As an instrumentation and electri- cal construction company, B&W Instrumentation & Electrical marketing manager Ken Nel says, the company is training orientated with regard to new technological developments in its industry.

“We continuously train employees to keep up to date with the current technology in the instrumentation and electricity industry. We also send them on courses presented by companies who supply the equipment,” he says, adding that, in the construction process, B&W Instrumentation & Electrical conducts calibration tests on supplied instruments and can also supply bulk order materials such as cables, steelwork, light fittings and instrument tubing, which form part of installation.

“When B&W is contracted for a project on a process plant, the instruments are procured by the engineering company, and installed by B&W,” Nel says. He further explains that B&W Instru-mentation & Electrical houses the latest calibration equipment in four air-conditioned mobile containers, where the calibration parameters of instruments are verified, monitored and checked and, if necessary, recalibrated in accordance with supplier data sheets.

Once B&W Instrumentation & Electrical has installed instrumentation devices, the company does a check to determine whether the instruments are functional and performs a quality control check on the loop of the instruments with the client, before responsibility for the systems is handed over to the engineers, he explains.

Further, Nel comments, as instrumentation and control systems become more technologically advanced and sophisticated, the construction and installation of these systems have become easier and more cost effective.

One such system is Profibus, which allows communication between devices of different manufacturers without any special interface adjustment. It can be used for high-speed time-critical applications and complex communication. Profibus devices are in use worldwide.

Nel says that Profibus has become an integral part of the local instrumentation and control process. “Engineering project managers insist that construction companies like ours have Profibus engineering expertise on the projects where Profibus is an integral part,” he notes.

B&W Instrumentation & Electrical is one of the few construction companies that have several qualified Profibus engineers and a number of certified Profibus installers who are all South African Regional Profibus Association-certified.

Meanwhile, Nel says, current unrest and strikes in the mining industry are slowing things down to a certain extent. “For this reason we will continue to also focus on business outside the borders of South Africa, mainly in neighbouring African countries,” Nel says. To this end, B&W Instrumentation & Electrical has registered offices in Namibia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia.

“We are optimistic that there will be significant growth in the industry from 2015 but we will continue to be very cost conscious as we expect tendering to be very competitive and construction companies may be subject to lower margins to get the business,” he concludes.