Awards from S.A.I.W.

35 Years Ago

The South African Institute for Welding have announced the winners of their two awards.  The premier award is the Gold Medal Award made to the company or individual who has made an outstanding and exceptional contribution to the advancement of Welding Technology in South Africa.  The worthy winner of this award is Mr. Chris Smallbone now the Executive Director of the S.A. Institute of Welding.  Mr. Smallbone is one of only a handful of graduate welding engineers in South Africa, having completed his MSc degree at the University of Aston in Birmingham, England.  He was responsible for all the welding engineering courses at the Wits Technikon before taking up his present position.  He has been in South Africa since 1974.  The awards citation states “For his complete involvement in achieving the objectives of the S.A.I.W.” a reward truly deserved.

The second award is the Harvey Shacklock award, presented to the person who gave the most outstanding technical paper to the S.A. Institute of Welding at their monthly meetings.

The Harvey Shacklock award also consists of a gold medal.  The recipient of the Harvey Shacklock award is Mr Bill Dyball, section Head, Mechanical Engineering at Iscor Headquarters.  His paper on Fracture Mechanics was by far the best paper.  Fracture Mechanics is a relatively new field of study, and permits engineers to predict and evaluate the effect of defects which inadvertently occur in welds on critical components.

An example of this can be seen in the recent concern over cracks in the pressure vessel made by a French company for Koeberg Nuclear Plant.  Certain acceptances norms were set by the authorities (in this case the Atomic Energy Board and Escom) based on fracture principles.

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