African Fusion

SAIW Member profile: Hydra-Arc

November 2015

AFRICAN FUSION

SAIW’s 67

Annual Dinner and Awards

The Institute’s Gold Medal Award for 2015, the Institute’s highest accolade, was awarded to

Hydra-Arc, represented by, from left: Nicholas Correia, Riaan Kruger, Geo Dunn, Riaan Carstens,

Jan Maswanganyi (CEO), Alan Smith, Eleanor Venter, Ewan Huisamen, Ryno van Niekerk, Armand

Keulder and Johan Victor.

winners

The SAIW Presidents’ Award For

NDT

SAIW has been training NDT person-

nel for more than 30 years – the same

length of time that the Institute has

offered training in welding. “NDT is a

very important part of the Institute’s

programmes andwewant to encourage

more young people to enter this field,

which offers good career opportunities.

The Presidents’ award recognises the

top NDT student on Institute courses.

The award is made in the name of the

past presidents of the SAIW who have

helped guide the Institute to become a

prominent part of the local welding in-

dustry and to be South Africa’s reference

point for high quality training inwelding

and NDT,” Blake said.

“This year, it was very difficult to

differentiate between the marks of two

candidates, so the SAIW Certification

Board decided that both will receive

awards. The awards go to Petrus

Stephanus Rossouw for outstanding

marks in one volumetric method and

two surface methods at Level 1 and to

Lorraine Lerato Montsho, who achieved

outstanding marks in one volumetric

methodandone surfacemethodat Level

2,” announcedBlake, adding, “this is the

second time that Lorraine has won the

NDT training award.”

The Phil Santilhano Memorial

Award

The SAIW’s second training award is

the Phil Santilhano Award, which is

presented to the best student on the In-

stitute’s courses inWelding Supervision

and Inspection. Theaward ismade in the

name of Phil Santilhano, whowas one of

South Africa’s leadingwelding technolo-

gists and is remembered for his research

anddevelopment on submergedarc and

electro-slag welding of heavy wall pres-

sure vessels. He became the Institute’s

first full time employee when he was

appointed technical director in 1977.

“Our winner tonight is Michael

Godfrey who achieved distinctions in

Welding Inspectors Level 1 and Level 2,”

revealed Blake.

Harvey Shacklock Gold Medal

Award

The Harvey Shacklock Gold Medal

is awarded to the author of the best

technical paper presented at an In-

stitute event. Harvey Shacklock was

the managing director of BOC (British

Oxygen Company) now Afrox. He was

instrumental in founding the South Af-

rican Institute of Welding and, in 1948,

became its first president. Afrox, part of

the worldwide Linde group, generously

donates a gold medal for the award.

“This year we are very pleased to be

recognising Cornelius van Niekerk for

his presentation

‘In situ alloying of AISA

410L martensitic stainless steel with ni-

trogen during laser cladding’

. The paper

was co-authored by Corné van Rooyen

and Madeleine du Toit. Cornelius van

Niekerk is currently in Australia, as is

Madeleine du Toit, but in Cornelius’ ab-

sence, his father, OostewaldvanNiekerk,

will receive this award,” anouncedBlake.

The SAIW Gold Medal Award for

2015

The final award for this evening is the

Institute’s GoldMedal Award. The award

was introduced in 1966. It is the Insti-

tute’s highest award and can be made

to a company or an individual in recog-

nition of outstanding contributions to

welding technology or to the Institute.

“For 2015 the award is being made

to Hydra-Arc. The award citation reads:

“In recognition of the company’s com-

mitment to skills development in South

Africa as exemplified by its involvement

in welder artisan training; innovation in

the field of fabrication in its workshops;

for completing the largest storage tanks

fabricated in South Africa for Sasol;

commitment to quality in welding as

demonstrated by numerous quality

management certifications in place and

international awards made in recogni-

tion thereof’

Hydra-Arc has developed the Sky-

Hill fabrication facility, which is a

fully integrated facility with 75 000 m

under roof. The company fabricated

five propylene (bullet) storage vessels

in 2013, measuring 59 m in length and

weighing 446 tons each, which were

the largest vessels ever manufactured

in South Africa at that time. The vessels

were heat treated as a single unit in a

one-of-a-kind heat treatment furnace

built by Hydra-Arc, completed ahead

of schedule and delivered to the Sasol

Secunda complex.

The group began a skills develop-

ment programme in 2002, which has

expanded over the years to the estab-

lishment of the Mshiniwami Training

Academy with capacity to train up to

1 000 artisans per year.

The Hydra-Arc Group is a proudly

South African business that has proven

that, by developing local skills and pay-

ing attention to quality and on-time de-

livery, it is possible to be successful and

competitive in this challenging industry.

The award was presented to Hydra-

Arc’s chief executive officer, Jan Mas-

wanganyi, by SAIW president, Morris

Maroga.