EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Poor turnout for
regional skills competition
T
The Western Cape regional WorldSkills competition was held on 7–8 September at the College
of Cape Town, with only two of the six contestants who entered actually taking part.
he two contestants were David La
is South Africa’s expert in refrigeration, also
Grange of Airvent Brackenfell and
acted as adjudicator.
interest in the industry.
The electrical industry competition was
Tiaan Meyer of Apollo Air, who had
Both contestants had scant training
to construct a heat pump according to
prior to the event, and only La Grange
boasted 40 contestants. Because of the
the drawing presented, as well as write a
managed to complete the project in time.
amount of entries received, a theoretical
theoretical test.
Meyer didn’t have enough time to finish his
test was completed three weeks prior to
They had 14 hours to complete the
held at the college at the same time and
installation’s electrics and spent too much
the competition to limit the number of
practical project under the watchful
time on the basic hand skills. Both showed
entrants for the ensuing practical exam to
eyes of the three judges: Geoff Hobbs
strong perseverance throughout the two
1 0. For their practical, the 10 competitors
(TechniSkills), Kobus Harmse (College of
days though.
had to wire a DB board complete with
Cape Town refrigeration lecturer) and Bob
Vuletic (Multistage Cooling). Vuletic, who
The event was sadly under promoted
and as a result failed to generate wider
plug outlets, motor connection, light
switches and the like.
CLA
SFI anniversary
celebrations continue
By John Ackermann
The second event to celebrate SFI Group’s 10th anniversary took place on 18 August at the Milnerton
Golf Club in Cape Town, alongside a technical talk on the importance of buying quality motors.
T
he technical talk was presented by
on ensuring that the needs of SFI’s customers
1% improvement in each of the categories
become the Team Sky of the HVAC industry.
Marthinus Greeff of Zest Motors (part
are met. “SFI sells people — not products,”
like dieting and bodybuilding, the collective
“SFI wants to form a lasting partnership
of the Zest WEG Group), who spoke
said Hector.
gain by the team would be far greater than
with suppliers that have leading
the total capacity of their closest rival.
technology to offer,” Hector said.
about the latest technology in motors. With
He also thanked the clients who have
Next up was Clinton Louw, SFI Group
a model, Greeff was able to demonstrate
come on board over the years, before
the benefits of the electronic features of
addressing the various challenges that the
industry, such as skills shortages, adaption
general manager, to facilitate the lucky
Zest motors towards lower energy usage.
company and industry are facing. “Every
to new refrigerants, reduced energy usage,
draw for some special wine featuring a
challenge has been another learning
reduced impact on the environment,
pepper spice and mulberry flavour. Many
curve,” he said.
required improvements on indoor air quality,
humorous wine one-liners followed like ‘A
commissioning of old buildings into green
meal without wine is called breakfast’, and
Next up was Edward Hector (managing
director of the SFI Group), who took the
opportunity to look back over the past
Hector used the analogy of Team Sky
“Many challenges are facing the
decade and what has been achieved
who has won the Tour de France three
buildings, and many more. SFI wants to
‘In wine there is wisdom and in water there
thus far. He thanked his team for the
times. With 25 members in the team, if
make marginal improvements in each of
is bacteria’. About 50 people attended the
company’s success, especially for their focus
each member could achieve a mere
these challenges and in doing so, want to
event.
From left: Marthinus Greeff, Paul Arendse, Simon Pollock, Shaydon Victor, and
Bill Brown.
Edward Victor (on left) with Dick Manning.
CLA
About 50 people attended this event.
COLD LINK AFRICA • November | December 2016
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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