M S HUNT CONSULTANTS

Clients and Projects 1987 to 2005

(Blue cells indicate project pages illustrated with pictures)

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Services Offered by M. S. Hunt Consultants

Curriculum Vitae of Dr. M. S. Hunt

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Page most recent update: July 2004

Smith Capital Equipment (Pty) Ltd.

Longstanding work for Smith Capital Equipment has included several projects, project studies and general consulting.

Projects

• Project: Truck mounted 23m heavy duty, hydraulically operated telescopic antenna mast system. Work done: Preparation of specification and initial project studies followed up by complete design and analysis for manufacture. (Product completed on schedule five months after instruction to proceed)

• Project: Containerised 12m heavy duty folding antenna mast in folding ISO container, all systems hydraulically operated. Work done: initial project studies and complete design and analysis of mast and container system. (First production unit supplied to end-user on schedule seven months after instruction to proceed. Client subsequently won the Armscor project award for this product).

• Project: Blast hole drill. Project studies, design and structural analysis of a new type of blast hole drill as a venture project by Client. Construction completed and sold. It is outperforming comparable drill rigs.

• Project: Scorpion Project for Rossing Uranium. Project studies, design and structural analysis of a special purpose rock drilling machine comprising two large size aerial platforms enabling an operator situated in a control station on one platform to operate a three ton rock drill mounted on the other and drill at any position on a rock face up to 20m high. Construction complete. Product supplied to client. (see pictures)

• Project: Reach digger. Project studies, design and structural analysis of a reach digger for the American market. Eighty percent of production for customers in the USA. Design used by client for design contest organised by AutoCAD Africa and was successful in winning the contest. First order in USA was 'off the drawing board'. (see pictures)

• Project: Underground crane. Redesign and structural analysis of underground crane for gold mining industry. Two machines manufactured and delivered.

• Project: Water drill. Project studies and structural analysis of low cost water drill based on new mechanical principle. Project taken through to detail design stage.

• Project: New concept in 'Down the hole' hammer drill to compete with existing pneumatically driven systems. This venture project by the client was an experimental programme requiring extensive analysis and innovative design work.

• Project: Exploration drill for SASOL Coal (R5.5m contract). A world first project in exploration drilling up to 2km drill string length. Fully automatic drill rod insertion and removal using carousels containing 28 ten-metre drill rods. Work done by consultancy comprised complete drill system layout, concept and design and analysis of all structure and mechanisms. Manufacture completed in December 1996. Operating performance exceeds expectations and in 1998 SASOL ordered a second drill to same design. (see pictures)

• Project: Low cost diamond drill for drilling core samples. Complete lay-out, concept, design and analysis completed May 1997. Several drills now in service.

• Project: Furnace scraping machine for Mozambique aluminium smelter. Complete lay-out, concept, design and analysis. Manufactured and supplied to client. After use by MOSAL a second scraper ordered to same design.

• Project: Blasthole drill for drilling 12m in a single pass, mounted on a Caterpillar 320B excavator. Complete lay-out, structural design and analysis. Manufactured and supplied to client.

• Project: New design of aerial platform. Manufactured and supplied to client.

• Project: Design and analysis of a complete range of new design aerial platforms of compact format for use by Eskom and Johannesburg Municipality. Sizes ranging from 12m to 19.5m.  Orders obtained for a hundred and twenty models to this design (as at September 2003). Manufacture started on a production line basis from early 2002.  Winner of SABS Design Institute Design Award, September 2003 and special 'Chairman's Award for Excellence' for the quality of engineering design. (see pictures)

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Project studies

Initial design studies and mathematical modeling of various potential projects including:

• Mobile aerial platforms for airport use.

• High reach aerial platforms for ESKOM.

• New type of pile driver for overseas client.

• Low cost oil rig platform

• Low cost aerial platforms for market development.

• New type of break-out spanner for drill rigs

General consulting

• Analysing of failures and recommending corrective action.

• General advice on structural and dynamic problems.

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Smith Mining Equipment(Pty) Ltd.

Stress analysis of raise borer mounting structure.

Design and structural analysis of factory crane beam.

Master Drilling(Pty) Ltd.

Design audit of Air-drill stage for shaft sinking with particular attention to structural analysis.

Project study and complete mechanical and structural design of raise borer/boxhole borer to new specification, with automatic spanner system and rod handler. Manufacture completed June 2001. Underground trials ongoing. A second machine has been ordered on the basis of current performance. Winner of SABS Design Institute design award 2002. (see picture)

Design of adjustable mounting structure for stoep drilling machine.

Haggie Rand (Pty) Ltd.

Theoretical prediction of the breaking load of steel ropes. Work done: Evaluation study and report on work done to date by CSIR's Mine Equipment Research Unit.

Codesta Plastics (Pty) Ltd.

Project: New single lever control shower unit. Work done: Initial studies and complete design for manufacture. (Product introduced to market locally and overseas).

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Shaft Sinkers (Pty) Ltd.

Project: New Chisel Grab. Preparation of specification, initial design studies followed by complete design and detailing for manufacture.

Springbok Tank Manufacturing (Pty) Ltd

Project: Design, structural analysis and supply of detail drawings for manufacture of 17000 litre lightweight tanktainer, based on ISO dimensions. Product manufactured in quantity and put into service.

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Technifin (Pty) Ltd. (Venture capital financing organisation)

Project Evaluations:

• Celair aerobatic glider.

• New power generation system.

• New type of torque converter.

National Energy Council

Consultation: Liquid fuels research. Work done: Contributing at Liquid fuels committee meetings, evaluating proposed research programmes and their progress reports, for research on liquid fuels and their utilisation.

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Tongaat Foods (Pty) Ltd. Natal.

Consultation: Bagasse storage pile. Work done: Investigation of bagasse losses caused by wind. On site examination and submission of report with recommendations on new approach from the materials handling aspect.

Allied Equipment (Pty) Ltd

• Consultation: Analysis and development of design of novel form of suspension system for off-road type industrial vehicles.

• Consultation: Analysis of optimum design for airjet powered rocket for clearing underground shafts.

• Design study on grp rock bolts

• Design of grating system in pultruded grp

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New Concept Mining (Pty) Ltd

• Mathematical modelling of combined elastic/plastic bending of pipes for providing the design parameters for a pipe-straightening machine under design by the company.

• Investigation of centrispun casting involving multiple axes.

• Analysis and consultation on new design of railcar weighbridge.

• Expert witness service on novel mine prop. Further consultation on design of prop mechanism.

• Design and analysis of crosshead for 100 ton mine prop testing machine.

• Analysis of latching mechanism for mine prop.

Mechem Consultants

Project design studies, preliminary structural analysis and mathematical modelling for a multi-linked manipulator arm.

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Southern Sun Hotels

Consultation, analysis and design for vibrating deck mechanism to simulate earth tremors on the bridge into the 'Lost City'. System installed and commissioned.

Droitwich Knee Clinic (UK)

• Design of novel surgical tooling for cruciate ligament surgery. First tooling supplied from SA. (see picture)

• Design of new type of 'Total knee replacement' prosthesis.

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Umbrella International

Design of novel pocket-sized umbrella for international market. Four prototypes made to date and supplied to clients locally and overseas. Provisional patents taken out by clients in the name of this consultancy. (see picture)

Pentagraph

• Feasibility study of a portable water carrier/shower unit. Report submitted to client showing that initial concept cannot work. Possible alternative solutions offered.

• Design study of an electric tooth brush drive mechanism mechanism. Design of compact novel drive system proposed. Project put on hold for market research reasons.

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Asea Brown Boveri Services (Pty) Ltd

Structural analysis of jury beam system used for jacking up Eskom boiler for transportation from Matimba to Majuba power station.

Mannesman Demag (Pty) Ltd

Report and recommendations on failure of transformer anti vibration mountings on hydraulic excavator.

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Steinhobel Industrial design

• Design outline of special catch system and hinge for cover plate on plastics casing of hand-held credit card reader.

• Redesign of centrifugal pump and casing for swimming pool filter unit.

• Redesign of catch mechanism for existing home exerciser.

• Design of protoype new type of home exerciser for US client company.

• Design of linkage mechanism for fold-up beds for the redesigned 'Blue Train'. (see picture)

• Design of rotating display mount for BMW body frame.

• Design of 'slippery platform' for BMW publicity show.

• Design of seat structure for game viewing from a Land Rover type vehicle.

• Design of adjustable shelf mechanism for mounting a computer below a glass desk top.

• Structural analysis of new signage system for international corporation.

• Structural analysis of glass display stand system for exhibitions.

• Structural design of carport installation.

• Design of catch mechanism for foldable tables for use in a conference hall.

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African Explosives & Chemical Industries

Participation in 'brain storming' seminar to study new design approach to electronic detonators

Neil Forsyth Associates (Honkong)

Design and structural analysis of trailing arm for large size aluminium boat trailer.

Structural analysis of modification to undercarriage on Pitts aerobatic aircraft.

Plastafil (US client)

Project: Shrimp farm in Jamaica (multi million rand international project). Design studies on use of polypropylene reinforced cement structures for novel type of sluice gate system. Layout design and initial analysis of use of new type material. Ongoing project.

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National Institute for Technology Leadership

Preparation of training module on 'Product Design' on behalf of the 'Africa Growth Network' (local company producing TV training programmes). Work involved preparing a 40 page manual complete with diagrams, delivering a 45 minute televised presentation and acting as moderator in a televised panel discussion on design in South Africa.

Jet Leach (Pty) Ltd.

Consultation on design of pilot plant for gold reduction process. Design of steel support structure and consultation on HDPE tank column. System put into operation.

Cabritech (Pty) Ltd.

Redesign of operating mechanism for a foldable 'Autoport' for a joint American/South African company. Previous designs carried out by teams in South Africa and America had failed to work and were complex and costly to manufacture. Redesign by this Consultancy was simple in concept and worked well, enabling quantity manufacture and marketing of the product to proceed.

Viro Gearlok(Pty) Ltd

Redesign of gearlocking system to re-position lock mechanism on upper surface of consol. Design included 3D modelling of revised mechanism.

Cementation Mining(Pty) Ltd.

Design studies on drill string friction clamping device to prevent excessive back force on the drill string in the event of striking high pressure water during shaft sinking. Two detailed analyses resulting in the successful development of clamping device.

Stress analysis and report on high pressure valve body to determine reason for service failure. Conclusions proved to be correct.

Kemplant(Pty) Ltd.

Auditing of stress calculations (by overseas source company) for hot gas filter in austenitic stainless steel.

Schindler Lifts SA (Pty) Ltd.

Expert witness service in connection with multistage telescopic cylinders.

Maxplo (Pty) Ltd.

Consultation: Analysis of the dimensional constraints on the cross section of a novel form of rock bolt in GRP.

Optimisation of GRP pultrusions for industrial gratings. Solid modelling in Mechanical Desktop and stress analysis program for optimum use of material.

Design studies on rock bolt anchoring device for use in coal mines.

Resonant Solutions

Consultation on design of support system for anodic protection in Eskom water pipeline.

Famsystems (Pty) Ltd

Consultation and reporting on design of support structure for large fibreglass chemical storage tanks.

Basil Read

Design and analysis of press structure for moulding helicopter rotor blades in composite materials.

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Xertech (division of Wonderstone)

Design and analysis of tool handling equipment for synthetic diamond press. Equipment required to handle anvil and casing sets weighing four tons.  Manufacture and installation completed September 2003