53rd International HVAC&R
Congress nd Exhibition 

History

In 2021 SMEITS (Serbian Union of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering) celebrates its 60th anniversary as an independent organization. The Society of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers and Technicians (DMEITS), as SMEITS was called until 1963, grew up from the Belgrade Section of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering of the Society of Engineers and Technicians. Even in the first year of its independent activity, it became a large and influential society, with about 15 branches in all major cities of Serbia, and at the end of that year, the Society had exactly 2,830 registered members, engineers and technicians, predominantly of electrical and mechanical profession.

In addition to the branches, eight professional committees were founded, which gathered engineers and technicians according to their specialty of mechanical and electrical engineering profession and worked very hard primarily on the economic issues. The committees for electric traction, for engines and motor vehicles, for telecommunications, work management, transport systems, electric power industry and others had between 15 and 30 members and they practically represented the basis of the Society’s professional activity.

During the 1950s, until the year of 1963, when, according to the then adopted Statute of the Yugoslav Federation of Engineers and Technicians, all the republic societies became the republic federations of societies and that period was the period of rich activities, social contacts among members in branches and committees, full engagement in activities of general interest and sincere efforts to implement what was agreed and concluded at the meetings and conferences. The first decade in the activity of the Society (DMEITS) was the “golden age” of this organization, in view of its essential quality: each members of the organization, regardless of the branch or committee he or she belonged to, considered the Society as its own, which was a reflection of the general sense of collectivity which was present in the entire society. The activity plans were strictly respected, the membership fees were paid through the branches to the treasury of the Society, whereby all the funds of the Society were intended to all the members in Serbia.

The new structure of the organization, i.e. the imposed model of pooling and relationships within the association had negative impact on the social activity in many regions and was the reason for many activists to give up their involvement in the engineering organizations and for branches to be closed, since, according to the then Statute of the Yugoslav Federation of Engineers and Technicians (SITJ) such organizations had to be registered as legal entities and to become independent, even if they did not have conditions or sufficient funds for independent activity. In 1963 DMEITS became SMEITS. Until the beginning of the 1970s, our associations were adapting their activity to new organization conditions of our associations. At that time, out of 15 branches, only several municipal professional societies were active: In Niš, Kragujevac, Trstenik, company “Goša”, Leskovac and Popovac. Fortunately, professional sections in SMEITS strengthened, the successors of the former committees, which assumed both professional and management tasks: they gathered members from the entire Serbia according to the professional affinity. Thus, in 1970 the HVAC&R Section, which according to the old Statute was the HVAC&R Society, brought 250 members to SMEITS and that number grew to over 3000 at the end of the 1990s.

Similar results were achieved by other professional sections of SMEITS through frequent and regular gathering and consideration of the current and general professional problems. These were the sections for automation, process engineering, solar energy, gas engineering, electric power distribution and others.

A consolation for the lost benefits of the compact professional organizations on the level of the Republic until 1963 was offered by the specialized societies which joined SMEITS. This could be understood as establishment of their close relationship with SMEITS, but without losing their autonomy, since all specialized societies had complete financial independence. The Serbian Illumination Society, the Republic Society for Vacuum Engineering, The Society for Measuring Engineering all contribute to SMEITS in proportion to their significance in their unique orientation and specific activity programmes. Situated in the same premises like SMEITS, in the House of Engineers and Technicians of Serbia, they take advantage of their joint rational management. The results of their harmonious relationship are evident in their everyday activity, especially in pooling their interests as well as in the projects of their joint conventions or publications. The majority of specialized societies and engineering sections of SMEITS perform their professional activity in continuity, according to their established activity programmes – regularly held conventions and issued publications, thus expanding the thematic fields with new contents and promoting collegial gathering on regular and traditional professional events. The Serbian Illumination Society has held its annual professional meetings “Illumination” and “Days of Illuminating Engineering”. In December 2008, the HVAC&R Section held the 39th HVAC&R congress with the accompanying exhibition. In February 2007, at the SMEITS Assembly, this Section was approved to adopt the Work Regulations under its original name- the Serbian Society for HVAC&R instead of the HVAC&R Section of SMEITS.

The congress which is held every year in December is certainly an event worth attention, because of the number of participants (over 500) and number of papers written and presented by eminent domestic and foreign authors, the excellent exhibition of equipment and accomplishments (there were over 180 stands in 2008), valuable literature and references, etc.

In 2008, the Automation Section held the 31st scientific-professional conference on hydro-pneumatic automation – HIPNEF 2008, which is held every second year since the establishment of SMEITS or DMEITS.

The Process Engineering Section gathers 250-300 process engineers at congresses on process industry equipment (Processing). For many years, the experts from this field traditionally follow the development of this broad field of process engineering by regular gathering at this congress and accompanying exhibition. In 2008, the 21st congress with exhibition was held in Subotica.

During the six decades of its existence and activity, SMEITS has organized over 50 congresses and over 250 symposiums, seminars or conferences, many of them in cooperation with foreign partners. The review of publications that have been published for the several past years, given in the chapter on the publishing activity of SITS of this monograph, shows the scope of the publishing activity in the history of this organization.

The HVAC&R Society and the Process Engineering Section are the centre of the editorial boards of the two scientific-professional journals “KGH” and “Procesna tehnika” published by SMEITS. “KGH” has been published for 37 years and “Procesna tehnika” was published in the period from 1986 to 2005, for exactly 20 years: unfortunately, the latter is no longer published since the new editorial board has not been formed yet.

The reputation of SMEITS was certainly enhanced by organization of professional examinations according to the Law on Building Planning and Construction, in the field of mechanical and electrical engineering (since 1980), the examinations for employees of all professions according to the Law on Natural Gas Transport and Distributions and later the Energy Law (since 1992). These examination and candidates who take them are prepared with collegial attention, starting from the personal respectful relationship through patient consultations and provision of adequate literature for the examination. Therefore we can be sure that thousands of mechanical and electrical engineers and technicians who passed their examinations in the House of Engineers and Technicians of Serbia would be devoted to SMEITS until the end of their professional career and that they would be the professional force this organizations would be able to rely on in its activity programme.

In addition to standard recognitions awarded to the members and organizations which have made their contributions to SMEITS (honourable and meritorious membership and plaques and charters), in 1979 the journal “KGH” introduced the award of the Plaque KGH for extraordinary contribution to HVAC&R profession, and in 2003 the Medal KGH for outstanding authors or designers in this profession. SMEITS received many recognitions of fellow societies and unions from this country and abroad as well as many outstanding decorations. Such recognitions were also awarded to many SMEITS members for their efforts in this organization.

At the end of 2008, SMEITS consisted of 9 municipal societies of mechanical and electrical engineering (Niš, Leskovac, Kruševac, Kragujevac, Kraljevo, Paraćin, Trstenik, Bor and Loznica), one specialized republic society, the Serbian Illumination Society and several territorial and professional societies (former sections), which do not have the capacity of a legal entity.

Since 1951 the presidents of this organization were Stevan Čonkić, Boško Pačanski, Prof. dr. Branislav Đaković, Prof. dr. Dragutin Knežević, Stevan Šamšalović, M.S., prof. dr. Martin Bogner, Prof. dr. Nenad Đajić and Gojko Dotlić, M.S. In 2007, Prof. dr. Miodrag Stojiljković and Dr Milovan Živković was elected the president of SMEITS with the four-year office period.

 

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