Mechanical Technology July 2016

⎪ Industry forum ⎪

Pioneering solar aircraft arrives in Europe

ates who have completed their B-Eng (Electronic Studies) with a minimum 75% average. • Automation engineers, both graduates seeking to pursue this career path and experienced professionals. • Application engineers with more than five years’ experience working with drives, and offering solutions for the mining, oil and gas industries. • Engineers with a Government Certificate of Competency (GCC) in mines and works are currently more marketable than engineers with GCCs in factories. Naturally, being in-demand skills also means these are mostly scarce skills. Em- ployers are acutely aware of this, and have adopted appealing retention strategies to ensure once they’ve attracted these skills, they’re able to successfully retain them too. www.networkrecruitment.co.za of 1 200 visitors when compared to the 2015 event. This makes it the largest fire, security, and occupational health and safety show in Africa,” says Joshua Low, A-OSH EXPO Event Director at Specialised Exhibitions. A targeted educational campaign, which included the Saiosh conference, the half-day FPASA InFiRES Seminar, as well as the free-to-attend NOSHEBO Seminar Theatre sponsored by Ansell, and the PASMA Working at Height Theatre, were all drawcards. In total, 337 del- egates attended the conferences and most of the free-to-attend seminar sessions were at full capacity. www.aosh.co.za Solar Impulse represents just the opening stage of a new golden age of environmentally friendly transportation. “We are seeing huge new opportunities in the field of sustainable transport,” says Spiesshofer. “Recent technologi- cal developments are opening the way to major advances in energy efficiency and productivity. We are only just begin- ning to realize the full potential of these changes.” new.abb.com more practical thanks to the develop- ment of new fast-charging stations; more sustainable solutions in marine transport with ABB’s Azipod propulsion systems, which place electric drive motors in sub- merged pods beneath the hulls of large ships; and the company’s OCTOPUS advanced connectivity solution that pro- vides guidance to ship operators on the most efficient routes to follow.

In spite of the tough economic conditions, this year’s event saw a visitor number increase of 9.16% to 2 669. This can be attributed to a number of factors in- cluding the high quality of products and services on offer from the 87+ exhibitors at the show, the range of educational con- tent and a number of product launches and competitions that the exhibitors ran on their stands. This year welcomed 21 first-time exhibitors on the show, from over nine international countries. “When combined with our co-located security and fire exhibition, Securex, the show welcomed just over 9 000 visitors in just three days, an increase much more efficient if all of these tech- nologies were implemented on a wide scale. This is exactly what our partners at ABB are doing – applying these in- novations in a way that the entire world can use them.” ABB’s CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer noted that the company provides an expand- ing range of products and solutions that increase the efficiency of transport sys- tems while reducing their environmental impacts on multiple fronts. “At ABB, we seek to find new ways to run the world without consuming the earth,” said Spiesshofer. These include: regenerative braking systems in electric trains, trams and other vehicles through ABB’s ENVILINE product portfolio; electric buses and other EVs, which are now becoming much

Solar Impulse, which has a wingspan greater than a 747 but weighs about as much as an ordinary passenger car, uses a high-capacity lithium-polymer battery system to permit it to fly through the night as well as in full sunlight.

Solar Impulse, a groundbreaking solar aircraft, has completed a 71-hour trans- atlantic flight from New York to Seville in the course of its remarkable round-the- world journey, which began last year in Abu Dhabi. The plane relies on the new- est generation solar cells, batteries and lightweight composites to accomplish the once seemingly impossible task of flying around the globe without consuming any fossil fuels. One of the aircraft’s two pilots, André Borschberg says: “This aircraft is essen- tially a flying smart grid, using the energy collected from renewable sources and then providing it efficiently to users who may require it at a different period of time from when it was generated.” The project’s other pilot, Bertrand Piccard, who is Solar Impulse’s initiator and chairman, adds, “The world could be

High calibre visitors at A-OSH EXPO 2016

The 7 engineering skills most in demand in SA “Although there is still strong demand for engineering candidates generally, there are a handful of highly sought-after skills that SA’s engineering employers are clamouring to get their hands on right now,” says Bel- lah Nxumalo, senior specialist recruiter at engineering recruitment specialist, Network Recruitment.

technical qualifications, but also long-term tenures with companies and the right bal- ance between a candidate’s ‘people person- ality’ and their go-getter, target-smashing sales persona,” she adds. The engineering candidates currently topping SA employers’ lists, according to Nxumalo, are: • Black engineers with experience working on the national energy grid. • ECSA-registered substation and trans- former designers with seven to 10 years’ experience. • Sales engineers with three to seven years’ experience and a proven sales track record selling in the automa- tion, drives and factory automation industries. • Embedded software development gradu-

“As surprising as it sounds, years of experience is not necessarily the chief re- quirement associated with all these skills. Some skills are so desirable, employers are picking candidates straight off the graduate line and investing in these employees early on to grow their fresh new skills within the parameters of their organisations’ specific processes,” she says. “Other positions, like those involving sales engineers, not only demand the right

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Mechanical Technology — July 2016