By Andrew Perks
I don’t know about the readers, but I sometimes feel that life is just flashing by.
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Andrew Perks is a subject expert in ammonia refrigeration. Since undertaking his apprenticeship in Glasgow in the 1960s he has held positions of contracts engineer, project engineer, refrigeration design engineer, company director for a refrigeration contracting company and eventually owning his own contracting company and low temperature cold store. He is now involved in adding skills to the ammonia industry, is merSETA accredited and has written a variety of unit standards for SAQA that define the levels to be achieved in training in our industry. |
There has never been so much information available before, and it just keeps expanding at an exponential rate. This has a lot of positives but, I was born in the middle of the 20th century, and it makes my head spin.
There has never been so much information available before, and it just keeps expanding at an exponential rate. This has a lot of positives but, I was born in the middle of the 20th century, and it makes my head spin.
As Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun, just different ways to do it.
Things have changed quite a lot since I first arrived in South Africa, back in the day when it was all about “boer maak ‘n plan”. I loved it.
Back in the UK you were either this or you were that, not a lot of scope to do your thing. I arrived as a contracts engineer to be told “oh by the way you are actually a project engineer”. When I enquired about my responsibilities I was told “oh you do everything”. No doubt about it, straight into the deep end, no lifeline, just get on with it.
Coming from the UK there was always someone around to help. I soon found out we didn’t have that luxury here.Things have changed over the years. We now have formalised ammonia training and accreditation, all leading to accountability, which is a good thing. South African National Standards are now in place levelling the playing fields which means a more standardised approach to project control and compliance with the applicable regulations.
My reason for broaching this subject this month is that we are becoming more and more involved in contractual compliance in the industry. Initially there were a lot of pushbacks on this when it was felt that we were out there trying to cause problems for the contractors. Far be it from that, in fact, by having a standard synergy with the SANS requirements we were making every one’s life easier.
That said all designs and installations need to conform to SANS 10147 and SANS 347 (pressure equipment regulations) which refers to the American standard ASME B31.5 (Refrigeration Piping and Heat Transfer Components).
The general rule of installation needs to comply with the following:
- Material inspection of the piping and components prior to installation
- Welders test certificates are up to date and relevant to the codes
- Welding procedures of the company are reviewed by the AIA
- Design drawings signed off by a PR Eng and countersigned by the AIA
- AIA and client to witness the pressure test
- Optional 10% RT on welds as part of the quality control procedure
- AIA to witness NDT reports (if pressure test is not possible, 100% RT of welds is usually done. This would require a client’s deferment letter)
- RT on all tie-in welds that cannot be pressure tested
- The AIA usually makes inspections throughout the installation process. This is to ensure that the installation is compliant prior to the insulation being applied to the piping (inspect for misalignment or illegal connections)
- Certificate of compliance to be issued by the contractor and signed by AIA
- Both the client and AIA will sign off on completion
The above, when followed, should ensure the legality of any installation, however, the onus will always be on the contractor and the AIA to ensure compliance.
Back in the day nobody ever followed these rules. We seemed to get by, but I feel that we have certainly made a move in the right direction. So often I hear comparisons between overseas standards and ours here in SA, I think I would rate our installations and designs on a par with most countries out there. We have some exceptional people in our industry.
Stay safe and see you next month.