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SAIW Member profile: Hydra-Arc
13
June 2015 AFRICAN FUSION
SAIW bulletin boar
WorldSkills Welding 2015
Jacobus van Deventer, South Africa’s welding
candidate for the 2015 World Skills competi-
tion held in São Paulo, Brazil from11-16 August,
achieved 493 points in the welding competition,
just seven points shy of the 500 needed for a
Medallion of Excellence.
Although finishing in 25 place, he finished
ahead and the German and Swedishwelding en-
trants and only 50 points behind the Gold Medal
winner, Zhengchao Zeng from China. The Silver
Medal went to Jackielyson Alves of Brazil, while
Thailand’s Suparat Rattanapan took Bronze.
Van Deventer is a product of the Steinmül-
ler Africa’s Technical Training Academy (SATTA)
in Pretoria West, which, along with its sister
facility in Bethal, Mpumalanga, is accredited
by the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related
Services Sector Education and Training Authority
(merSETA).
South Africa’s WorldSkills 2015 entrant for the
welding competition, Jacobus van Deventer, on
completion of his carbon steel pressure protect. Jaco
achieved 493 points, just seven points shy of the 500
needed for a Medallion of Excellence.
Reporting directly to executive direc-
tor, Sean Blake, Alan Reid joined
the Institute in July as the new man-
ager of the SAIW’s Technical Services
department.
“I graduated with a degree in Physi-
cal Metallurgy fromWits University back
in 1998 and, in 1999, I started work at
DCD Heavy Engineering as a Welding
Technician. I was there for over 16 years
in several different positions: fabrication
manager; productionmanager; QAman-
ager; contracts manager; cluster SHEQ
manager; and finally, sales and market-
ing manager,” Reid tells African Fusion.
As well as a BSc (Eng) in Physical
Metallurgy from Wits, Reid completed
an MBa in 2011 through the North West
University’s Potchefstroom Business
School. “And I amnow about to embark
on the IIW’s International Welding Engi-
neer (IWE) course under Professor Pieter
Pistorius at the University of Pretoria,”
he says.
Describing his new role at the Insti-
tute he says that he oversees the suite
of Technical Services offerings, which
include: expert welding consultancy;
welding coordinator support; procedure
development; consumable assess-
ments; failure investigations; quality
system development; and implemen-
tation of research projects. “I am the
‘go to guy’ for industry related welding
development or problems,” he adds.
Underpinning the Technical Services
offering is the SAIW’s new laboratory.
“My number one priority right now is to
have the lab SANAS accredited to ISO
17025. The manual has already been
submitted but a few revisions still have
to be incorporated. Within the next
few months, we aim to resubmit the
amended manual, following which we
will be audited by SANAS to obtain ISO
17025 certification for the mechani-
cal and chemical testing laboratory,
which has been specifically set up for
welding related tests: welding proce-
dure qualifications (PQRs) and welder
qualifications.
“Following accreditation, the labwill
then be able to reach its full commercial
potential. And, unlike many other test
labs in South Africa, we have consider-
able experience inwelding. Our consult-
ing department offers help to develop
weldingprocedures, for example, andall
of the associatedmechanical tests, com-
positional analyses and micrographs
needed for a procedure qualification
will be able to be offered from our own
accredited laboratory,” he says.
“And while many larger users and
fabricators operate their own labs, ours
is independent and backed up by the
Alan Reid: SAIW’s new Technical Services manager
best welding support available,” he
suggests.
Reid also reveals that the SAIW is
looking for a secondwelding consultant
to join the Technical Services team, fol-
lowing Renier Mostert’s move to SAIW
Certification to join Herman Potgieter.
Technical Services’ Thulani Mngomezulu
is the only other SAIW welding consul-
tant. “We are looking to appoint a sec-
ondwelding consultant/engineer to this
role in the near future,” Reid confirms.
“This new position is an excellent
growth opportunity for me. I have now
returned to the technical side, which is
what attracted me to metallurgy and
welding in the first place. When I left
school, I was passionate about engineer-
ing, so I am looking forward to being
back doing the things that I really enjoy,”
Reid concludes.
become a preferred destination for fab-
rication, we need to adopt technology
for better quality systems management
andwemust renewour efforts to imple-
ment internationally approved welder
training programmes – such as the IIW
International Welder programme – in
training schools across the country,”
he says.
Morris Maroga, who represents
South Africa in commission XIV: Educa-
tion and Training and SC-Qual: Quality
management in welding and applied
processes says: “Education and training
as well as welding quality management
remain major challenges in completing
the current infrastructure development
projects inSouthAfrica, andmaintaining
our power plants using local skills. South
Africa still lags behind in the training of
welding engineers (IWEs), technologists
(IWTs) and International Welders (IWs).
We need to create a sustainablewelding
skills base to achieve world-class weld-
ing performance.
“Only when South Africa is able to
use local skills to successfully execute
major fabrication and constructionproj-
ects and to maintain those plants, can
saywe have achievedour goals,”Maroga
says. “But I am quite confident that our
renewed focus will enable us to develop
a new generation of reliable and skilled
local people,” he adds.
High quality papers were presented
to appeal to industrial sectors including:
shipbuilding, ground transportation,
energy, pressure andprocess equipment
and aerospace.
IIW Annual Assembly and Conference: Helsinki, 2015
Continued from page 11 