MechChem Africa October 2019

⎪ Minerals processing and materials ⎪

Fibertex SA marked women’s month as a platform to showcase the company’s commitment to empowering through diversity by hosting a ‘Women in Engineering Workshop’ at the KZN manufacturing plant. Fibertex celebrates women at workshop event

“ T o celebrate female engineers working in the built environ- ment, we invited ladies from all sectors of our business to attend our event, including guests from engineering consulting andarchitectural firms, education- al institutions and the eThekwini Municipal- ity,” explainsMeeraGovender, technical sales engineer for Fibertex SA. One of the highlights of the day was a motivating address by the key-note speaker, Jeshika Ramchund, lead engineer – develop- ments, for Bosch Projects, who shared her journey, highlighting the challenges she faces in the industryand tools sheutilises toachieve her success. Jeshika, who is passionate about the en- gineering industry and who is committed to working hard to improve the lives of many SouthAfricans, hadapowerfulmessageof en- couragement for the all guests in attendance: women must focus on being the best at what they do. This made her the ideal candidate to partnerwith the Fibertex teamtopresent the common message. In the past year, she has been awarded the 2019 CESA Young Engineer of the Year Award; the 2019 SAICE Durban Young Engi­ neer of the Year Award; the 2018 SAPSA Engineering Young Professional of the Year Award and was also selected as one of the Mail and Guardian’s 200 ‘Young South Africans toWatch’ in2018, in the Science and Technology category. The Fibertex Women in Engineering workshopcompriseda technical presentation on the Introduction to Geosynthetics and its applications; an interactive discussion about the challenges of gender diversity, and a tour of the plant.

Guests were shown the process of non- woven staple fibre geotextile products being manufactured from raw Polypropylene (PP) fibres and were impressed that Fibertex UV stabilised virgin PP geotextiles are the only nonwovengeotextilesproduced inAfricawith certification for durability of over 100 years. The specialists in Geosynthetic products recently achieved Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation from the South African Institute of Consulting Engineering(SAICE)foritsspecially-developed course on the ‘Introduction to Geosynthetics andSoilReinforcement’.Thecompanyplansto obtain further accreditation for other courses, whichwill be presented to the local market by technical specialists at Fibertex. “TheFibertex teamplays an important role in civil engineering and construction projects

The key-note speaker, Jeshika Ramchund, Lead Engineer – Developments, for Bosch Projects. Jeshika. in Africa, offering a technical support service to ensure correct specification of durable and safe materials, for high efficiency and extended service life, in every project. “Support from the holding company in Denmark guarantees the global edge on product design, impeccable manufacturing standards, cost efficiency, safety and reli- ability of every Fibertex material,” concludes Govender. q

The Fibertex Women in Engineering workshop comprised a technical presentation on the introduction to geosynthetics and its applications; an interactive discussion about the challenges of gender diversity and a tour of the plant.

October 2019 • MechChem Africa ¦ 29