NPA’s previous order in mid-2007 for a total of five tugs.

Fred van Hulten, ACTOM Mechanical Equipment, Tel: (011) 871-6789, Fax: (011) 871-6677, Email: [email protected]

C o - l o C at i n g E v E n t s :Specialised Exhibitions (Pty) Ltd, ROZ NASH

PO Box 82196, Southdale, 2135, South AfricaTel: + 27 (0) 11 835 1565

Fax: +27 (0) 11 496 1161Email: [email protected]

www.interbuild.co.za

Brought to you by

EXHIBIT AT THE BUILDING SERVICES & CONSTRUCTION EXHIBITION

Hosting the full spectrum of building and related industries in residential, commercial and industrial development

8-11 SEpTEmBER 2010 Mtn Expo CEntrE, nasrEC, JoHannEsBUrg, soUtH aFriCa

Pumping awayPump manufacturer Watson-Mar-low Bredel SA (W-MBSA) has bought back its distribution agree-ment from Walter Becker SA for the Rustenburg/Thabazimbi area in North West province.


Market Forum

C o - l o C at i n g E v E n t s :Specialised Exhibitions (Pty) Ltd, ROZ NASH

PO Box 82196, Southdale, 2135, South AfricaTel: + 27 (0) 11 835 1565

Fax: +27 (0) 11 496 1161Email: [email protected]

www.interbuild.co.za

Brought to you by

EXHIBIT AT THE BUILDING SERVICES & CONSTRUCTION EXHIBITION

Hosting the full spectrum of building and related industries in residential, commercial and industrial development

8-11 SEpTEmBER 2010 Mtn Expo CEntrE, nasrEC, JoHannEsBUrg, soUtH aFriCa

New diaphragm Verder Pumps South Africa (VPSA) has launched a new series of Verderair diaphragm pumps. “The new VA25 is easy to repair and boasts with features such as, less air consumption, higher fluid output and lower pulsation”, says Rob Shaw, VPSA Sales Engineer.

The VA25 offers 30% higher air efficiency, and a 20% flow increase. “It is designed with features including a stall-free modular air valve for low pulsa-tion and a smooth changeover. The PTFE diaphragms lasts up to 5 times longer than previous diaphragms, mean-ing easier maintenance and less downtime,” adds Rob.

Laetitia Moller, Verder Pumps SA (Pty) Ltd, Tel: (011) 704-7500, Email: [email protected]

WMBSA had its own dedicated branch in Rustenburg, headed by the experienced Leslie Rademeyer and offering full customer care facilities and extensive stock holding, up and running by May this year.

“We’ve enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Walter Becker SA over the past seven years,” says W-MBSA general manager Nico van Schalkwyk. “However, this move forms part of Watson-Marlow Bredel’s worldwide strategy to maintain closer links with customers and, where necessary, realign distribution agreements.

“The opening of our own branch in KwaZulu-Natal two years ago has proved to be a great success and we see this latest move as an opportunity to get closer to our customers in the mineral-rich Rustenburg/Thabazimbi area by offering dedicated service, training and instant technical back-up,” he adds.

Nico van Schalkwyk, Watson-Marlow Bredel SA, Tel:(011) 796-2960

Top secret“When people say ‘they don’t make things like they used to do’, we can respond that Cooper split bearings are definitely the exception,” says Matthew Tyler of Bearings International (BI) official distributor of Cooper bearings for Southern Africa. “A leading armature winder recently approached us to inspect some ‘old’ Cooper bearings on a large electric motor on board a ship. We found that the heavy duty eight inch Cooper split bearings had been installed on the motor back in the early 1970s using a special sealing arrangement to accommodate running in wet conditions in the maritime industry.

“Although there had been no bearing failure and indeed, very little wear evident on the bearings, we decided to replace them while the motor was undergoing some maintenance before the ship headed back out to sea. Now the installation is regenerated and good for another 40 years!”

The ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, is currently being used as a deep sea drilling platform but has far more glamorous origins. The vessel was originally built at great expense for a secret operation called Project Azorian by the United States Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Activities division. The operation was initiated to recover a sunken Soviet submarine

which had been lost in April 1968. The vessel is capable of lifting a 2 000 ton object in water from a depth of 5 000 m. A large centre well opens up in the hull to lower

and raise the object.

Matthew says Cooper bearings were fitted to the vessel’s six electric mo-

tors for the propulsion system and are still working today, as the ship is presently being used to drill for oil off the coast of Angola.

Matthew Tyler, Bearings International, Tel: (011) 345-8000

Activated carbon tower Atlas Copco is introducing their lat-est air treatment development, the Activated Carbon Tower (QDT) filter. The filter uses activated carbon to

adsorb oil vapour from compressed air, resulting in

�� THE SOUTH AFRICAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER VOL 60 June 2010

Market Forumclass 1 air purity (according to ISO 8573-1 standard), and is designed for extended life time.

“Activated carbon is essential to extract oil vapour from compressed air in order to obtain class 1 air purity”, says Philip Herselman, Atlas Copco Business Line Manager, Industrial Air Division. “This level of reliability is required by applica-tions and industries where air purity is critical in order to protect the production process and safeguard the quality of the end product in, for example, applications requiring specialised tools or instrument air”.

The specific combination of the amount and type of activated carbon in Atlas Copco’s Activated Carbon Tower (QDT) deliv-ers several benefits. With a maximum oil vapour content of 0.003 mg/m3, the QDT adsorbs not only oil mist and aerosol but also oil vapour, guaranteeing class 1 air purity according to ISO 8573-1 standard.

The QDT has a lifetime of 4 000 hours, guaranteed in refer-ence conditions of 35° Celsius and a maximum air pollu-tion of 0.35 mg/m3 oil at the inlet of the filter compared to traditional cartridge type filters. Lower inlet temperature or less oil pollution also extends the lifetime of the activated carbon tower.

Website: www.atlascopco.com

Meetings on-lineChorus Call is a premier teleconferenc-ing service provider in South Africa and belongs to the Chorus Call group of companies with Headquarters in US and international offices in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Canada, Brazil and India.

Chorus Call provides a full range of Audio, Video, and Web-based Teleconferencing Services. Their latest product offering, DataShare, provides a robust and feature-rich, data collaboration solution.

Chorus Call’s DataShare gives users the ability to send meeting invitations, share their desktop, display a PowerPoint presentation, collaborate on an interac-tive whiteboard, and create a recording of their meeting. Since DataShare is browser-based and does not require any download; participants can join the meet-ing from almost any computer.

Tel: (011) 305-2000, Email [email protected]

Stronger shaft connections The latest generation of oil-injection shaft couplings from SKF, enable stronger, more compact shaft to shaft connections to be achieved quickly and simply.

“The OKCX couplings feature 50% higher torque transmission capacity than conventional designs, providing a safe and cost effective way to reduce the size or increase the torque capacity of your shaft connections,” explains Varma Parag, SKF’s Power Transmission Manager.

“As the OKCX couplings incorporate SKF’s oil-injection sys-tem, they are easy and fast to mount, minimising the cost and disruption of installation. In addition to allowing more compact shaft connections to be achieved, without the need for flanges and bolts, this innovative mounting method also enables more secure, safer coupling,” Varma continues.

T h e inner sleeve of the SKF coupling is coated with carbides utiliz-ing advanced plasma technology. As a result, the OKCX couplings have a friction coefficient of 0.3 rather than the typical 0.14, enabling them to provide considerably stronger, more dependable connections.

The superior torque transmission capacity of the new cou-plings eliminates the need for expensive reinforcement sleeves where hollow shafts are used. With no need for sleeves,

bvv n

n


Market Forum

Namibia’s first cement plant Polysius, recently secured an order to build Namibia’s first cement plant, Ohorongo Cement Factory, on a turnkey basis. The order to supply the new 2 100 t/d turnkey cement plant was placed by Ohorongo Cement (Pty) Ltd, a member of German company, Schwenk Zement KG. Situ-ated on 100 hectares, close to Otavi in the Northern part of Namibia, the plant is ideally located to nearby limestone deposits as well as to road and railway infrastructure.

Polysius will supply all equipment to the cement plant, from the limestone crusher to the cement loading facility and the company will also be responsible for the construc-tion work.

Equipment from Polysius will include a 600 t/p limestone

bolts or flanges, straight and compact shafts can be achieved, allowing machine builders and designers considerably greater freedom.

Samantha Joubert, SKF SA, Tel: (011) 821-3500, Fax: (011) 821-3501, Email: [email protected], Website: www.skf.co.za

crusher, a circular stockpile to ensure larger storage capac-ity, a raw grinding plant with vertical roller mill for 160 t/h handling of raw meal, a tangential homogenising silo with a storage capacity of 7000 tons of raw meal, a kiln line con-sisting of a 5-stage Dopol preheater with a Prepol calciner and a short rotary kiln type Polro as well as a Polytrack cooler, a clinker silo with 55 000 tons storage capacity, a cement grinding plant consisting of two off Two-Chamber ball mills with a Sepol high efficiency separator (each mill with a cement throughput of 65 t/h).Martin Boyd, Polysius, Tel: (011) 236-1000, Email: [email protected], Website: www.polysius.com


Index to Advertisers

AST Inside Front Cover

BMG Outside Front Cover

Bearings International Inside Back Cover

Becker Mining Systems 45

Chemserve 41

Eastleigh 26, 27

Engen 24

Engineers Placements 15

Festo 36

Interbuild 43

iSyncSolutions Outside Back Cover

KSP Pumps & Valves 34

Maizey Plastics 16

Munters 10

SKF 18

Tectra Automation 14

Weir Minerals 4

Yellotec 22, 32

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On the Move

Market Forum

Weartech (Pty) Ltd has appointed Steve Maynard as a Sales Manager

The OMSA Group of companies has appointed Peter Blignaut as Area Sales Manager for the Group.

Heinrich Adonis has been appointed as SEW Eurodrive Works Manager in Johannesburg, and Dawid van der Merwe is as Sales Engineer for SEW Eurodrive in the Rustenburg area.

Steve Maynard Peter Blignaut

Heinrich Adonis Dawid van der Merwe

Integrated teamA newly-formed Joint Venture entity between Parsons Brinck-erhoff Africa (PB) and RSV ENCO has formed an integrated team with Xstrata Coal South Africa to compile a feasibility study for the Tweefontein Division, situated close to Witbank, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.

Xstrata Coal South Africa (XCSA) has initiated a project to optimise its Tweefontein operations under the title of the Tweefontein Optimisation Project. The project covers mine planning, design and construction of a new coal-handling and preparation plant (CHPP) and supporting infrastructure including a new rail balloon and load out facility. A pre-feasibility study has been completed that delivered a viable business case to XCSA justifying this project proceeds into feasibility.

The next stage of this process is to continue to develop a full feasibility study for the project that will include feasibility level design, cost and schedule estimates and a project execution plan. In this regard XCSA have separated the feasibility into various packages with the two main ones being the CHPP and the supporting infrastructure. The latter was further separated into two parts, Civil and Mine Infrastructure.Xstrata Coal South Africa, Tel: (011) 772-0600, Website: www.xstrata.com



Documents

SAME Jun 2010