All news
Mechanical Engineering students received exposure in manufacturing environments
2013/06/06 10:31:13 AM
The VRTC is a specialised laboratory on the Westville campus equipped to do vibration testing on powerlines and vibration dampers. The Centre was initially established with funding from UKZN, Eskom and the National Research Foundation through the Technology Human Resource Innovation Programme (THRIP).
Undergraduate and postgraduate UKZN students recently visited the premises of industry players in Pietermaritzburg to get first-hand experience on a variety of issues.
The students visited Hulamin, Performed Line Products (PLP) and Pfisterer.
Mr Pravesh Moodley of UKZN’s Vibration and Testing Centre (VRTC) co-ordinated the visits with the aim of exposing the students to the ‘manufacturing processes and to forge closer links with industry in search of opportunities for collaborative research for the VRTC. In addition, the knowledge gained from the visits would be used to assist the undergraduate students in designing a new vibration damper,’ said Moodley.
The VRTC is a specialised laboratory on the Westville campus equipped to do vibration testing on powerlines and vibration dampers. The Centre was initially established with funding from UKZN, Eskom and the National Research Foundation through the Technology Human Resource Innovation Programme (THRIP).
At Hulamin - a world class producer of semi-fabricated aluminum for local and export market -students were given a presentation by Roll Shop Co-ordinator, Mr R Reddy, who also interacted with the youngsters on issues around vibration testing.
The aim of Reddy’s presentation was to provide students with exposure into the vibration processes carried out by a company called Univibe in the United Kingdom.
An interesting model analysis was done with some fault finding analysis and this led to design engineering of vibration dampers manufactured on site. Reddy said: ‘The installation and tuning of these dampers engineered the undesired frequencies out of the machine completely it now operates under fairly stable conditions.’
Engineering Manager at PLP and a UKZN alumnus, Mr C Bolland, gave the students a tour of the factory.
PLP is an international designer, manufacturer and supplier of high quality cable anchoring and control hardware and systems, fibre optic and copper splice closures, high-speed cross-connect devices and hardware for the solar industry. The students were exposed to the various manufacturing processes including helical preformed wire forming processes and gravity and high pressure die casting.
Students were also given a demonstration of the basics of Aeolian vibration and how various PLP-manufactured damping devices work on a 30m test span in PLP’s test laboratory. Various other material and tensile testing methods were shown. After the exciting tour of the factory, students were given PLP caps, pens and some hardware samples for their project.
Bolland was impressed with the level of interest and questions asked by the students and wished them well in their studies.
The final visit was a presentation and tour of Pfisterer Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Pfisterer Holding AG in Winterbag, Germany. The company’s Technical Manager in South Africa, Mr Thabani Nene – also a UKZN Mechanical Engineering graduate - was keen to host the students.
Pfisterer is a low, medium and high voltage hardware supplier to power utilities such as Eskom Holdings and Railway pioneers including Transnet Ltd. The manufacturing plant employs more than a third of the total number of staff in the Pfisterer group.
‘Our focus is on power transmission and distribution systems, even at the railway sector, with examples like the Gautrain and Euro Tunnel Projects being supplied with some of our products,’ said Nene.
At the end of the Pfisterer visit, Nene handed copies of a book: Silicone Composite Insulators: Materials, Design and Applications by Dr F Schmuck and Dr K Papailiou to all the students with personalised copies going to a variety of UKZN staff members.
Schmuck is Pfisterer’s current Group Head of Technology: Insulators while Papailiou is the former Chief Executive Officer of Pfisterer Holding AG and a well-known researcher in the field of high voltage insulators and vibration damping. Papailiou is also Chairman of the Cigre Study Committee, and he is the co-supervisor of masters’ degrees being done by Mr Y D Kubelwa, Mr K A Ntambwe and Mr E Ojo.
Undergraduate and postgraduate UKZN students recently visited the premises of industry players in Pietermaritzburg to get first-hand experience on a variety of issues. The students visited Hulamin, Performed Line Products (PLP) and Pfisterer.
Mr Pravesh Moodley of UKZN’s Vibration and Testing Centre (VRTC) co-ordinated the visits with the aim of exposing the students to the ‘manufacturing processes and to forge closer links with industry in search of opportunities for collaborative research for the VRTC. In addition, the knowledge gained from the visits would be used to assist the undergraduate students in designing a new vibration damper,’ said Moodley.
The VRTC is a specialised laboratory on the Westville campus equipped to do vibration testing on powerlines and vibration dampers. The Centre was initially established with funding from UKZN, Eskom and the National Research Foundation through the Technology Human Resource Innovation Programme (THRIP).
At Hulamin - a world class producer of semi-fabricated aluminum for local and export market -students were given a presentation by Roll Shop Co-ordinator, Mr R Reddy, who also interacted with the youngsters on issues around vibration testing.
The aim of Reddy’s presentation was to provide students with exposure into the vibration processes carried out by a company called Univibe in the United Kingdom.
An interesting model analysis was done with some fault finding analysis and this led to design engineering of vibration dampers manufactured on site. Reddy said: ‘The installation and tuning of these dampers engineered the undesired frequencies out of the machine completely it now operates under fairly stable conditions.’
Engineering Manager at PLP and a UKZN alumnus, Mr C Bolland, gave the students a tour of the factory.
PLP is an international designer, manufacturer and supplier of high quality cable anchoring and control hardware and systems, fibre optic and copper splice closures, high-speed cross-connect devices and hardware for the solar industry. The students were exposed to the various manufacturing processes including helical preformed wire forming processes and gravity and high pressure die casting.
Students were also given a demonstration of the basics of Aeolian vibration and how various PLP-manufactured damping devices work on a 30m test span in PLP’s test laboratory. Various other material and tensile testing methods were shown. After the exciting tour of the factory, students were given PLP caps, pens and some hardware samples for their project.
Bolland was impressed with the level of interest and questions asked by the students and wished them well in their studies.
The final visit was a presentation and tour of Pfisterer Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Pfisterer Holding AG in Winterbag, Germany. The company’s Technical Manager in South Africa, Mr Thabani Nene – also a UKZN Mechanical Engineering graduate - was keen to host the students.
Pfisterer is a low, medium and high voltage hardware supplier to power utilities such as Eskom Holdings and Railway pioneers including Transnet Ltd. The manufacturing plant employs more than a third of the total number of staff in the Pfisterer group.
‘Our focus is on power transmission and distribution systems, even at the railway sector, with examples like the Gautrain and Euro Tunnel Projects being supplied with some of our products,’ said Nene.
At the end of the Pfisterer visit, Nene handed copies of a book: Silicone Composite Insulators: Materials, Design and Applications by Dr F Schmuck and Dr K Papailiou to all the students with personalised copies going to a variety of UKZN staff members.
Schmuck is Pfisterer’s current Group Head of Technology: Insulators while Papailiou is the former Chief Executive Officer of Pfisterer Holding AG and a well-known researcher in the field of high voltage insulators and vibration damping. Papailiou is also Chairman of the Cigre Study Committee, and he is the co-supervisor of masters’ degrees being done by Mr Y D Kubelwa, Mr K A Ntambwe and Mr E Ojo.
