MechChem Africa August 2019

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Root cause failure analysis and reporting 9-10 September 2019 Holiday Inn Hotel, Sandton 19-20 September 2019 Southern Sun Hotel, Durban

I n life cycle engineering, Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) becomes a critical part of the process to establish the underlying event(s) responsible for failure(s). Failures are associated with part integrity, proper functioning of a complete system or the execution of an engineering process. They aremost often classified as be- ing either mechanical, electrical or software. RCFA is triggered by design, manufactur- ing or machinery failures that are repeated, have significant operational or repair conse- quences, or have any safety or environmental consequences. With this in mind, Prosperity Leadership Development South Africa (PLDSA) will host Root Cause Failure Analysis and Reporting, an interactive training seminar based on some of themost recent research in the field, which aims to educate industry on the RCFA as a process of investigation that significantly reduces the risk of repeated failures. Participantswill beenabled to improve the performance of their operations with practi- cal, down-to-earth techniques that are based on first principles.

Course objectives and learning outcomes Note: The emphasis of this course may be varied to suit the disciplines or industry sector concerned.

Who should attend? Management and technical staff in all disciplines.

• Understand the principles of Root CauseFailureAnalysis and the role played in continuous improvement. • Apply and gain a working knowledge on basic root cause analysis on investigation of process and maintenance failures. • Identify RCFA steps, failure causes and benefits to RCFA in relation to cause analysis as well as the RCFA selection process. • Discusssomebasicproblem-solving,RCFA and problem-solving tools. • Apply and gain an in-depth knowledge on machinery root cause analysis (RCA). • Discuss the physical agents of failure (FRETT), metallurgical and examples of equipment component failures. • Learn the basics of reporting and report writing. • Discuss stewardship of RCFA results Life cycle recommendation and follow-up.

• Asset Managers • Chief Engineers • Civil Engineers • Reliability Engineer • Senior Support • Technicians • Foremen and supervisors • Production staff • Technicians • Millwrights and artisans

Courses are presented with substantial use of videos, case studies and samples of machine components that illustrate their function and failure modes. Contact for more information

Tel: (+27) 87 654 8306 E-mail: info@pldsa.co.za Website: www.pldsa.co.za

Innovative materials with carbon fibres made from algae A research teamat the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is exploring novel ways to reduce the carbon footprint of materials manufacturing processes. including in manufacturing processes. The TUM team is now spearheading a research project to further advance technologies to achieve this in an effort to combat climate change.

yeasts produce yeast oil from the algae sugars, which is a feedstock for sustainable plastics. Furthermore, enzymes can split the yeast oil into glycerine and free fatty acids. The glycerine can be turned into carbon fibres, while the free fatty acids are precur- sors for products like high-quality additives for lubricants, among others. In the further course of the project, the plastics will be combined with the carbon fibres to produce corresponding composite materials. “The carbonfibres produced from algae are absolutely identical to the fibres currently in use in industry,” says project lead Thomas Brück, professor for synthetic biotechnology at TU Munich. “Therefore, they can be used for all standard processes in aviation and automotive production.” Furthermore, carbon fibres and hard rock can be used in a process of the indus- trial partner TechnoCarbonTechnologies to produce novel construction materials. Not only do they have a negative CO 2 balance, they are also lighter than aluminium and stronger than steel. q Sustainable production of carbon fibres

Theoretical calculations have now shown that producing materials from algae oil - including green carbon fibres - will extract more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than the production of these materials releases.  Arecent global climate report – the IPCC Special Report onGlobalWarming of 1.5 °C –highlighted theneed for carbonmitigation,

The project, called ‘Green Carbon’, aims to develop manufacturing processes for polymers and carbon-based light-weight construction materials, based on algae which may be utilised in, for example, the aviation and automotive industry. The proj- ect is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to the tune of 6.5 million Euro.

Microalgae bind carbon dioxide As a result of their fast growth, microalgae can ac- tively store the greenhouse gas CO 2 in the form of bio- mass. CO 2 is mainly bound in sugars and algae oil. These can be used in chemical and biotechnological processes to produce precursors for a va- riety of industrial processes. For example, oil-forming

PhD candidate at the Werner Siemens Chair of Synthetic Bio- technology, on an e-scooter with a step made from a composite material integrating granite and carbon fibre from algae.

40 ¦ MechChem Africa • August 2019