Construction World March 2018

Becoming a global Composites Centre of Excellence

TLT MechCaL was established in 2002 to design and manufacture industrial fans. The company has developed proprietary software that allows for high efficiency designs to address the much- needed green economy to reduce CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere through using less energy while providing the same performance. At their manufacturing facilities in Pretoria, TLT MechCaL focuses on developing specialised fans using advanced design tools and materials. Every fan is designed for a specific application tailored to suit the needs of each client by matching the required performance with optimised efficiency. TLT MechCaL has been awarded the prestigious Technology Top 100 award six times and has been a runner up four times. They have also won the Enabling Award from Frost and Sullivan. All of this success was garnered from leveraging advances in technology and use of advanced composite materials to enable savings for their clients. In 2016, TLT MechCaL was formally incorporated into the TLT group by German based firm, TLT-Turbo. “Becoming the global competency centre in composites positions us to expand our leadership in the industry both in Africa and worldwide,” said Erasmus. “We will accelerate the execution of POWERCHINA and TLT-Turbo’s strategic vision by further leveraging the innovations in using composites in state-of-the-art ventilation related solutions.”  TLT MechCaL, who have POWERCHINA owned German company TLT-Turbo as their majority shareholder, have been researching and implementing the use of various Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) – generally referred to as composite materials – in their fan designs for over a decade. The use of these materials and knowledge of aerodynamic principles with the majority of the TLT MechCaL team having their background in the aircraft industry, have allowed TLT MechCaL to design and manufacture fans with significant improvements in performance and increased in efficiency. The result is lower energy consumption, lower mean time between failures, and less demanding maintenance. This specialised expertise in the use of composites is becoming invaluable in the innovation and design of new and improved fans for the mining, power and industrial sectors around the world. POWERCHINA had three centres of excellence around the world in the engineering sector and TLT MechCaL became the fourth. According to TLT MechCaL’s Managing Director, Luther Erasmus, there has been a lot of interest from POWERCHINA in the composite products that TLT MechCaL is able to produce and that POWERCHINA envisions possible expansion of the use of composites beyond ventilation into vapor recompression, evaporation, desalination and other solutions as well. Historically known for their highly innovative use of composites in manufacturing mining and industrial ventilation fans, TLT MechCaL has been named as the Composites Centre of Excellence for the global TLT brand by TLT-Turbo GmbH – a move that has the potential to put South Africa’s composites expertise on the world map by creating jobs and further developing skills in this field.

to CESA Members across the country to ensure that all state organisations have the required capacity and skills to be compliant with SIPDM but also to ensure that non- compliance is addressed in a positive manner for future relations. With reference to the industry regulatory body, the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), Pather stated that the current impasse between ECSA and the Voluntary Associations is unhealthy for the industry. He commented that the notion that either ECSA or the VAs can serve the industry in isolation is ludicrous and needs urgent attention from the various Ministries in government, in particular the Department of Public Works. In regard to the new Construction Sector Scorecard Pather says that setting transformation goals and objectives for the industry is the right thing to do and should not be viewed simply as a compliance issue. CESA through its membership seeks to set the correct value system within the industry for all companies to abide by. 

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD MARCH 2018