Furnace components engineering and production company Thos Begbie has completed the manufacture and delivery of 24 copper cooling elements to an Isaconvert furnace at a Zambia-based smelter.

Thos Begbie chairperson and CEO Edwin Dreyer notes that the copper cooling elements weigh between 1 t and 3 t. Each cooling element takes about four weeks to manufacture, depending on the complexity of the element.

He notes that, while Thos Begbie is a preferred supplier of copper components to the Zambian smelting company, completion of this project is significant, as the furnace underwent a six-week-long rebuild that was completed last month.

“There were several contractors involved in the project,” says Dreyer, explaining that the copper cooling components form the walls of the furnace, which use water-cooled copper elements lined with a refractory. This subsequently enables the water-cooled elements to keep the furnace cool and prevents the molten products from melting through the refractory and furnace wall.

“These furnaces operate at about 1 200 ºC and if the cooling element fails, a burn-through occurs, which is dangerous. Thus, it is important that all the components we manufacture are of a high quality,” Dreyer asserts.

All the components were manufactured in South Africa and shipped to Zambia, where Thos Begbie had an on-site engineer to supervise and ensure that the elements were correctly installed.

“Thos Begbie does exceedingly well in Southern Africa, which forms 50% of our market. People tend to think of Third World countries, such as Zambia, as not being sophisticated enough to compete on the global stage. However, Zambia-based companies are first class and have the technological abilities to compete globally, as does South Africa.”

He points out that the recent metals and engineering sector strike in South Africa, which started in July and lasted four weeks, was a particular challenge for this project, as it resulted in significant delays.

“This meant we had the near- impossible task of catching up with the work, owing to a lack of skilled labour,” says Dreyer, adding that, when faced with these kinds of crises, when production is halted for weeks at a time, companies have to push their employees hard with overtime, noting that Thos Begbie also found it challenging to secure skilled labour to catch up with the work.

Dreyer states that people who are employed after completing their studies at technical universities still require additional training from companies to adequately perform their tasks.

However, despite the challenges, Thos Begbie delivered the copper cooling elements on time.