SAIF’s 55th Annual Awards Dinner

The South African Institute of Foundrymen’s 55th Annual Awards Dinner was held at Summer Place (Boksburg), Gauteng on Friday 1 June 2018.

188 foundrymen, guests, wives and award winners attended this year’s event. The dinner was well supported by sponsors in the form of prizes for the award winners, and ticket sponsors for the award winners and VIP guests invited by the Institute.

The SAIF would like to thank the following sponsors for their valuable contributions to help make the evening a success. These included the guest gifts and tickets for the award winners: Ametex, Durrans RMS Group, Duvha Foundry, Foseco South Africa, IMP Scientific, Insimbi Alloy Supplies, Lauds Foundry Equipment, Matt Cast Supplies, Mineral Zone, Mustang Foundry, SI Group HA South Africa and Thos Begbie.

Awards handed out on the evening were as follows:

Lauds Foundry Equipment Technical Award (formerly known as the Colin Butler Award) – for the best technical presentation presented during 2017 by a SAIF Member was awarded to Andrew McFarlane of Ametex. His presentation “Accessing new markets for high pressure die casting foundries through fully comprehensive and autonomous process optimisation”.

Non-Member Diploma – Jean Marie Darchicourt and Max Morgan received the Non-Member Diploma for the best technical paper presented during 2017 by a Non-Member to the Institute. Their presentation was given on “Total foundry control using Synchro ERP software integration”.

Insimbi Refractory and Alloy Supplies Award – for the highest marks achieved by a 1st year metallurgy student for 2017 was presented to Moeketsi Lekhula from the Vaal University of Technology.

Foseco Student Award – for the highest marks achieved by a final year Metallurgy Student for 2017 went to Khutsiso Chiloane from the University of Johannesburg.

Non-Member Diploma – Jean Marie Darchicourt and Max Morgan received the Non-Member Diploma for the best technical paper presented during 2017 by a Non-Member to the Institute. Their presentation was given on “Total foundry control using Synchro ERP software integration”. With them is Glen Dikgale of the SAIF

Lauds Foundry Equipment Technical Award (formerly known as the Colin Butler Award) – for the best technical presentation presented during 2017 by a SAIF Member was awarded to Andrew McFarlane of Ametex. His presentation “Accessing new markets for high pressure die casting foundries through fully comprehensive and autonomous process optimisation”. With Andrew is Kevin van Niekerk of Lauds Foundry Equipment

Insimbi Refractory and Alloy Supplies Award – for the highest marks achieved by a 1st year metallurgy student for 2017 was presented to Moeketsi Lekhula from the Vaal University of Technology. With Moeketsi is Marie Samon of Insimbi Refractory and Alloy Supplies

Foseco Student Award – for the highest marks achieved by a final year Metallurgy Student for 2017 went to Khutsiso Chiloane from the University of Johannesburg. With Khutsiso is Enno Krueger of Foseco South Africa

Victor Dias of Endeco Omego Sinto, Colin Smit of MIS Engineering and Terence Stopforth of McWade Productions

Grant Estman of Viking Foundry with Natasha and Murray Speed of Matt Cast Supplies

Kevin van Niekerk and Richard Conradie, both of Lauds Foundry Equipment with Eugene Rossouw of Thos Begbie

Abraham Klopper of SI Group HA South Africa, Johan Vos of Weir Isando, Antoinette Swanepoel of SI Group HA South Africa and Claude du Toit of Mineral Zone

Cliff van Eeden, JP Du Plessis and Ryno van Rooyen, all of Durrans RMS with Keith Scott and Wesley Lottering, both of MIS Engineering

Ash Roopchand and Graham Smith, both of Pressure Die Casting with Nkosi Wenha and Alex Saam, both of Silca South Africa

Warren Zandberg of Foseco South Africa with Joubert Groenewald of Thos Begbie

Greg Estman of Viking Foundry with David Anderson of the South African Engineers and Founders Association (SAEFA)

Adam Levin, Steven Hamilton and Ariel van Flymen, all of Pentagon Resources with Janley Kotze of Ceramic and Alloy Supplies (third from left)

The Duvha Foundry team

Tshiamo Molele of Prima Industrial, Justin de Beer of UJ, Greg Mac Rae of Prima Industrial with Wouter Retief, Brian Clough and Mike Retief, all of Ceramic and Alloy Supplies. In the front is Elvis Gonya of UJ

Carlos Palinhos of Intakobusi Holdings with Mark Hughes of Rely Intracast

Mike Wolhuter of Pressure Die Casting with Marc Hindle of McWade Productions

John Taylor of Spectrotech SA with William Price of Prima Holdings

Len Hutton of Insimbi Alloys, Rui Dias of Endeco Omega Sinto, Reg Turton of MIS Engineering, Dudley de Beer of Insimbi Alloys and Nigel Pardoe of Thomas Foundry