Hannes Fourie
Paarl, South Africa
***************@*****.***
www.linkedin.com/in/johannesgfourie
Personal Summary
I am a mechanical engineer with 10 years’ experience in various mechanical engineering activities including maintenance management, mechanical design, finite element analysis, quality assurance and project management.
I am a confident and innovative individual with strong analytical skills and the ability to work independently in a high-performance environment. I have outstanding communication and interpersonal skills and value work ethic and discipline. I have a positive attitude to change and the ability to motivate myself and others. I am highly adaptable with an excellent ability to learn new skills with ease.
Job Summary
After graduating I started my career in 2009 in the manufacturing sector, specifically maintenance managing and, subsequently, product development. I gained valuable practical experience in mechanical machinery components and operation, personnel management, quality control and project management.
Eager to gain experience in mechanical design, I started working for Cape Advanced Engineering in 2012 as contractor for the De Beers Group in the Marine division (De Beers Marine). I worked on complex design projects for off-shore diamond mining vessels, primarily conducting structural analyses and fatigue life studies.
In 2015 I moved to South Korea with my wife to teach English and travel East and South-East Asia.
Upon returning to South Africa in 2016 I was re-appointed at Cape Advanced Engineering as Senior Mechanical Design Engineer. I was involved in various aspects of the business, but mainly championed mechanical designs for biogas and anaerobic digester plants and plant systems.
In 2018 I started working at PROXA Water and was involved in the design and construction of water treatment plants for the municipal, mining, petrochemical and food-and-beverage industries, focusing on mechanical-and piping design, plant layout, vendor management, quality assurance, mechanical standards- and specifications and various other mechanical engineering activities. A drastic restructuring of the business resulted in my retrenchment in October 2019.
I started working at iX Engineers in October 2019 as Mechanical Engineer in the Water Department working on various multidisciplinary projects related to water and wastewater, being involved in equipment specification, design (mechanical, piping and plant) tender documentation and evaluation and quality assurance.
In an effort to realize our long term goal of immigrating, I was set to start a new position as Senior Mechanical Engineer at a major infrastructure company in Auckland, New Zealand on the 1st op April, 2020, but due to Covid-19 border closures I could not fly. The position was eventually disestablished due to the economic effect of Covid-19.
I am currently working as freelance mechanical engineering contractor for my previous company PROXA Water via OutEng (an engineering outsourcing company) on a major project in Tanzania.
Company
Position
Dates
OutEng
Senior Mechanical Engineer
Jun 2020 - Current
iX Engineers
Mechanical Engineer
Oct 2019 – Mar 2020
PROXA Water
Senior Mechanical Engineer
Apr 2018 – Oct 2019
Cape Advanced Engineering
Senior Mechanical Design Engineer
Mar 2016 – Mar 2018
Busan MOE
English Teacher
Feb 2015 – Mar 2016
De Beers Marine
Mechanical Engineer / Structural Analyst
Sep 2012 – Jan 2015
HM Group
Mechanical Engineer / Technical Manager
Apr 2010 – Oct 2012
Swartland Group
Mechanical Engineer / Section Engineer
Jan 2009 – Mar 2010
EDUCATION
December 2008 North-West University
Bachelor in Engineering, Mechanical
EXPERIENCE
OutEng May 2020 – Current
Senior Mechanical Engineer
OutEng offers a unique combination of design, project management and engineering capability geared towards problem-solving. We consist of a network of trusted, experienced and highly skilled engineers, project managers and technical people, including ECSA registered engineers who all operate as freelancers.
Responsibilities
I am currently working as a freelance Mechanical Engineer for OutEng and independently on projects where my skills will add value.
Achievements
Currently contracting full-time as mechanical engineer for 13,6 Ml/day water treatment plant design, package management and construction assistance.
iX Engineers (Pty) Ltd October 2019 – March 2020
Mechanical Engineer, Water Division
iX engineers (Pty) Ltd acquired the total Public Infrastructure division from Worley Parsons RSA (Pty) Ltd in 2016 and provides professional services for the design, development and through-life-support of private and public infrastructure.
Responsibilities
As Mechanical Engineer for the Water Department I work closely with electrical and civil functions in water and wastewater related projects.
I focus on equipment specification, design (mechanical, piping and plant), tender documentation and evaluation and quality assurance.
Achievements
Mechanical engineer for George municipal wastewater pump station upgrade project involved in design, tender documentation and evaluation.
Mechanical engineer for Waferenskroon new raw water pump station involved in design, tender documentation and evaluation.
Mechanical engineer for Graafwater new borehole project involved in design, tender documentation and evaluation.
PROXA Water (Pty) Ltd April 2018 – October 2019
Mechanical Engineer
PROXA water treatment specialists manage the entire water cycle and provide solutions to water treatment challenges.
Responsibilities
As senior mechanical engineer I was responsible for the management and execution of all mechanical engineering activities on water treatment projects.
My particular focus was the engineering and approval of all mechanical equipment, mechanical handling and packaged units on assigned projects.
I handled the preparation and approval of project related documentation, budget and time management for mechanical activities.
I specialized in the mechanical design of plant layouts, piping, systems and structures. In addition, I provided guidance to clients, project engineers, external consultants and inspectors on all mechanical requirements, designs, standards, fabrication and installations.
Achievements
I was the lead mechanical engineer for the first municipal re-use plant in South Africa constructed at Zandvliet WWTW, Macassar capable of producing 15 Ml/day of potable water for the city of Cape Town.
I was the lead mechanical engineer for an existing winery wastewater treatment plant in Australia upgraded to 5 Ml/day with new equipment and additional process streams for process improvement and increased capacity.
I was the lead mechanical engineer for a new 250 m /h water treatment plant for treating plant effluent water on the Astron Energy (previously Chevron) Cape Town refinery. I introduced innovative a modular piping support system to the refinery.
I was the mechanical engineer for a 10.5 Ml/day mining water treatment plant at Seriti (previously Anglo American) New Vaal Colliery for separating mining water from the Maccauvlei dam into water for Lethabo Power station cooling towers and minerals for se in further processes.
I developed new calculation models for piping design according to ASME B31.3 and other codes for use in all projects and developed a new Standard Material Piping Specification.
Cape Advanced Engineering (Pty) Ltd March 2016 – March 2018
Mechanical Design Engineer
CAE provides research, design, development, prototyping and testing services to the automotive, marine and energy production industries.
Responsibilities
As senior mechanical design engineer, I was tasked with the design, procurement and manufacturing of bio-gas plant systems, components, structures and machines as well as the research and development of biogas and generator systems.
I conducted detailed design by utilising CREO and various other resources.
I managed and executed the design of computer aided machining programs and championed finite element analysis studies for design verification.
I also provided operational support to existing bio-gas production plants with regards to maintenance, refurbishment and monitoring.
Achievements
I conducted full mechanical design and manufacturing management of various biogas plant systems including a shell-and-tube heat exchanger, jib crane, site office, pump station, modified lateral channel blower, radiator air intake diffuser and cowling, intercoolers, volumetric gas flow meter, peristaltic pump, containerized CHP generator and an Ultrasonic bath.
I designed CAM machining cutter paths for various components, jigs and molds.
I conducted modal and static FEA analyses of a generator trailer chassis.
I piloted a CFD analysis, design and manufacturing of a CHP generator air intake fan cowling and diffuser.
Busan Metropolitan Office Of Education February 2015 – February 2016
English Teacher
As part of a one year program in South Korea to have native English speakers teach English to public school students my wife and I lived in Korea for a year as Guest English Teachers.
De Beers Marine (Contracting for Cape Advanced Engineering (Pty) Ltd) September 2012 – January 2015
Mechanical Structural Analysis Engineer
De Beers Marine operate a fleet of vessels capable of retrieving and exploring for diamond-bearing materials from the seabed and processing them to a diamond-rich concentrate.
Responsibilities
As structural analysis engineer, I conducted stress and fatigue studies of ship structures and above-deck structures using FEA techniques.
I evaluated mining plant systems with regards to safety and structural integrity in terms of fatigue, yield, buckling and other failure modes using vessel motion, fatigue studies and extreme load cases.
I utilised Abaqus and Python scripting for detailed fatigue life studies to model full vessels for FEM and geometric utilisation.
Achievements
I modelled 3 full vessels for fatigue studies and design/modification evaluation.
I developed scripts to generate predictive contour plots of fatigue life of the De Beers Marine diamond mining fleet consisting of 6 vessels for maintenance planning and life prediction.
I was of the Mafuta and Sub-Sea Crawler technical team nominated by Anglo American for outstanding technical innovation.
I increased safety of ship structures by evaluating all possible failure modes of new designs, modifications and existing structures.
HM Group (Pty) Ltd May 2010 – August 2012
Technical Manager
HM Group (Previously Impregnation Web Technology) consist of a collection of companies offering a wide range of reinforced abrasives, glass fiber and composite products to local and international markets.
Responsibilities
As technical manager for one of the business units, Drycoat Manufacturing, I researched and developed products and managed related processes, systems and quality.
I managed both internal and customer driven developments and complaints.
I developed and designed quality testing methods and equipment and conducted CAD design of product tooling.
Achievements
I championed the development and qualification of a new product with a 30% cost reduction in raw material.
I was involved in the development of a new, innovative product for major decreases in process and raw material cost with increases in mechanical properties.
I developed a new dynamic testing method and designed, built and tested a prototype dynamic testing machine.
I managed numerous customer-driven developments for expanding capacity as well as internal testing methods for verification and improvement of quality.
Swartland Group (Pty) Ltd January 2009 – April 2010
Section Engineer
Swartland Group is manufacturers of quality wooden doors and windows.
Responsibilities
As section engineer for Swartland Doors, Winsters, Swartland Internal Doors, Support and Supply and Lamtech, I managed all maintenance tasks, personnel and projects in assigned sections.
Achievements
I decreased down time of machines by analysing and improving preventative maintenance techniques.
I evaluated and improved planned maintenance schedules to increase maintenance effectiveness.
I upgraded CNC machine operation by improving maintenance in terms of lubrication, determining
optimum speeds and feeds and replacing performance reducing parts.
Reason for Leaving – Being very early into my career I felt I was not getting enough experience in the aspects of engieering that I enjoyed in my day to day duties and rather spent almost all of my time managing schedules and personnel.
SKILLS AND ACTIVITIES
Computer skills – SolidWorks, CREO, Abaqus, Python, Excel, Autocad, Plant3D, Revit, Prokon, Navisworks, Fusion 360, EES
Engineering skills - Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing, Finite Element Analysis, Piping Design, Structural Design, Mechanical Design, Maintenance Management, Project Management, Product Development, Manufacturing.
COURSES, CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS ATTENDED
2020 Centrifugal Pumps: Principles, Operation and Design
2019 ASME B31.3 Process Piping Training
2019 Fracture and Fatigue Seminar
2018 Pressure Equipment Regulations & SANS 347 Workshop
2017 PTC CREO training – Computer Aided Manufacturing
2017 PTC CREO training – Computer Aided Modelling
2014 Abaqus user meeting
2013 Python course for scripting in Abaqus
2010 Team Manager Development Program