https://www.miningweekly.com

Internship to benefit more students

28th April 2017

By: Nadine James

Features Deputy Editor

     

Font size: - +

Alberton-based wear solutions company Rio-Carb is contemplating the extension of its internship programme into its black economic-empowerment programme. The programme is aimed at preparing second-year engineering students for their careers, in the near future.

With two students having completed the internship programme, launched last year, the chromium carbide (CrC) plate manufacturer says two more students will be accepted into the programme in November.

The programme represents a significant investment on the part of Rio-Carb in the future of the industry and the company, says Rio-Carb director Martin Maine.

“Our aim is to make a meaningful contribution to the development of the engineering industry by upskilling the engineers of tomorrow,” he comments.

The six-week programme covers aspects of industrial, mechanical and metallurgical engineering, with the mentoring focus being on physics.“We are illustrating the importance of physics as a background platform for all aspects of engineering by emphasising its importance in processes, demonstrating this by providing lessons in welding-arc behaviour and plasma interactions inside a cutting-head, among other aspects.”

He notes that Rio-Carb’s associate company, water-jet cutting service provider Aquajet Profiles, also covers this physics- grounding through lessons on “the physics of extremely high water-pressure acting as a precisely controlled abrasive tool”.

Rio-Carb, which manufactures liner plates for heavy materials handling applications in the mining and resources industries, is essentially a one-stop shop where interns can learn everything from computer-aided design (CAD) to actual engineering production, says Maine. “This is a hands-on, real-life learning environment that provides tertiary students with much-needed practical experience.”

Of the two students accommodated by the programme so far, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) BSc mechanical engineering student Uma Krige completed the programme in February.

Krige, who impressed Rio-Carb with her notable academic achievements and leadership qualities, received “invaluable” exposure to production and business processes while benefiting from the insights of experienced engineers, Maine tells Mining Weekly.

She stresses that the exposure to a broad-ranging production environment, such as that of Rio-Carb, rounded her theoretical training at Wits. Apart from being able to see processes, such as plasma cutting, welding, grinding, drilling and sheet-forming, and CAD, first-hand, in a highly-automated facility, Krige also attended client site visits, as well as sales and production meetings.

While acknowledging that it is challenging being a woman in her chosen career path, Krige notes that companies, such as Rio-Carb, are helping to challenge the status quo of this male-dominated industry.

Maine says promising students, such as Krige, will be offered an opportunity for full-time employment at Rio-Carb upon the successful completion of their studies.

The company has further assisted students by donating R950 000 to Wits to provide financial support for second- and third-year undergraduates.

Maine – a former South African Institute of Welding president – is encouraged to share his “fortunate mining and engineering background” with students. His experience, which ranges from his involvement in a 1980s fuel-farm storage tank project; the Koeberg nuclear power station, in Cape Town; and interning at a large welding equipment company in Belgium, to name but a few, gave him “broad insights”.

Outlook


“Engineering consultants and project houses are obviously the first to feel the pinch in a declining market,” Maine says, adding that, fortunately, they are also the first to rebound once commodity prices increase.

He notes that the mining industry and the South African economy are still in “a tenuous situation”, but adds that at least data from national statistics authority Statistics South Africa shows that “2016 mining tax collections equated to those of 2014, with 2015 seeing the lowest amount of mining tax revenue collected”. Based on this, Maine concludes that there has been a tentative up-tick in mining activity. He is not alone in noting this thinking, as he points out that mining sector shares on the JSE have improved dramitically over the last year.

Maine is hopeful that many of the vacant positions in the professional consultants arena will be filled once consulting companies restart or begin providing services across Africa “using South Africa’s excellent product management capabilities, thereby synergistically taking our home-grown manufacturing capabilities with them”.

He points out that Rio-Carb’s new focus is on leveraging its extensive experience of CrC materials in the materials handling sector to explore methods of offering a total solution to the lifetime performance of specific equipment, such as chutes, cyclones and pipe circuits.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION