International Trade Business & Exhibitions

Introduction

SAMAC Engineering Solutions is in a quest to extend its boundaries beyond the scope of the South African confines. This endeavour is propelled by SAMAC’s mission to meet its clients’ needs and anticipate their future through creative thinking and continuous improvement. One of the key strategic thrust for the company is to build solid value chain relationships that will enhance the company’s turnaround.

The year 2017/18 financial period has marked a new dawn for SAMAC Engineering Research and Development department. Some of the key activities that took the company to greater heights includes the invitation to participate in the World Energy Indaba 2017 which took place at Sandton convention centre. SAMAC Exhibited and was honoured as one of the Top five (5) Africa Youth Energy Innovators during the conference.

This activity was one of the key milestones which ignited a further zeal to become one of the global players that seek to provide energy savings solutions. SAMAC Engineering Solutions is a member of SAIRAC and ASHREA air-conditioning and refrigeration associations.

Background

In South Africa, the buzzword that is propagated by government and research institutions is ‘going green’ (renewable energy) and how the country could play a significant role in reducing the pollution of the environment.  Many companies in the African continent are now slowly moving towards the energy saving on using the HVAC System. Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems control temperature, humidity and quality of air in a building to a set of chosen or preferred conditions. To achieve this, systems need to transfer heat and moisture into and out of the air and control the level of air pollutants, either by directly removing it or by diluting it to acceptable levels.

The forecasted trends are a continued response to the ever-tightening regulations aimed at reducing carbon emissions, as part of the global effort to curb climate change, the industry is adapting and making its offerings much more streamlined and efficient.  As part of this global initiative, SAMAC Engineering Solutions has developed a Thermal Energy Storage for industrial Air conditioning system or a hybrid air conditioning system which can reduce electricity costs from air conditioning of industrial buildings by up to 30%.

The company is in a rigorous quest to develop an industrial prototype and test the market for its products. This process is in line with the business expansion strategy to establish a manufacturing plant, place requisite personnel in order to ensure adequate supply of SAMAC Ice Thermal Storage fixed and mobile units. The inherent processes involves a thorough market analysis to expedite the market potential and the competitive advantage and also creating meaningful synergies with strategic partners in order to have a fit to the industry value chain. Part of this endeavour also involves attending exhibitions and international Conventions to gain a deeper insight to the industry players and global trends.

Trade fairs are considered as one of a very powerful marketing medium. They have a potential ability to bring together thousands of international buyers and sellers in one place in a short space of time. There are many ways and sources to look for products and suppliers, but nothing can beat the benefits that the trade fairs have to offer.

International Trade Exhibitions also do not just gather together all the significant players from the industry, but also enables visitors to see large numbers of products at the same time, to evaluate and compare them, attend demonstrations and to ask detailed questions. Hence, Samac Engineering Solutions has taken an advantage of the world’s biggest air-conditioning and refrigeration Trade fairs to gain a comprehensive overview of the entire market and the industry the company envisage to penetrate. The global Market segmentation has also informed SAMAC’s forward and backward integration strategy and to take advantage of building strategic relationships.

ASHREA 2018 Chicago

Samac Engineering Solution attended the 2018 ASHREA exhibition and conference in Chicago which took place from the 21st to the 24th of January 2018. This is the largest HVAC conference in the world where all or most global leaders and emerging giant meet to showcase their products and innovations. This exceptional platforms offered a wide list of suppliers and clients database. This spectacular event took place at the McCommick Conference centre, which saw a culmination of exotic exhibition stands for different products to lectures and presentations from different Scholars and industry experts sharing knowledge. ASHREA is the foremost resource built by 55 000 members from more than 130 countries, including individuals, consulting engineers, architects, contracting firms, manufacturers, agents, and educational research institutions.

 

Key project objectives for the trip to AHR 2018 Expo

• Identify suppliers of key components of the TES system.
• Explore developments in the thermal energy storage field.
• Explore current trends in the HVAC market.
• Explore new technologies that from suppliers and competitors.

Conference Opportunities

The 2018 AHR Conference had exhibitors displaying more new equipment, systems and components featuring the latest technology and solutions to address current needs and future challenges.  The exhibition also enabled SAMAC Engineering to meet with industry experts and learned about innovative ideas from all over the world.  This resulted in SAMAC creating a meaningful partnership with a company called Phase Change, which through its product will enhance the product development and modification of our final industrial prototype.

SAMAC also had an opportunity to learn about trends and best-practices in more educated sessions.  There were 38 major industry organizations that supported the AHR Expo, thousands of companies, and tens of thousands of visitors.  It is through such an opportunity that SAMAC was able to propose a supplier contract for Phase Change material bio-gel, which will substitute the use of water for SAMAC’s Thermal storage air-conditioning system.

Identified Strategic Partners and Suppliers Fabric Master

These are designers and manufacturers of fabric ducting. The use of fabric ducting has various advantages over using metal ducting especially for application in the mobile air conditioning unit. Some of the key advantages include:

• Lower material cost.
• Fabric ducting has been found to be 24.5% more thermally efficient than metal ducting.
• Fabric ducting cools a room faster and more uniformly than metal duct.

ACREX India 2018 (Bengaluru – India)

SAMAC Engineering had an awesome opportunity to participate in the ACREX India 2018 (HVAC & Refrigeration), which took place in Bengaluru Exhibition Centre in Bangalore. The Exhibition had more than 600 Exhibitors, more than 50,000 Business Visitors, in a 35,000 SqM space. The event had a participation of Major Global Players from more than 30 Countries with dedicated Pavilions on; Refrigeration & Cold Chain, Building Automation (BMS). The event had the following concurrent activities which took place simultaneously:

• Workshops,
• Seminar,
• Interactive Panel Discussions,
• Students Quiz,
• Curtain Raiser,
• ACREX Awards of Excellence & ACREX Hall of Fame

Phase Change (Raleigh, North Carolina – March 2018)

SAMAC Engineering made a follow-up business visit to North Carolina on the 9th of March 2018 with Phase Change Energy Solutions, which was part of the AHR Expo in Chicago in January. Phase Change Energy Solutions manufactures a patented Bio phase change material. This material is not only environmentally friendly but has a key quality of shrinking when it changes phase from liquid to solid. The use of this phase change material on our product will eliminate the challenge of volume expansion which happens when water freezes. This is a big positive for the project, the use of this material will also reduce the cost of manufacturing the mobile unit.

Conclusion

To this end, the culmination of exceptional business opportunities has superseded SAMAC’s expectations on all the company’s concerted endeavours. SAMAC’s belief in meaningful synergies is slowly paying off and the company is in a drive to market its product offering to the South African market. Continuous improvement remains the hallmark of the company to reach greater heights.