Industry seeks official recognition

30th August 2013

By: Jonathan Rodin

  

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Recognition by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) will enable members of the auto- mation, instrumentation, measurement and control industry to lobby government for changes in existing legislation which does not add sufficient value to the indus- try, says Society for Automation, Instru- mentation, Measurement and Control (SAIMC) president Vinesh Maharaj.

“Currently, ECSA recognises nine engineering disciplines – instrumentation and control is not one of them, as it falls under electrical engineering. As a result, negativity regarding certain standards for instrumentation and control equipment and education has emerged,” he tells Engineering News.

Maharaj, who is also consulting engineering firm Royal HaskoningDHV service line leader, explains that instrumentation and control is fundamental to the automation of a plant or network as it “provides the brains behind the operation and improves efficiency of production”. However, impediments in the system of local certification of certain equipment by the local certification authorities cause delays, add to the cost and, for the most part, add no value to the products.

Maharaj explains that this has expensive consequences for business in South Africa.

The bulk of instrumentation and control equipment in South Africa is supplied by certified manufacturers outside the country, which already meets European, Japanese or International Electrotechnical (IEC) standards.

Therefore, further testing in South Africa is an inefficient use of time and money, as it not only creates a bottleneck in supply but increases the cost of doing business in the country, subsequently also reducing productivity, says Maharaj.

“It has also been reported by SAIMC members that the locally certified laboratories tasked with conducting these tests produce certificates which are almost duplicates of the international certificates and sometimes include errors from the original certificate. This is most likely because they are unable to cope with the volume of work,” he adds.

Other examples of regulatory complications and legislation that create unnecessary costs for instrumentation and control include regarding instrument tubing as part of the process pipework and that, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, pressure equipment regulations require every pressure transmitter or pressure gauge working above 50 kPa to be certified as a pressure vessel.

With respect to education, there is no specific qualification for instrumentation and control in South Africa at Bachelor of Science level and, as a result, insufficient specialisation, which contributes to the existing shortage of skills.

“People who qualify as electrical, process or chemical engineers, but want to specialise in instrumentation and control, require a further three-year training programme to qualify as competent instrumentation and control engineers. “As a result, these employees become an additional overhead to the businesses they work for because there is no commensurate return on investment during training,” notes Maharaj.

Education at tertiary level is being addressed using a two-pronged approach, says Maharaj. The South African Council for Automation and Control, along with the SAIMC, is undertaking surveys to determine the extent of the demand for automation, instrumentation and control specialists. The council is also aiming to tweak the curriculum of South Africa’s universities so that students leave these institutions with tangible, practical skills in automation, instrumentation and control.

Further, maths and science at primary and secondary level are a focus, as results in these subjects are poor in South Africa and, consequently, few people qualify to study towards engineering qualifications.

Since 2007, Royal HaskoningDHV, then Stewart Scott International, has been running a Saturday School initiative from six of its main offices around the country, in partnership with local schools in underprivileged areas, to help redress this shortcoming. In conjunction with parents, school principals and teachers, promising Grade 11 and 12 students who are identified as having the potential and the desire to pursue a technical career can be enrolled into the Saturday School. The firm’s own technical staff voluntarily provide extra lessons in maths, science and engineering graphics and design to enable these students to achieve a very good matric pass and, hence, gain access to university. Since establishment of the school, more than 1 800 students have benefited from this initiative.

The SAIMC has other initiatives to get learners excited about engineering, says Maharaj. “The SAIMC supports the First Lego League (FLL), an international robotics team competition for children aged 9 to 16, which is developed in a partnership between the Lego group and US-based organisation FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), which is an organisation founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 to develop ways to inspire students in the engineering and technology fields.

The FLL, for which the Tshwane University of Technology is currently the official South African partner, has been active in South Africa since 2004 and encourages learners to build automated robots using motors and Lego blocks.

The SAIMC built a trailer that is used to transport Lego kits to underprivileged areas, adds Maharaj, highlighting that, in 2011, a team comprising previously disadvantaged learners won the South African leg of the competition and won a judges award at the World Festival in St Louis, in the US, in 2012.
He notes that the SAIMC’s rebranding, which took place in 2012, is aimed at strengthening the organisation’s historical purpose, using a more modern and appealing image, directed at youth who display an aptitude for engineering.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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