I recently had the privilege of attending the Hydac sales conference in Saarbrucken Germany – an eye opener in terms of a new directive in the fluid technology world. With the introduction of extremely stringent emission regulations in the European Union, numerous OEMs are developing rechargeable electric solutions within the traditional petroleum based industry – in areas such as earth moving equipment, shipyard and commercial forklifts and automotive. The impact is a paradigm shift into a new age of extremely high efficiency electro-hydraulic and pneumatic solutions and products that will start to influence the fluid power market going forward. Although South Africa is a long way from a sustainable green energy supply, this paradigm shift may help with the massive price hikes in traditional fossil based fuels. Agriculture and mobile machinery design will need to adopt this energy efficient product base to sustain a competitive edge.
For the SAFPA council, it has been a busy couple of months. SAFPA was able to enter into an agreement with the organisers of Electra Mining 2018, who graciously made a stand available to showcase its offerings to the mining and engineering community. The exhibition was well attended and as a council we appreciate the ongoing support from the organisers.
Our council Member Manny Vieira recently visited the UK and took time out of his schedule to meet with representatives from the British Fluid Power Association (BFPA), where he negotiated a contract for SAFPA to use the well defined and complete set of hose and safety training manuals. This has allowed the council to finalise a two-day hose safety training course that will be available next year. SAFPA encourages not only the fluid power industry, but also OEMs and end-users of hydraulic and pneumatic products, to send relevant staff members to be trained and exposed to the hazards of fluid conveyance within the industry to ensure they are equipped with the knowledge to mitigate the risks involved in their day to day activities. Watch this space and the SAFPA website for the next available hose safety training course. This will be a two-day course recognised by the Engineering Council of South Africa for CPD points.
With regard to the technical developments within SAFPA, a directive has been implemented to develop a database of the relevant standards and directives that apply to the fluid power industry, both hydraulic and pneumatic, with accompanying fields such as oil, filtration and safety of machinery standards. This will allow numerous technical presentations to be undertaken regarding different focal areas such as cylinders, hoses, oils, manifolds and pressure vessels. The current research has been carried out with the assistance of an OEM, Winder Controls (Brent Wedderburn). The council is appreciative of this input and would like to encourage the input of not only the fluid power product and service suppliers but also the OEMs and the end-users. A defined set of ISO/DIN/EN/SANS standards benefits the manufacturer, supplier and end-user by ensuring quality products are manufactured and delivered within the fluid power industry.
I would like to thank all our members for their involvement and continuing support and wish them a prosperous end to 2018.
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| Fax: | 086 589 2158 |
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| www: | www.vdw.co.za |
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