Master engineer and engineering consultant Bert Chapman has created an educational disc of engineering training materials based on real engineering problems, including their solutions, for engineers entering the industry.

The disc covers more than 35 electrical, mechanical and thermal engineering subjects and theorems in detail. Chapman, who, has been lecturing on engineering for 45 years, says the materials can be used as the foundation for government certificate of competence purposes, as they meet modern engineering practices and training standards.

A disc costs R2 050 and includes a project that requires a complete process plant to be designed at the end of the course. This aims to ensure that trainee engineers are adequately prepared and understand what will be required of them prior to starting their careers once they have qualified.

The materials on the disc include theorems pertaining to air conditioning, one-phase electric motors, boiler heat calculations, beams, circuits, compressors, conveyors, pressure vessels, gearing, epicyclic gearing, fan design, flywheel momentum and inertia, hydraulics, surface condensers, synchronous motor power factor calculations, transformers, turbines and wound coils, besides others.

Chapman says the discs contain many actual designs, which he completed during his career as an engineer, such as relative wiring diagrams showing power circuits and control circuits.

“I would have given my eye teeth to have such a disc when I studied and it is for this reason that I put this course together: for students to use it as reference material on electrical, mechanical and thermal subjects throughout their working careers,” he concludes.

Students can buy copies directly from Chapman, while lecturers and training centres could also approach him about using the disc for course materials.