OUR HISTORY

Turning Interest Into Action

In 1989, some individuals at the Roll Works of Dorbyl South Africa expressed the desire to start a conference on rolls. They took the initiative of contacting roll users in the steel industry to serve on an organizing committee to arrange a conference on rolls.

Aims and Objectives

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The objectives of the committee were to establish a forum where knowledge about rolls and related matters could be exchanged and where roll users could get to know each other. Since the main beneficiaries for the entire effort were to be the roll users, one could say that right from the beginning, it was an event planned by users, for users.

There was never any doubt that the manufacturers of rolls and peripherals would play a very important role in this exchange of technical knowledge. Technical papers presented during the conferences have the aim of improving productivity, service, product quality and cost reduction, and to stimulate interest in research and development. As a second day event, plant visits to steel and industrial plants were arranged and well attended by delegates.

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First Conference

The first Roll Users Conference took place in the Vaal Triangle, where the first steel was rolled at USCO in approximately 1913.

The first conference in 1990 was opened by Mr. Gerrie Hoffman, the General Works Manager of ISCOR LTD, who was also the keynote speaker - the first of many over the years. This first conference was very well received by delegates and it was decided to make SARUC a permanent event on future calendars.

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Since then, with the support of many generous SARUC sponsors, the conferences have been held every 18 months. Other conference venues have included Pretoria, Newcastle and Witbank.

Hans Bouw of Hans Bouw Advertising and Public Relations was instrumental right from the start as the Organising Secretary on the organizing committee of SARUC and served on the committee until SARUC 2006, when he decided to retire.

The Roll users represented on the SARUC committee since the first conference are:

• Middelburg Steel and Alloys

• Highveld Steel & Vanadium

• DHE – Roll Works

• ISCOR (Pretoria)

• ISCOR (Vereeniging)

• ISCOR (Vanderbijlpark)

• ISCOR (Newcastle)

• Davsteel

• Columbus Stainless

• Scaw Metals

• Cape Town Iron and Steel Works