MechChem Africa July-August 2022

⎪ Products and industry news ⎪

Following the April 2022 floods in KwaZulu Natal, Veolia Services Southern Africa sup ported its clients in the region, including Toyota and Mondi, with clean-up services, repairs and maintenance. It also assisted its Public Partner, the eThekwini Municipality of Durban, in addressing the restoration of wastewater discharge management. “ Th e bu r d e n o n t h e eTh e kw i n i Municipality is huge and their resources are constrained. The Municipality sees water supply as its top priority – understandably so. This is where Veolia can assist as we have the expertise in water and wastewater management,” says Miles Murray, Director, Business Development, Veolia Services Southern Africa (VSSA). Veolia supports KZN flood damage recovery 25 000m 3 /day to 4 800m 3 /day as of 14April 2022. Typical industrial reclaimed water consumption is about 14 000 m 3 /day,” says Siva Chetty, Regional Services Manager for VSSA in KwaZulu-Natal. In addition, the plant faced reduced sewage flows, com promising the plant’s biological systems. These issues resulted in an increased risk of environmental pollution and health risks to the surrounding communities.

be used to ensure that the machine is operating efficiently. They can be used for preventative maintenance, which may well avoid a critical and expensive failure that disrupts production. “These sensor-data features can also be incorporated into control systems to take the guesswork out of manufacturing and provide accurate and reliable feed back,” Smit concludes. www.smc.eu/en-za “We supplied reclaimed water to facili tatemopping up. And theVeoliaMondi team of 17 personnel assisted with cleaning up and repairs. Our maintenance and electrical teams also assisted in assessing damage to motors and equipment,” states Murray. Murray believes that a renewed focus on disaster management and restoration planning is essential in preventing a repeat of this disaster. With a global knowledge base, Veolia is well-positioned to support and address the emerging challenges of climate change-induced disasters and risks. www.veolia.com gaged its network team to unblock the pipe line to restore flows into the pipe instead of polluting the river course. “The Umlaas feeder fault is complex. Veolia has advised that to address this, the Municipality will require a multi-disciplinary and integrated approach, involving roads, stormwater systems, land reinstatement, river course management and social involvement. Veolia will provide strategic level input,” explains Chetty. Most of Veolia’s clients in KZN were flooded (including Mondi, Toyota, Simba and MSSL), with extensive damage to infra structure and plant equipment. “Mondi and SAPREF – both being DWR offtake partners – have declared Force Majeure as a conse quence of the unprecedented flooding and damage to their respective infrastructures,” notes Murray.

sizes ranging from 1”to 2” and a maximum measurable flow of 12 000 ℓ /min. These units can handle flow ratios of 100:1 to offer a wide range of measurable flow,” says Smit. “On the latest iteration of our modu lar air service units, the AC30-D and AC40-D, we can include a flow switch in the assembly to save space and to reduce installation time on the unit. This allows monitoring of the air consumption, pres sure and temperature of the To address these issues and restore ade quate flows to DWR, Veolia, in consultation with the eThekwini Municipality, identified three acute failure points. The first was in Chatsworth Silverglen where a section of 660 mm-diameter steel line washed away. “The resultant spillage polluted the local river and environment and caused reduced feed flow to DWR. Veolia engaged the ser vices of Multiple Engineering contractors to repair the pipe failures at two points in the Chatsworth feed line. “This intervention resulted in flow to DWR increasing from 4.0 M ℓ /day to 12 M ℓ /day,” adds Chetty. The second catchment system fault was the damage to the sewage transfer pipeline from Umlaas to DWR, which included a washed-away road. The third was a block age on the Chatsworth line, near RK Khan hospital. In both these cases, Veolia reported the failures and the eThekwini Municipality en

According to Jacobus Smit, technical sales engineer for SMC in South Africa, an elec trical sensor actually consists of a sensor, transmitter and a cable. Digital sensors are replacements for mechanical analogue sensors and are required. A pressure sen sor, for example, detects pressure changes and converts themwith high accuracy into a digital electrical signal. These signals are then represented on a display or can use an I/O link to provide feedback to a PLC. Sensors play a big role when it comes to energy saving. This goes deeper than se lecting the setting on the sensor to turn off the display when not in use. Sensors allow a machine to provide feedback on usage or to indicate if there is a rise in pressure. When monitoring the consumption over time, sensors will provide data that can identify when a pneumatic machine has air leaks which account for, on average, 20% of the air usage at a typical facility. “At SMC we offer a wide range of sen sors and switches that can be used to monitor the overall usage of a facility, such as our PF3A7 H-series switch with port Veol ia operates and maintains the Durban Water Recycling Plant (DWR) on behalf of theCity of eThekwini. Constructed in 2000, the plant recycles wastewater equivalent to generat ion from about 220 000 households in the city without the need for additional infrastructure spending. As a result of the floods, the plant was affected by a week-long power outage, and damage to the feed supply infrastruc ture from the Umlaas River/Chatsworth catchment area. “The extreme weather events caused severe damages and block ages to the supply network. We observed a reduction in feed water from about

What pneumatic sensors are telling us

supplied air at a specific machine. A pressure sen sor can also be included to monitor when a machine is executing a task, such as sealing or filling, where accurate positive pressure is necessary to prevent waste and rejects: due to over- or under -filling or inadequate sealing, for example. “Sensors allow a machine to communicate with its op erator and this information can

The bypass construction of PF3A7 H-series switches reduces the moisture or foreign matter in contact with the sensor

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