In the frame of the event, the members of the Board of Directors were chosen and it was decided to change the date for next year Annual Convention: February 9th – 11th, 2017, in Madrid (Spain).
After the celebration of the very first meeting of the European Water Jetting Industry last year in Brussels, EWJI organized its Annual Meeting 2016 on October 17th, 2016, in the perfect city of Cologne, Germany.
The aim of the meeting was to meet again the main professionals of this trade at European level in order to lay the foundations to work together, as a proper industry, in the near future.
The EWJI Annual Convention 2016 was possible thanks to the support of the following exhibitors: PEINEMANN, WATERKRACHT, REPROTEX, SPIR STAR, JETSTREAM HOUSTON and HUGHES PUMPS, as well as the company members AQUAJET SYSTEMS, CONJET, DOORNBOS EQUIPMENT, PARKER, TST SWEDEN and UNDER PRESSURE.
Conference session 1
Mr. Hans Werner, president of the German Water Jetting Association, DFIV, which collaborated with EWJI in the organization of the event, was the person in charge to open the conference sessions and welcome the attendants.
After him, Mr. Andreas Weil, Manager of the Division Engineering and Innovation at PARKER Hannifin Manufacturing GmbH, presented the first of the topics: “Hoses & fittings, standardization and lifetime”.
In his presentation, Mr. Weil highlighted the importance of the standards and safety in the use of the high pressure, with very illustrative examples, as well as how application parameters impact the lifetime of hose assemblies.
The second speaker was the co-owner of REPROTEX, Mr. Helmut Burger, who wanted to approach the subject of the environmental impact of water jetting operations and the necessity of re-using water and reducing waste.
His message was: Water is life! Don’t waste it, reuse it!
Before the first coffee break, where the attendants had the opportunity of visiting the exhibitors, Mr. Roger Simonsson, CEO at AQUAJET SYSTEMS, spoke about the change is being in the use of robotic/automated operations on concrete.
In a market who is rapidly changing and where there are demands in safety, reliability, efficiency and new environmental issues, Mr. Simonsson, through interesting videos, showed the operative applications of this kind of equipment.
Conference session 2
After the break, it was the turn of Mr. Per-Arne Andersson, from the company TST SWEDEN, with a presentation about safety requirements and challenges on the protective equipment for workers.
During his presentation, the attendants could watch on the screen the latest protective equipment for high pressure, as well as for chemical use, among others.
Mr. Hans Borgt, the responsible for Industrial Cleaning within Maintenance Technology Center at DOW CHEMICAL, continued the second session of the conferences talking about the existing way from manual to automated operations, from the perspective of the owner, while the other perspective (from the contractors) was explained by Mr. Hans Wermer, president of the German Water Jetting Association, DFIV.
Without a doubt, a really interesting time comparing both perspectives in just a little bit more than 30 minutes.
The last speaker of this session was Mr. Joost Balieux, General Manager of PEINEMANN, with a topic called “The need to go away from manual operations”.
In a presentation full of interesting videos and photos, Mr. Balieux showed different operations of the PEINEMANN machines all around the world, while explained the benefits of this kind of techniques, so far from manual operations.
Conference session 3
After the lunch and the networking time, Mr. Lars-Goran Nilsson, Marketing & Sales Manager of CONJET, asked the attendants: how to develop hydro-demolition and train engineers to work with it?
Mr. Nilsson made a presentation supported in case stories and technical data to show the several benefits of using hydro-demolition to removed damage concrete, among other applications.
Round table: developing the industry together
After him, it was time to identify the next steps that EWJI has to take.
With the participation in the round table of Mr. Hans Werner, Mr. Joost Balieux and Mr. Lars-Goral Nilsson, moderated by the general secretary of the institute, Mr. Jose Blanco, the attendants put on the table several ideas focus on the near future of EWJI.
To sum up, the professionals present at the EWJI Annual Convention 2016 agreed the European Water Jetting industry must be together in order to reach its objectives.
To do so, and as a tool of the decision, it was chosen the Board of Directors of EWJI.
They the following ones (by alphabetical order):
- Mr. Andreas Weil, PARKER
- Mr. Bas Buhrmann, DOORNBOS EQUIPMENT
- Mr. Hans Borgt, DOW CHEMICAL
- Mr. Hans Werner, DFIV
- Mr. Lars-Goran Nilsson, CONJET
- Mr. Mike Watson, TUBE TECH INTERNATIONAL
In addition, Mr. Eduardo Martínez, from HIDRODEM and Ms. Maria Celeste Simões, from UNDER PRESSURE, will participate on it as well.
EWJI Annual Convention 2017: see you in Madrid
Another point of the round table was to choose a date to celebrate the EWJI Annual Convention 2017 because the date set before was not the best one from the point of view of the attendants.
So, finally, next edition will be held from 9th to 11th of February, 2017, in Madrid, Spain.
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