Welcome to our bumper issue of Motion Control. Technews would also like to welcome SAFPA’s new president, Eugene Tondolo. Motion Control was recently able to catch up with him to find out what his plans are for SAFPA and he really does have some fresh new ideas.
Energy is always an issue, and this quarter we have a feature on renewable energy, with a contribution on an actuator and bearing solution for solar tracking from Bearings International. We also have one from motion control specialist, Moog, on the company’s wind turbine pitch control system, which emphasises just how sophisticated the technology behind wind power is. Wind power is starting to happen in South Africa, as anyone driving down past Jeffreys Bay will realise. Love them or hate them, these massive turbines create quite an impact and it looks like green technologies are here to stay.
The government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Production (REIPP) programme estimates that installed electricity capacity will need to grow by 40 000 megawatts in the next 20 to 25 years and approximately 17 800 megawatts will come from renewable sources – solar photovoltaic, wind, concentrating solar power and landfill gas. To put it into perspective, one megawatt of capacity is enough to supply 2000 average European homes.
This is a controversial topic. Despite their benefits, these are very expensive technologies compared to coal-based power. Although photovoltaic panels have halved in price since 2008 and the capital cost of a solar-powered plant fell by 22% from 2010 to 2013, a recent Economist reports on new studies by MIT and the Brookings Institution showing that wind and solar power are even more expensive than previously thought. The challenge will be to develop new cost-effective technologies to get these costs down and store energy effectively, offering many new opportunities for the engineer of the future.
Personally I like solar technology. A Cape Town-based technology firm called Capsule Technologies has designed Africa’s first solar powered desktop computer which can be plugged into a solar panel. It can operate on 20 W compared to normal desktop computers which burn 200 to 400 W. I really could have done with one of these when the power went down this weekend. I am already the proud owner of one of Schneider Electric’s Villasol microsolar stations which can charge a cellphone, and it was very handy on Sunday.
While still on the subject of energy, a story in our automotive section describes how SKF was involved in a project with Volvo to recover some of the energy expended in a passenger car during braking so that it can be reused by the vehicle when it’s needed using kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) technology. In another story, Beckhoff automation technology controls the production of over a million electronic parking brakes a year at Küster Automotive Control Systems.
More energy saving – in our robotics and mechatronics section I have to say my favourite is an account from Festo on a bionic kangaroo. Festo has recreated the jumping behaviour of the kangaroo and like its natural model, the BionicKangaroo can recover the energy generated when jumping, store it and efficiently use it for the next jump. We also have an interview with the PneuDrive Challenge team about this amazing mechatronics project which has gone from strength to strength over the last eight years and made a great contribution to the development of young engineers.
In another skills training initiative, Pirtek is funding 16 students from the first intake for a new MERSETA accredited qualification in fluid power hose assembly presented by Sparrow FET College and will also provide that critical workplace experience – a key requirement for their completion of the programme.
In our cover story Schneider features its new Altivar Process variable speed drive, the first on the market with embedded intelligent services for industrial applications.
Another interesting new development is Bonfiglioli’s new Mechatronic Drives & Solutions division, and Motion Control talked to MD, Robert Rohmann about how Bonfiglioli South Africa is also implementing this new initiative. Something different from SEW-Eurodrive is its Variolution concept, an innovative new solution for helping customers customise while still having their standard options.
Another of our features is marine, and we have a story about Siemens Subsea Products’ subsea hydraulic power and control systems.
In our hydraulics section there is a report about a Slovenian coal-fired power plant operator, which has enjoyed the reliability of Voith‘s variable speed fluid couplings for a remarkable 58 years with no unplanned downtime; and to close off with another superlative, Hytec has an account of its largest hydraulic project ever at a dam in Sudan.
Kim Roberts
Editor
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