I grew up in a small village on the Natal South Coast, one of the many such villages stretching South along the Eastern seaboard from Durban to Port Shepstone. These villages lay on the main South Coast railway line, each with it’s own dedicated station, complete with a ticket office, signal room and station master....Read More

Overseas travel opportunities on offer from local suppliers and their respective Principals forms an important part of their overall marketing strategy and our Industry is not out-gunned in this department. Yours truly has been extremely privileged over the years in this regard and a quick count confirms that some twelve different countries have enjoyed the...Read More

According to the informative 2017 HVAC & R Industry Directory, there are no less than 128 listed Contractors serving the South African HVAC & R Industry. This number includes for (inter alia) Contractors engaged in allied services such as duct cleaning, cooling tower refurbishments, controls, general insulation, insulated panels and sheet metal products. The same...Read More

I must confess to being an avid armchair pilot. The two local aviation magazines are my favourite reads, fulfilling my life-long interest in all things avionic. Their subject matter is always of great interest and the featured articles amusing as they are informative. The fairly recent coverage of the new St. Helena Airport was certainly...Read More

Chilled water generators, or chillers, to give them their more common description, have been used for comfort cooling since around 1921, when Dr. Wills Carrier patented the first centrifugal water chiller. In South Africa, our first experience with chillers seems to have occurred in the nineteen thirties, when two new Metro (bioscope) cinemas, Durban and...Read More

Many elderly engineers have been called back into service to fulfil a vital intermediary role, while the skills pool plays catch-up — is this really sustainable? Download the Official Article>  It’s around 4:30 on a typical winter’s morning. A vintage Toyota Camry enters the airport car park. The lone occupant draws a parking ticket and...Read More

Now that the shipment of export-quality oranges is well on their way to the United Kingdom, let’s go back further in time, when the very first attempts to transport perishables were introduced. By the late 1860s, beef carcases were being shipped between the local American ports in a salt-ice mixture, with limited success. The first...Read More

There is no finer example of the praiseworthy practice of maintaining the ‘cold chain’ than the mercantile marine service, where the cold chain was first introduced and applied 120 years ago. The correct temperature path or cold chain is arguably the single-most crucial element when bringing your perishables to a discerning market. Every link in...Read More

‘Commissioning’ has been the bane of my working life. To be handed over a plant that has been correctly commissioned in every respect, has rarely happened in my 30 years of consulting. The word ‘commission’ is described in many ways by the English dictionary, none of which refer directly to any form of plant operation. So,...Read More

When travelling, I invariably take note of the various AC installations around about me, just habit I guess. Airports, hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, all get the third degree. For me it’s always interesting to see how air conditioning is done the world over. The truth is, it’s pretty much done the same way everywhere. Nevertheless,...Read More