Mechanical Technology July 2016

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6 Mechanical Technology — July 2016
⎪ Industry forum ⎪
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.
“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
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-
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.
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
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
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.
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
Pioneering solar aircraft arrives in Europe
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.
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.
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
High calibre visitors at A-OSH EXPO 2016