You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2012.
From 1953 through to 1957, he completed his standard 6, his junior certificate and his matric, at St Patrick’s school (Bloemfontein), St Peter’s College (Rossettenville) and Kroonstad High School respectively… (more)
NASA launched the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, or NPP, on 28 October 2011 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NPP was renamed Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, or Suomi NPP in honour of the late Verner E. Suomi, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin who is recognised widely as “the father of satellite meteorology.”… (more)
In this monthly feature, Hans van de Groenendaal ZS6AKV, executive chairman of the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust (SAARDT), looks at various technologies and activities that drive amateur radio… (more)
Optimisation of cost and reduction of size are driving the need to integrate the components in current transducers using application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)… (more)
A brief summary of the White Paper “Changing the Game” which deals in depth with the subject of low light, high resolution imaging. Detector and camera engineers have been pursuing perfection since the first CCD in 1970. We are not there yet, but we are getting closer… (more)
The structures we live and work in are susceptible to quality and performance problems during construction and maintenance that can impact performance and may, in some cases, render them dangerous… (more)
Buying an infrared camera is a big step for any company or individual. Even though over the last couple of years there has been a dramatic drop in pricing, you want to make sure that the camera you decide on is the best value for money and the correct camera for your current and future application needs… (more)
Cooling the servers in data centres efficiently is critical to increasing IT reliability, maintaining high performance, and reducing electrical usage. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling is sometimes used to help design the cooling systems of data centres by simulating delivery of cooled air by the computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units, but often what is drawn and modeled is different from what gets built and modified… (more)
This case study discusses how a ferrochrome producer gained deeper insight into problems experienced on its furnaces by developing new performance measures to improve operations performance management… (more)
Typical instant water heaters have manually selectable discrete power settings to match the desired temperature. Such systems may use more energy than required by operating above the temperature command… (more)
It has finally arrived – internet in the sky! Mango airline has introduced internet on its flights and other airlines are likely to follow… (more)
This document describes how to automatically test the physical layer of a passive optical network (PON) from the central office (CO). This approach reduces provisioning time, improves quality of service (QoS) and reduces maintenance costs… (more)
Organisations generate masses of data on a daily basis, which needs to be stored somewhere accessible so that users can access it to do their jobs. Storage requires servers, but given the sheer volume of data in today’s world, the number of servers needed and the physical space they occupy has become a problem… (more)
Co-chairman of the WACS consortium, Dr. Angus Hay and GM Strategic Business Development at Neotel, said at the switching-on of the WACS cable system, that the success of the project and the fast implementation was greatly facilitated by the excellent cooperation of the consortium partners… (more)
While regulatory processes in the communications industry are important, these processes should not get in the way of new developments. This means that regulatory authorities like the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) should be proactive and be agile enough to develop regulatory frameworks, adjust fee structures and promulgate regulations that keep track of the pace of technological developments… (more)
Every time I meet Andy Brauer at a conference or business event we spend more time talking about emerging and future technology than about his job at Business Connexion as CTO. Andy is a true techno futurist so when I had the opportunity to speak with him about new technologies that would drive business of the future, we were soon deep in conversation over a cup of coffee… (more)
Virtualisation is now high on the priority list of many companies and is frequently the subject of conferences. It is one thing talking about virtualisation, it is quite another thing implementing it. We invited a number of experts to participate in our virtual panel discussion… (more)
The article “Is BlackBerry a ticking time bomb?” by Peter Scheffel, BBD was forwarded to Research In Motion and the following response was received.
Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry solution, has a strong base of revenues, customers and products to build on for a future as a major competitor in the mobility market… (more)
The BlackBerry smartphone has seen incredible growth in South Africa over the past few years, beating other smartphones to quickly gain the lion’s share of the market. While this extraordinary growth is to be praised, the many corporate and consumer BlackBerry users in the country may be facing a serious problem in the near future… (more)
The past five years have seen a major shift in the design and quality of corporate and high-profile websites. Especially in the media environment, the understanding of best practise has evolved in clicks and bounds… (more)
The South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) was inaugurated in 1996 as a Section 21 company and is currently the ninth largest, internationally recognised national accreditation body in the world… (more)
According to the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (SACCI’s) copper cable theft barometer, the impact on the economy of copper theft is estimated at R5-billion per year… (more)
The energy saving potential in motor-driven applications is enormous: electric motors across all sectors account for some 67% of the world’s industrial energy use… (more)
Engineers designing a starting solution for large inline motors often face the problem of voltage drop, which can have a detrimental effect on equipment… (more)
When most people think of facilities management they think of monitoring building systems and environmental variables. Less obvious and less visible, but equally important, is the role facilities management plays in the manufacturing sector… (more)
A low-cost automation system to minimise energy consumption of circulation pumps and to regulate the chemical composition of the water in swimming pools… (more)
A review of published standards for light emitting diode (LED) technology in the South African National Standards (SANS), International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) and other international standards, as well as a report on the progress of some of these institutions’ work groups… (more)
Telemanagement can provide real-time access and control over public lighting infrastructure, as well as reporting on operating state, energy consumption and failure, together with management and maintenance cost control and budgeting capabilities… (more)
The lighting industry is undergoing a digital revolution, moving from traditional analogue technologies to LED technology. This article gives a view on the impact of this revolution and how lighting companies can manage the transition… (more)
The 2012 South African Flameproof Association symposium will be held at Emperors Palace on 8 November 2012. The association will host a gala dinner on 7 November to honour and acknowledge those who have contributed exceptional service to the industry… (more)
Eskom’s Standard Offer Programme now provides funding for small-scale renewable energy technologies. These are biomass waste; wind energy; geothermal; solar; thermal gradient and ground source heat. Solar thermal liquid heat is excluded from the programme but municipal solid waste will be considered a source… (more)
CBI-electric, the only manufacturer of miniature circuit breakers (MCBs) and earth leakage protection units (ELPUs) in African, has reported that counterfeit copies of its electrical products are being manufactured in China and imported into South Africa… (more)
The Illumination Engineering Society of South Africa (IESSA) has a new president. The presidential chain was officially passed from outgoing president Trevor Milne of Tridonic SA to Greg Marcia of Nordland Lighting during the eighth IESSA conference and AGM the Cathedral Peak Hotel in the Drakensburg. Marcia’s term started on 1 July 2012… (more)
Question: We must install lightning protection services (LPSs) at a mobile phone site. How do I calculate the number of rods required to achieve a meter reading of 10 Ohms?… (more)
Section 12H of the Skills Development Act entitles employers who have entered into learnership agreements to a commencement deduction of R30 000 (R50 000 where the learner is a person with a disability). The agreements must be registered in accordance with the Skills Development Act and entered into between the learner and the employer before 1 October 2016… (more)
The work group indices for May 2012 show relatively large monthly percentage changes in a number of the work groups reported on by Statisticss SA. Monthly percentage changes in the index figures range from -6,2% for Work Group 113 to 2,8% for Work Group 154. The Consumer Price Index for May 2012 increased by 0,08%. The three indices reflecting relatively large monthly percentage changes mainly due to factors other than the headline CPI… (more)
The European Union is the developing world’s largest trading partner and one of the key investors in the global economy. It is a major source of remittances and an important donor to developing countries – poorer “third-world” countries depend on Europe for roughly half their international aid. Will this, the second European financial crisis, lead to the predicted (and dreaded) “paradox of thrift” and impact our industry negatively as markets around the world reduce demand?… (more)
Eskom IDM is continually extending its portfolio of funding mechanisms and the range of efficiency technologies that is supported to make energy efficient products more readily available to South Africans… (more)
This paper presents a pre-feasibility report for the development of a wave power conversion system, the Stellenbosch Wave Energy Converter (SWEC), that is ideally suited for local conditions at the community of Saldanha in the Western Cape province of South Africa… (more)
Approximately 10% of the global hydropower potential is located on the African continent, with the majority of that in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, only a low 4 to 7% of this potential has been developed… (more)
The initiative was born in 2008 when I met my partner and colleague Dr. Michael Kast, during a tender briefing at Eskom about the setup of a 100 MW wind farm. After the tender meeting I met my partner on several occasions and we further discussed the option to at least manufacture components for large scale wind turbines in South Africa… (more)
State-of-the-art power semiconductors are intended to switch quickly in order to reduce dynamic losses. Once an IGBT turns off, the load current commutates to the freewheeling diode. To avoid undesirable side-effects, these two semiconductors have be very well matched in terms of their electrical properties… (more)
Reducing energy consumption and working towards greener business has become progressively more important in light of changing regulations, public pressure and ever-increasing utility costs… (more)
The energy saving potential in motor-driven applications is enormous: electric motors across all sectors account for some 67% of the world’s industrial energy use… (more)
This paper looks at energy savings potentials in utilities in industrial processes. It presents a monitoring and targeting strategy proposal that will assist in realising sustainable energy savings in key energy user utilities in processes… (more)
This paper describes protection elements that detect transformer faults quickly and avoid unnecessary transformer disconnections, and introduces a differential element that combines the security and dependability of harmonic restraint with the speed of harmonic blocking to optimise relay performance… (more)
Direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC)? Industrialist George Westinghouse and inventor Nikola Tesla wanted to use alternating current to transport electric energy, while Thomas Edison was a vigorous proponent of direct current. But his efforts were in vain: Edison’s opponents prevailed, and alternating current grids have dominated the transmission of electric energy worldwide ever since… (more)
Locating cable faults on wind farms often requires the use of several different techniques and, even then, because of the wide range of wiring structures used on wind farms, fault location is often far from straightforward. The ideas and techniques described in this article will help to explain and clarify some of the key issues involved… (more)
The purpose of this document is to present a model which could facilitate, co-ordinate and integrate the Smart Grid related activities in South Africa. The electricity supply industry in South Africa is confronted with many challenges… (more)
Today, hydrogen is being promoted as the fuel of the future. Experimental cars and vehicles that run on hydrogen have already been made, and filling stations to refuel them built near Los Angeles in the American state of California. But hydrogen is also known in the USA as the fuel that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger just 73 s after its launch in 1986, in a huge, spectacular explosion… (more)
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