You are currently browsing the daily archive for Monday 23 November 2009.
Whether underground or at the surface, unanticipated earth movement can pose particularly hazardous conditions on mines. Risks include the endangerment of lives, destruction of property and damage to valuable, specialised equipment… (more)
Power substations play a critical role in transporting electricity from power plants to homes, businesses, and factories. However, a typical power grid can be comprised of hundreds of substations that need to monitored and controlled… (more)
Festo, a global leader in pneumatic and automation technology, is involved in an innovative project with South African-based photographer Paul Godard. The project, currently in the prototype stages, involves the development and construction of a highly precise automated dolly cart… (more)
George E Smith, callsign AA2EJ is a radio amateur from Barnegat, New Jersey, USA. He was one of the three scientists who were jointly awarded the 2009 Nobel prize for physics. The other radio amateur is Joe Taylor W6JT who in 1993 was awarded the Nobel prize for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation… (more)
The Chief Directorate: National Geo-spatial Information (CD:NGI) of the Department of Rural Development & Land Reform held workshops in Cape Town, Pretoria, Pietermaritzburg and East London to discuss the National Land Use Classification and Methodology initiative. Various organisations and government departments were identified as key stakeholders in the process, and were invited to attend and participate in the workshops which were facilitated by GeoTerraImage (Stuart Martin) and GIS Global Image (Werner Fourie)… (more)
Thank you for the honour accorded to me to be the 42nd president of the Institute of Mine Surveyors of South Africa. I promise to do my utmost to further the interests of the institute in 2010. Before looking at the year ahead, I want to pay tribute to the hard work done by Udo Pfafferott during his two years as president. Ten years from now, when we look back in history, the presidents during the 10 years in the build-up to the ISM 2010 Conference will be remembered for their vision and ability to make things happen… (more)
An important new South African address standard (SANS 1883, Geographic information – Addresses), has recently been published in three parts. Serena Coetzee, project leader for the standard, gives an overview of this very versatile standard, explaining among other things why it caters for no fewer than twelve different types of addresses, and how it can accommodate all eleven South African official languages… (more)
by Eileen Leopold, SA Electrotechnical Export Council
On the one hand, business is tough. South African companies are facing increased competition, particularly in Africa. On the other hand, there are still many opportunities in the energy and telecommunications infrastructure markets, and some projects are less at risk of being delayed. These include smaller to medium sized projects and those that involve “niche” technologies. This is exactly the space in which many South African electrotechnical companies excel… (more)
There has been much controversy lately over the mercury content of fluorescent tubes and CFLs. Many people are still unsure about how to dispose of redundant luminaires safely. Following all the discussions on the safe disposal of fluorescent tubes and CFLs, I have attached a sketch of a fluorescent tube breaker that we fabricated for the safe disposal of used tubes. The pipe that the fluorescent tube slide down can be a piece of 50 mm pipe with the screwed end at the top so that a pipe cap can be used to close it when not in use – or a plug can be used. This pipe must be of adequate length so that when the tube is broken in the drum there is no chance of it shattering outside the pipe… (more)
It was realised some time ago that the standards that deal with the safety of machinery had not kept pace with developments in the automation of machinery. In order to help provide both the safety and productivity of contemporary machinery, safety related control systems themselves often need to use complex and programmable technologies. Machinery safety related control system standards, such as EN 954- 1 (ISO 13849-1: 1999), have served well for many years, but are now too simplistic to cope with the technology. This means a change to the familiar system of “Categories”… (more)
The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) officially launched the South African Address Standard, SANS 1883, on 15 and 16 October 2009 at Gallagher Estate in Midrand. SABS through the Standards South Africa sub committee SC 71E Information Technology – Geographic Information, and various organisations in both the public and private sectors prepared the series of standards… (more)
Questions about the scalability, performance and reliability of open source software have been answered through its use on such popular websites as Facebook, one of the world’s largest and most innovative applications, and LinkedIn, the professional social networking website that uses the open source database MySQL to handle its database of more than 30-million subscribers. However, it may have taken the reality of a global recession to convince many enterprises that open source computing is ready for prime time… (more)
There is no such thing as “free” data. Someone in the data value chain pays for it. Data has to be sourced or collected, stored, maintained and packaged appropriately for its use to be maximised and this carries a cost. It is expensive to capture and maintain high quality geospatial data that is accurate, current and fit for use… (more)
Leading players in the world of power consumption are calling for electrical contractors to join forces with value added resellers (VARs) to promote the adoption of more efficient energy use and less wastage in power consumption. The Schneider Electric group believes that every person and every business worldwide is going to be affected by the energy challenge. It maintains that while the world does have many energy sources that will last many generations, we stand to destroy the planet in a few generations if they become depleted… (more)
In this current age of converging systems an airport is probably one of the most information communications technology (ICT) intensive users. All the systems are ICT based running on the TCP/IP platform. All the systems are integrated to form a whole while affording the individual systems the benefit of individuality via Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) while sharing a common communications system. To examine the anatomy of this system let us follow a passenger through the system and have a peek at what happens behind the scenes… (more)
For a number of years, products have been developed that can contribute substantially to the efficient use of electrical energy, immediately after installation. A number of initiatives began to emerge from government (Department of Minerals and Energy) and Eskom which include, among others, the Energy Conservation Scheme, Smart Systems and Solar Water Heating programmes… (more)
The City of Johannesburg is closing off its GIS data in a “cost recovery” move that other South African municipalities are set to follow. This, say some industry players, is not in keeping with Joburg’s plans to become “a world-class African city”. The closed data approach is being questioned in countries around the world, where closed data policies… (more)
Can innovation be taught? Can we teach young people how to change the world? Eskom thinks so. Those of us in government certainly think so. And so do young people. Teenagers appear to be optimistic about their ability to change the world. Three out of four South African teenagers believe that technological or scientific innovation can solve the problems that global warming is creating. If only adults and politicians held the same belief! … (more)
South African building regulations require, in certain situations, the installation of emergency lighting and illuminated emergency signage which is able to operate independently of the mains power supply. Often these requirements are fulfilled using lighting units which have selfcontained battery backups enclosed in the unit, and for reasons of reliability, ruggedness and long service life – crucial characteristics for emergency equipment – nickel cadmium (NiCd) batteries are frequently used. This was of interest to the ongoing research project “Flows and Fates of Cadmium in the City of Cape Town”, which has been investigating the use of cadmium, a toxic heavy metal related to mercury, in the city… (more)
It is known that the load factors of some squirrel cage motors used in some industries have values in a region of 0,1 to 0,4. This value suggested that for relatively long periods the motors could run close to no-load. This suggests that such motors are either grossly oversized or are cycling with significant time spent near no-load or idling duty… (more)
SANS 1883, Geographic information – Addresses, South Africa’s address standard was officially launched on 15 October 2009. The aim of the South African address standard is not to devise a new system of addressing nor to build a national address database, but rather to enable interoperability in address data, which will facilitate the allocation of addresses and the use of address data… (more)
The purpose of earthing is to minimise the risk of people receiving an electric shock if they touch metal parts of appliances or installations when a fault is present. Earthing is achieved by providing a path for fault current to flow safely to earth. When such fault current flows, it also causes the protective device (circuit breaker) to trip that circuit, thus removing the danger. Earthing conductors connect together all the non-current-carrying parts of an electrical system, or any metallic parts in the vicinity of the electrical system. The latter includes metal conduits, enclosures, supports and other metallic objects. The earthing system has two purposes… (more)
Read all about a tale of planetary woe; SumbandilaSat payload activation going well; astronomy stars and a giant ribbon discovered at the edge of the solar system… (more)
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