Durban company clinches top Sassda award

7th November 2014

  

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Durban-based ND Engineering’s massive tar separator project for petrochemicals giant Sasol is this year’s winner of the Southern Africa Stainless Steel Development Association’s (Sassda’s) Engineering Project Award.

The project, which entailed the design and manufacture of 16 stainless-steel tar separators and has been described by recently appointed Sassda executive director John Tarboton as “an example of top-notch South African engineering and fabrication at international standards”, also scooped the overall Stainless Steel Award.

“This was an extraordinary project [that] involved hundreds of weld test plates, and ND Engineering was the only tendering company that passed all these tests, demonstrating world-class control of welding processes and quality,” says Peter Middleton, who was the media representative on the panel of judges. The panel’s other members were stainless steel stalwart Diego Sella, architect Tom Steer, engineers Nicolette Skjoldhammer and Dr Janet Cotton, and designer Luke Hartdegen.

The runner-up in the Engineering Project category was Gerhard Unger, for its mayonnaise plant for Tiger Brands, whose “fine attention to detail”, the judges said, proved South African fabricators were world class.

A total of 11 “very strong entries” – from RPL Engineering, Gerhard Unger Dairy Equipment, Conceptual Steel Engineering, HC Heat Exchangers, SAB Limited, Rina Stutzer, Cloete Architects and ND Engineering, with three massive projects – vied for the Engineering Project Award.

Stutzer scooped the honours in the art category with her design of the Sway fence at the Everand Read Gallery, in Rosebank, Johannesburg, with the judges noting that they were taken with the form, implementation and choice of 3CR12 stainless steel she used. The only other entry in this category was a stainless-steel memorial by Cloete Architects.

The judges decided not to name a winner in the architecture category owing to insufficient information in the two submissions: Conceptual Steel Engineering’s 3CR12 stainless-steel seven-level helix staircase for a water tower in Lanseria, Gauteng, and Gutco Manufacturing’s mesh façade for the South African National Roads Agency, in the Western Cape.

The Innovation Award went to Ecostake for its agricultural trellising, which Steer commented was “cleverly designed to satisfy a real problem and had many clever features, such as a plastic wire and an anti-uproot feature to prevent theft”. The other entries in this category included Ecovest, with its Ecolite; Gerhard Unger, with its mayonnaise plant; Rock Solid Industries, with its canopies; HC Heat Exchangers; and Welfit Oddy, with its innovation of many products and solutions since its inception.

The product category was the most popular, attracting entries from 5 Star Stoves, with its green stove; Solar Ray, with its grade 444 solar tank; Sello’s, with its stainless-steel gutters and facia boards; Rimex, with its contribution in developing the stainless-steel gutters for Sello’s Gutters; Gerhard Unger Diary Equipment, with its mayonnaise plant; Bar Keeper’s Friend, with its nonscratch stainless-steel surface polish; Franke’s new cost-saving autopsy tables; HC Heat Exchangers’ lightweight heat exchangers; and ND Engineering’s stainless-steel RDA units and 60 t acid cooler, in Caledonia.

The winner was Rock Solid Industries, for its revolutionary move from aluminium to stainless steel in the manufacture of automotive canopies. Solar Primeg was named the runner-up, for making solar water heaters from duplex 2304, as opposed to the standard grade 444. Franke Kitchen Systems was awarded a merit award for its knee-operated basin system.

Don Maxwell, of 3CR12 fame, and John Cluett, of SAB, were nominated for the Achievement Award. The former was named the winner for his commitment to stainless steel over the decades, over a multiplicity of projects. Said Sella of this category: “Both the entries deserve recognition; however, there can only be one winner.”

There were five entries for the Student Award, which was won by Folorunso Omoniyi, for his research paper on how to spray austenitic stainless steel with ceramic oxide to form a thermal barrier.

The Sustainability Award went to 5 Star Stoves, for an ecofriendly stove described by the judges as “a great solution to many problems arising from other forms of informal cooking”. Companies that entered products for this category included Sello’s Gutters, Ecovest, HC Heat Exchangers, Rimex and Welfit Oddy.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Sassda.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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