PACE - Process & Control Engineering - July 2014

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JULY 2014 | VOL.67 NO.6

INSIDE PACE

Cyber Security

Fan Selection

Medical Technology

Industry must learn that security is a process, not a product

Variable-pitch fans are often used in process control industry

A dose of strong medicine will secure Australia’s manufacturing future

PACE Zenith Awards 2014

Post Print Approved PP100008186

Tahmoor Coal Glencore takes top honours

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CONTENTS

Publisher: Martin Sinclair Email: martin.sinclair@cirrusmedia.com.au Editor: Kevin Gomez Tel: (02) 8484 0976 Fax: (02) 8484 0722 Email: kevin.gomez@cirrusmedia.com.au

IN THIS ISSUE

Group Sales Manager: Tim Richards Tel: (02) 8484 0829 Mobile: 0420 550 799 Email: tim.richards@cirrusmedia.com.au QLD Sales Manager: Sharon R. Amos PO Box 3136, Bracken Ridge, QLD 4017 Tel: (07) 3261 8857 Fax: (07) 3261 8347 Mobile: 0417 072 625 Email: sharon.amos@cirrusmedia.com.au Graphic Designer: Dave Ashley Email: david.ashley@cirrusmedia.com.au Production Co-ordinator: Tracy Engle Tel: (02) 8484 0707 Fax: (02) 8484 0722 Email: tracy.engle@cirrusmedia.com.au

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7

10

News 6

Engineers Corner 32

Insight 10

Innovation 35

2014 PACE Zenith Awards 12

Achievement 38

Industry roundup Desal gets cheaper and greener; Plant improves solids capture; Robot safety course; NI reshapes instrumentation Energy management The big challenge is to identify the low hanging fruit to target initially and implement the right measures Winners profiled It was a closely fought race for top honours in each of the nine categories and there were several surprises Technology 30

Cycle of security awareness Companies employing security strategies are 2.5 times less likely to experience a major cyber attack and 3.5 times less likely to experience downtime

Medical technology Medical technology can play a key role as Australia strives to transition into an advanced manufacturing economy but there are hurdles Women in Industry The inaugural 2014 Women in Industry Awards recognised high achievers from across the mining, manufacturing and engineering sectors Viewpoint 42

Modernise for safety Aged electrical infrastructure can be a weakness in the distribution network

ON THE COVER

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF:

2014 PACE Zenith Awards

JULY 2014 | VOL.67 NO.6

INSIDE PACE

Cyber Security

Fan Selection

Medical Technology

Industry must learn that security is a process, not a product

Variable-pitch fans are often used in process control industry

A dose of strong medicine will secure Australia’s manufacturing future

PACE Zenith Awards 2014

Post Print Approved PP100008186

Tahmoor Coal Glencore takes top honours

Average Net Distribution Period ending Mar ’14 5,709

Select the correct fan Variable-pitch fans are often used in process industry especialy where precise control of static pressure within supply ducts is required

GLENCORE’S Ian Sheppard with the PACE Project of the Year Award.

It was a closely fought race for top honours at the 2014 PACE Zenith Awards but it was Glencore Tahmoor Coal who took out the PACE Project of the Year as well as the Water and Wastewater Category. Tahmoor Colliery built a sustainable recycled water management system to service the operation, conserving approximately one million litres of fresh drinking water per day, by treating and utilising waste mine water.

The project team was able collaborate with several government agencies and departments to ensure a successful outcome.

See pages 12 to 29 for details on all the winners.

JULY 2014 www.pacetoday.com.au 3

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COMMENT

WHAT’S ON

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

LOPA training 14-15 July 2014, Sydney www.icheme.org/lopasyd

Congratulate our winners

Powder Handling and Processing 15-17 July 2014, Melbourne www.icheme.org/pt

THIS issue of PACE is special – the July issues of the magazine have been special for the past eleven years now, as we share the success of the PACE Award winners.

There were so many excellent projects this year and those fortunate enough to join us in Melbourne for the Awards dinner were able to meet with the winners and most of the finalists. There were exciting projects in manufacturing, mining and infrastructure plus we had our largest contingent of young achiever finalists ever.

Next year’s event will be in Sydney so start thinking about your entries early enough.

PACE was also delighted to play a part in orgainsing

TUV Functional Safety Engineer Training 15-18 July 2014, Brisbane training.anz@invensys.com

Kevin Gomez Editor

Chemeca 2014 28 Sep-1 Oct 2014, Perth austcourses@icheme.org

Next Issue For daily updates visit www.pacetoday.com.au

• Motors, Drives & Motion Control • Wireless Technology • Process Control in Mining • PLCs & Soft Control

the inaugural Women in Industry Awards that were held in Sydney last month.

Commenting on the success of the night, business development manager at Manufacturing Skills Australia, Marilyn McMahon, said the event was the most “genuine” awards program she had attended.

Our industry and the engineering profession is poorly represented by women and we hope that the stories of successful women in this profession will encourage more young girls to go down the technolology path.

This issue includes an interesting piece on energy management. It is well documented that reducing costs

remains the primary target for energy management initiatives in industrial facilities. This is followed by the need to optimise existing processes and a desire to plan for the future, when both the volatility of energy prices and the intensity of global competition are likely to increase.

Our industry will play a key role as automation and process control are at the core of this activity.

We are interested to hear your opinion. Email us, follow us on twitter and sound off on Facebook. kevin.gomez@cirrusmedia.com.au

Like us on Facebook and join the conversation facebook.com/PACEtoday

FUTURE WATCH

What are the industries and occupations of tomorrow?

JIM PINTO THE nature of jobs is changing along with the businesses and environments in which work is done.

The latest World Future Society’s Futurist magazine lists several of tomorrow’s technologies and the occupations which will emerge. There are many new industries from which our children and grandchildren will choose.

Here’s my selection of the top 10: • Internet of Things: 75 billion devices will be connected to the IoT. That’s

9-10 devices for every human being.

• Big Data: All the data being generated need to be stored, analyzed, protected.

• 3-D Printing: Will creatively destroy how business is done.

• Driverless Everything: Autonomous vehicles will drive enormous changes in many areas. The first will deliver packages, groceries and fast-mail.

• Commercial Drone Industry: Getting ready to explode as soon as the Federal Aviation Administration makes it legal.

• Micro-colleges: Colleges today cost

too much. New waves of full-time immersion skill-centers will emerge.

• Crypto Currencies & Alternative Financial Systems: With growing distrust of banks and Wall Street, the age of Bitcoin and crypto-currencies is emerging.

• Bio-Factories: New processes for creating substances. Bio-factories will revolutionize chemical production.

• Robots for Senior Living: With almost 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day, the number of seniors who need

specialized care will demand more and better options. New types of eldercare robots will emerge. Already big in Japan.

• Future Agriculture & Food Production: Bio-meat factories, urban agriculture.

[Jim has been a regular columnist for PACE for many years. He’s now 76 and hanging up his pen to go travelling. He has many followers in Australia and his opinionated commentary will be missed.

PACE wishes him well on his journeys.]

Jim@JimPinto.com

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NEWS

EQUIPMENT

MANUFACTURING

Heinz Brisbane plant improves solids capture HEINZ Australia’s Golden Circle plant in Brisbane upgraded to a rotary drum screen from CST Wastewater Solutions to achieve improved solids capture and reduced solids waste disposal volumes.

CST’s new screening technology was used by Golden Circle to replace a previous plant with 1.0mm screening capacity. The new installation features a 0.5mm rotary screen, complete with compactor.

The compact system also allowed the removal of a tall existing structure and hoppers, making solids handling more accessible for the plant operator,

improving operational efficiency and enhancing OH&S benefits by reducing solids handling. The compaction unit also reduces, by up to half, the volumes of solids to be transported.

The all-stainless construction including base frame and the fully enclosed design for OH&S odour and aerosol control advance rotary drum screen technology while enhancing durability, hygiene and serviceability.

Key features of CST’s rotary drum screen system include non-lubricated chains and non-metallic drive sprockets.

VirtualBench’s software user experience is intuitive.

NI reshapes instrumentation

NATIONAL Instruments (NI) has developed a unique device that combines five essential instruments in one for use by engineers working on benchtop test equipment.

NI’s new VirtualBench integrates a mixed-signal oscilloscope, function generator, digital multimeter, programmable DC power supply and digital I/O. Users interact with VirtualBench through software applications that run on PCs or iPads.

Providing common functionalities in an affordable package, the VirtualBench opens up new possibilities for how engineers can use benchtop instruments.

VirtualBench offers benefits such A M0 4 1 4 _ 0 0 0 _ T U R 1 2 0 1 4 - 0 3 - 1 3 T1 3 : 2 4 : 2 3 + 1 1 : 0 0 as the use of the latest technologies Golden Circle’s new installation features a 0.5mm rotary screen. www.cstwastewater.com

including multitouch displays, multicore processors, wireless connectivity and intuitive interfaces.

The simplification and increased capability through software leads to more efficient circuit debugging and validation.

Chad Chesney, director of data acquisition marketing at NI explains that the new VirtualBench builds on NI’s software-based approach to test and measurement.

He adds that VirtualBench’s software user experience is more intuitive, creating efficiencies that go above and beyond simply having these five devices in a single device. www.ni.com/virtualbench

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NEWS

SOFTWARE

iPad app for bolt calculations

DESALINATION

UTS makes desal cheaper and greener

HYDRATIGHT has launched an iPad A COST-EFFICIENT and application dedicated to joint integrity environmentally-friendly method of that complements Informate, its globally desalination that could use up to 80 per applied suite of bolt load calculation cent less energy has been developed by a software. team of Sydney researchers. Researchers Designed for engineers and from the UTS Centre for Technology technicians who may be working in the in Water and Wastewater (CTWW) field or do not have internet connections have developed an innovative way of when they need information, the iPad desalinating water for irrigation. app offers access to Hydratight BoltUp Traditional methods of desalination software, the free version of Hydratight’s rely on large-scale heating and Informate software suite, which features evaporation processes or high pressure Informate Professional, its advanced water pumps that force water through calculation package. filtering systems. Dr Hokyong Shon and Informate provides bolt loads and his CTWW colleagues have designed tool pressures on a range of flanged an alternative process they have dubbed joints and clamped connections with the Fertiliser Drawn Forward Osmosis The app acts as an accessible tool bolt load values independently verified (FDFO). In the new system, chemicals for basic bolt load calculations on to ensure leak-free joints. withdraw saline from water via osmosis standard ANSI flanges.

Incorporating a free bolt load by employing soluble fertiliser on the calculator reference tool for engineers opposite side of a membrane filter. This application for iPad was created with the and technicians, the new app acts as design has much to offer a country that customer in mind, providing them the an accessible tool for basic bolt load uses so much of its water for irrigation, flexibility to access the required software calculations “By reducing the demand of 6an- internet connection.

P A 0 7 on 1 4standard _ 0 0 0ANSI _ A flanges.

MS 1 in the 2 0absence 1 4 - 0 1 3 T1 4 : 1 2 : 1 said 9 + Dr 1 0Shon. : 0 0 www.joint-integrity.com The free to download BoltUp that irrigation places on our traditional

Calibrations under control

The pilot-scale FDFO desalination plant being installed. (Picture supplied by the research team.) water supplies, we are conserving precious water for domestic use in our homes,” said Dr Shon, who hopes his team’s research into osmotic energy – the energy available from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river water – can be used in other areas. “For example, using osmotic energy to drive power generating turbines is just one of the many exciting possibilities.” www.uts.edu.au

AMS AMS INSTRUMENTATION & CALIBRATION PTY LTD Unit 20, 51 Kalman drive Boronia VIC 3155 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61-3-9017 8225 Fax: +61-3-9729 9604 E-mail: sales@ams-ic.com.au Internet: www.ams-ic.com.au

Beamex provides the equipment, software and services needed for an efficient calibration process. The calibration process starts from the planning and scheduling of the calibration work and includes performing of calibrations as well as documentation of results. An efficient calibration process saves time, automates procedures, is cost-efficient and assures that the results are reliable. The best-in-class calibration processes are integrated, automated and paperless. Learn more and test how advanced and efficient your existing calibration process is at: beamex.com/calibrationsundercontrol

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NEWS

MINING

TRAINING

Robot safety course reduces risks

The new treatment in progress to remove a range of metal contaminants.

Virtual Curtain cleans wastewater

PILZ Australia has introduced a robotic safety training course that aims to provide robotic systems integrators with a comprehensive understanding of the essential requirements of robot safety in the workplace.

Designed for technical personnel responsible for ensuring robotic system compliance, this one-day course will familiarise participants with the risks associated with the use of robotic systems, and how to achieve safety while maintaining productivity.

Highlights of the course include understanding best practice standards such as ISO 10218 and AS 4024.3301 – Robots for Industrial Environments – Safety Requirements; risk assessment in robotic cells, common hazards and

The course will enable participants to create safer robotic systems and reduce accidents. controls and robotic safeguarding techniques; and applying the correct strategy to ensure right first time engineering.

CSIRO has developed a cost-effective a more environmentally sound way,” technology to treat mining wastewater CSIRO scientist Dr Grant Douglas said. www.pilz.com.au and reduce sludge by up to 90 percent “Reducing the amount of sludge is has been used for the first time at a beneficial because the costly and timely commercial mine. steps involved to move and dispose it The technology, called Virtual can be reduced.”

AWARDS Curtain, was used to remove metal Given the Australian mining industry contaminants from wastewater at a is estimated to generate hundreds of Queensland mine and the equivalent of millions of tonnes of wastewater each around 20 Olympic swimming pools year, the technology opens a significant OFS Operations Feedback Systems has won the ‘Industrial Applications’ of rainwater-quality water was safely opportunity for companies to improve award at the 2014 Victorian iAwards. OFS is a provider of real time productivity discharged. water management practices and be improvement software.

Sludge is a semi-solid by-product more sustainable.

The iAwards has become the premier technology awards platform in Australia, of wastewater treatment and reducing “The technology can produce a recognising the achievements and innovations made in ICT across all segments the amount produced has huge material high in metal value, which of industry. James Magee, National Sales Manager for OFS commented that environmental and economic benefits. can be reprocessed to increase a miner’s the award recognised the gains delivered by productivity software to Australian “Our treatment produced only a overall recovery rate and partially offset manufacturing. fraction of the sludge that a conventional treatment costs,” Dr Grant Douglas www.ofsystems.com lime-based method would have and explained.

PA0 7 1 4 _ 0 0 0 _ SEI F ERT 1 2 0 1 4 - 0 7 - 0 1 T1 7 : 4 2 : 0 5 + 1 0 : 0 0 www.csiro.au allowed the mine water to be treated in

OFS a winner at Victorian iAwards

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OPINION

ENERGY

Lessons in energy management The big challenge is to identify the low hanging fruit, writes Florian Güldner.

A

RC Advisory Group research indicates that, by employing appropriate energy management measures, energy-intensive companies can reduce their energy consumption around 30 to 40 percent over a timespan of around 15 years.

The challenge, of course, is to first identify the right “low hanging fruit” to target initially and implement the right measures.

Much has changed since ARC Europe held its first workshop on energy management in 2012. In Europe and Asia, energy prices have continued to rise and, with the current crisis in the Ukraine, the long-term supply of Russian gas in Europe could be threatened (and almost certainly will get more expensive).

In North America, a boom in unconventional energy, including both oil sands and shale gas and oil, has lowered feedstock and energy costs for chemical

manufacturers, leading to a resurgence in domestic production.

In Japan, industries are re-thinking their energy strategies in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster, which may lead to the total phase out of nuclear-generated electricity there, further increasing the need to import LNG and other fossil fuels.

Even in the Middle East, which is generally perceived as being “energy rich,” several countries have started taking measures to increase energy efficiency and reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.

Lessons from survey

As we learned from our recent energy management survey, reducing costs remains the primary target for energy management initiatives in industrial facilities, followed by the need to optimise existing processes and a desire to plan for the future, when both the volatility

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OPINION

Profitable

A: Low hanging fruits B: Re-evaluate when prices change

Non-profitable

C: Re-evaluate when new technology is available D: Re-evaluate when prices and technology change Difficult

Easy

Clustering energy management projects. of energy prices and the intensity of global competition are likely to increase.

Demand charges and increasing volatility of energy prices in combination with rising price and margin pressure also makes the need to plan future energy consumption a top priority for the end users.

The process industries are by far the most energyintensive of all industrial sectors and ARC estimates that the percentage of energy as a variable cost, which on average accounts for approximately 8 percent of variable costs today, could rise to 25 percent globally by 2025.

By reducing partial loads, Bayer was able to reduce energy consumption to a significant degree without requiring any capital investment.

In addition, the company was able to improve the efficiency of many processes by using smaller equipment and correctly sized motors. During this process, it’s important to re-evaluate the point of optimal operations, or the “perfect unit.” New equipment and improved procedures and operation can lower this theoretical optimum, turning energy management into an ongoing process.

In the end, investment needs to be profitable. The Real-world experience chart shows Bayer’s approach to clustering investments In our European Forum in Amsterdam in March, ARC in energy management. Projects and measures can shift hosted a workshop on energy management in which from “difficult” to “easy” as new technologies are used, Bayer Technology Services presented its approaches to or from “non-profitable” to “profitable” as energy prices energy management. rise.

Global chemical The company has rolled manufacturer, Bayer, Reducing costs remains the primary out the program in more developed its STRUCTese than 50 plants, which has energy management approach target for energy management introduced new challenges in 2005 with the initial related to knowledge initiatives in industrial facilities goal to reduce emissions management and “know for every metric ton of how.” product produced by 25 percent by 2020. Based on the Even in Europe, which is somewhat ahead of the program’s success, Bayer raised the bar for its goal, and curve when it comes to industrial energy management, now aims to achieve a 40 percent reduction in emissions many companies have still not harvested the “low within 15 years. hanging fruit” of energy management by addressing The program goes beyond capital investment to basic operational issues, right-sizing pumps and motors, encompass all aspects of energy management. This or installing more efficient motors and/or AC drives. includes new technologies, process improvements, and First movers, such as Bayer, have already successful operations and maintenance. The company found that harvested the easy energy savings and must now move improvements in operations and maintenance often into the next phase and explore new opportunities brought large savings without requiring any capital for further improving their energy efficiency, business investment. competitiveness, and reputation.

One of the key elements is the energy loss cascade.

[Florian Güldner (fgueldner@arcweb.com) is an The concept of dynamic and static loses are similar to Analyst at ARC Advisory Group.] www.arcweb.com what ARC calls active and passive energy management.

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS Proudly sponsored by

Project of the Year WINNER

Tahmoor Coal (Glencore) Tahmoor Coal Recycled Water Treatment Plant Winner of the Water & Wastewater category, Tahmoor Coal (Glencore) also took out the overall Project of the Year Award.

In 2012, Tahmoor Colliery completed construction and commissioning of a sustainable recycled water management system to service the operation, conserving approximately one million litres of fresh drinking water per day, by treating and utilising waste mine water.

The project was completed following several years of consultation and design review with several government agencies including the Office of Environment & Heritage, the Environment Protection Authority, the NSW Office of Water, and the Office of Hawkesbury Nepean.

The project involved the construction of a 1 megalitre (ML) per day capacity Recycled Water Treatment Plant, and two 250,000 litre concrete water tanks to supply treated water to the underground mine.

The plant was constructed at a capital cost of approximately $3.31 million ($2 million of which was provided by the NSW State Government as part of a Water Savings Funding Agreement through the Office of Environment & Heritage).

Since May 2013, full-time operation of the plant has demonstrated significant potable water savings.

Winners of the 2014 PACE Zenith Awards are: Manufacturing

Machinery Automation & Robotics for MAR Automatic Plastic Bottle Palletising and Pallet Handling System

Glencore’s Nicholas Wandke (L) and Ian Sheppard (R) receive the PACE Project of the Year Award from category sponsor Garry Mahoney (C), Pacific Director, Honeywell Process Solutions.

Food & Beverage

AP Automation for Grinding and Batching upgrade Machine Builder

Repeat Plastics Australia for Replas’ Queensland plant Mining & Minerals Processing

Machinery Safety Systems for Machinery Inspection Operating Control System MiOCS

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

Tahmoor Coal Glencore has demonstrated significant potable water savings and adopted a leading-practice approach to water management and sustainable development. The company’s alternative solution (which was implemented) was more sustainable, produced fit for purpose water, had lower capital and operating costs, significantly reduced energy requirements, and ensured no community impacts from increased road traffic.

Oil & Gas

A fairly simple aeration, precipitation and filtration system was developed and installed.

12 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

Apex Optimisation and Esso Australia for Hot Oil Process Control Improvement Project

Best Fieldbus Implementation

Transport & Energy Management

Young Achiever

SAGE Automation for SAGE Automation Inline fuel delivery system

Daniel Egan-Wyer from Machinery Automation & Robotics

UGL for Eastern Tertiary Alliance

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Discover today’s processing, instrumentation, automation and advanced software solutions to help you drive more value out of your oil and gas operations.

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS Proudly sponsored by

Manufacturing WINNER

Machinery Automation & Robotics (MAR) MAR Automatic Plastic Bottle Palletising and Pallet Handling System For a leading plastic and steel packaging company in Australia and New Zealand, VIP Packaging was clear that improvements to its manufacturing facility in Villawood, NSW was necessary to stay competitive in the market.

To be successful, the automated system must increase production capacity, eliminate occupational health and safety issues, decrease production cost and increase quality control.

From the robot and conveyor systems operations to the stretch wrapper infeed function and pallet removal sequence, VIP Packaging’s automated robotic palletising process is initiated and controlled by a single operator.

The palletising system, which aims to automate the handling of the packaging products from the blow moulder outfeed to the pallet, comprises of three robotic palletising cells.

These cells all share one pallet handling system.

The system includes a pallet dispenser, pallet strapper, stretch wrapper and pallet conveying system.

In order to prevent faulty bottles leaving the site, three vision systems check the bottles prior to the palletising process to detect: flashing within the handle, flashing around the neck and circularity of the neck opening. These vision systems will automatically remove bottles found to be of suspect quality.

The cells stack the incoming bottles onto pallets supplied by the shuttle transport system. The system whilst palletising insert slip sheets between each layer of bottles and a cover board on top of each pallet.

MAR designed the safety system to work in zones.

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Paul Gekas (R) of MAR receives the PACE Manufacturing Award from sponsor Chris Vains, Business Unit Manager of Siemens.

Each fully loaded pallet is removed from the loading station to the 90-degree conveyor transfer, from where it travels along the main trunk line before exiting the cell through the muted safety light curtain.

The pallet then enters the pallet strapper wherein three plastic straps are placed around each pallet as it moves through the machine.

After being strapped, the pallet will continue to move to the stretchwrapper where it is wrapped prior to exiting the system for the pallet pick-off point. All completed pallets exit the stretchwrapper and are ready for removal by the forklift operator.

The integration of an automated system upgrade provides the perfect opportunity for any manufacturing company to ensure that personnel safety precautions are first rate.

With this in mind, MAR designed the safety system to work in zones.

This is done to allow the line to keep palletising even when a person inside a part of the line away from other machinery.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

The CP bottle line palletising designed and installed by MAR is noteworthy as it decreased manufacturing costs while improving quality and safety. This implementation allowed MAR’s client to remain competitive, helped no doubt by the fact that the entire automated robotic palletising process is initiated and controlled by a single operator.

In addition, the area within the cell has been maximised to ensure free access around the robot and conveyors is available for cleaning, maintenance and general operation.

MAR’s fully automated solution for VIP’s production line delivered a range of benefits including: • Increased operation safety • Increased process quality • Increased process speed • Increased work area management, less space and cleaner and more organised workplace • Less maintenance, less spare parts, easy maintenance, preventive maintenance • Overall decreasing cost of manufacturing www.machineryautomation.com.au

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Are you in Contact with your Future?

New generation of energy efficient contactors for the new generation of factory … just the start of your journey to Industry 4.0 … all produced from Siemens Amberg, one of the most advanced factories in the world. www.siemens.com.au/futureofmanufacturing

It takes a world-class factory to produce world-class industrial controls. Siemens is in a unique situation in that we are one of Germany’s largest manufacturers and we are also manufacturing things designed to improve the efficiencies of others.

Siemens is redefining manufacturing with advanced automation technologies such as SIMOCODE pro V, the smart, compact and Internet-connected motor management system. This is just one of the offerings designed to get you on the journey to Industry 4.0.

At our award-winning factory in Amberg, not only do we produce the new generation of energy efficient contactors, but also advanced automation and control products including SIMOCODE pro, our intelligent motor management system.

Industry 4.0

Siemens Amberg provides a window into the future of Industry 4.0 where we can demonstrate the integration between the virtual product generation and its actual production. Products already communicate with production machines and IT systems control and optimise all processes.

Industry 4.0 is about helping your business become more nimble, adaptable and intelligent; from design to prototype to production and throughout the entire lifecycle – with rapid innovation cycles.

So industries can perform faster, better and produce more with fewer resources.

Scan QR Code to download a case study of the Siemens Amberg Factory.

Our technology can be found at the heart of manufacturing and industrial plants throughout Australia and around the world – helping produce everything from the finest food and beverage, critical pharmaceutical supplies, clean water, oil and gas, mineral ores and metals, through to just about anything you can think of to help make your factory as productive and efficient as possible.

SIMOCODE pro V You ask: How can faults in automated processes and costly plant downtimes be prevented? What is the best way to avoid faults in your system or detect pending errors at an early stage?

We answer: Smart motor management with SIMOCODE pro – a reliable partner since 1986 and now with the aid of an Internet browser you can access all diagnostic and service data relating to your motor feeders from anywhere via network connection and the web server. What’s more, it’s easily integrated into your automation solution using TIA Portal, an extremely user-friendly software providing one integrated engineering framework.

To find out how SIMOCODE pro can help your business switch on to the future, call 137 222 or email manufacturing.au@siemens.com

Answers for industry.

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2014-07-03T13:18:18+10:00

PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS Proudly sponsored by

Best Fieldbus Application WINNER

UGL Eastern Tertiary Alliance Built in 1975, the Eastern Treatment Plant (ETP) in Bangholme, south-east of Melbourne is the largest activated sludge wastewater treatment plant in the southern hemisphere, and processes over 40% (700 Mega litres per day) of Melbourne’s sewage in the service of approximately 1.6 million people. With the upgrade of the tertiary treatment, Melbourne Water has been able to improve the quality of water discharged to the marine environment and at the same time produce Class A recycled water. The treatment process includes Ozone dosing, Biological Media Filters plus UV and Chlorine for disinfection.

The project included the design, construction and commissioning of the ATTP. In March 2010 Melbourne Water entered into an alliance agreement with four private sector partners which formed the Eastern Tertiary Alliance. The organisations were UGL, Melbourne Water, Baulderstone, Black & Veatch and KBR. The objective was to provide Melbourne Water with a control system that combines robustness and high availability to be able to operate under demanding conditions in a 24/7 environment. For seamless integration with the existing plant, the Siemens PCS7TM platform was selected for the new plant.

The plant required a reliable control system for high availability and to deal with the enormous amount of data communicated over the plant networks. Several fieldbus/network technologies are utilized around the plant, including Ethernet, Profibus and HART. Two fibre optic ring networks are installed for Ethernet communications: * PCS Data LAN. All the Operator Workstations, Engineering Workstation, Historian Server, Backup Server, Printers and two HMI Servers, operating as a redundant system, are connected to this network.

It also provides the interface to the servers at the existing plant thus enabling viewing and control of both plants from all locations.

UV reactors in operation at the ETP.

16 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

UGL Senior Control and Instrumentation Engineer Arjan Koolhas (R) receives the PACE Best Fieldbus Implementation Award from category sponsor Steven Sischy, Managing Director of Beckhoff. * Control LAN. This network is the backbone for the control system and allow for high speed communication between the plant PLCs and vendor equipment like the Ozone Master Control Panel, UV Master Control Panel and VPSA Control Systems.

The two HMI Servers mentioned previously collect data and relay control signals to and from the control systems. The managed Ethernet switches in the Server Rooms provide connections to the existing system.

The managed Ethernet Switches in each network operate at 1000Mbps.

With an already high level of redundancy provided by utilising ring networks for Ethernet, the control system needed an extra level of redundancy to cater for high availability of the plant.

Therefore each plant PLC was designed to have redundant processors with Ethernet and Profibus interfaces. Each plant PLC Profibus Card (configured as master) is linked to a fibre optic network through OLMs (Optical Link Modules). Connected to the OLMs are DMKs (Distributed Marshalling Kiosk), installed in each plant area to house remote I/O racks.

Field instruments, valves, level switches etc are connected to the IO modules in the DMKs. Each remote rack is equipped with dual Profibus (configured as slave) cards for communications to the Profibus master. All VSDs are controlled over the Profibus network and

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

The judges were impressed by UGL’s ability to provide Melbourne Water with a control system that combined robustness and high availability.

UGL was able to harness multiple fieldbus and network technologies around the plant, including Ethernet, Profibus and HART. utilise a Y-Link for connection to each of the Profibus networks in the PLC. Size and complexity of the plant were a major challenge for the Alliance team in every step of the way.

Starting with the design, the control system architecture was thoroughly reviewed and checked by both the design team and the client to ensure nothing was left out.

Timing of the project was crucial in terms of meeting the deadlines for commissioning. The UGL Specialist System Integration team consisted of six (6) engineers working on site to allow for easy and early involvement in design decisions, interaction with the client and the design team and access to all available resources. A divide and conquer strategy was used to tackle the complex implementation of the control system. For the control system for example, several teams were formed to test and commission certain areas of the plant.

For a successful implementation of any fieldbus

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2014-06-17T14:51:43+10:00

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2014-07-03T14:29:18+10:00

PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS

Proudly sponsored by

Machine Builder WINNER

Repeat Plastics Australia Replas’ Queensland plant When Replas was asked to consider accepting a grant to place a much needed plastic recycling facility in Queensland a few reasons were considered before accepting any money to fund this venture.

Replas is already collecting post consumer waste plastic in Queensland and shipping it to Melbourne. The company already has employees in Queensland but no office.

Queensland councils and government departments have shown keen interest in purchasing local made products and the clincher was it gives Replas a chance to culminate technologies that have been developed piecemeal over the last 23 years.

Plastic recycling is not new, many companies collect used plastic and either trade it, usually offshore or sell it to plastic reprocessors. This is usually single polymer stream plastics and mainly rigid types. Replas specializes in mixed plastic films either diverted from landfill or intercepted before heading to Asia and moulding them into their range of products.

After trying for years to develop a control system for Replas’ fairly manual way of moulding mixed plastics into end products the company got in touch with Remtron for help with a Barber Coleman “maco” controller.

This was on one of the used injection moulding machines they had purchased ready to modify for their needs. Barry Mathews owner of Remtron jumped at the chance to play with an emerging process within the plastics moulding industry and after a bit of discussion it was decided the maco wouldn’t be suitable for what Replas needed and using a B&R PLC would give the flexibility required for this project.

After many late nights learning what this PLC could do, Mathews was proved right - the B&R PLC has

Replas uses machines that were originally designed to produce small parts.

18 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

Mark Yates (R), Director Repeat Plastics Australia receives the PACE Machine Builder Award from sponsor Armin Fahnle, Director Operations of Daanet. allowed Replas to continually develop better control and monitoring of its plant.

The next step was to incorporate robotics to tend the moulders. Replas uses machines that were originally designed to produce small parts - for example a few coat hangers and modify them to make parts that have an average shot size between 20 and 30 kilograms.

It was not long before they realised that a person could not handle heavy awkward shaped parts and there were OHS risks. Replas employed a young fitter with robotic experience to help in this area.

He has taken the company to the point of putting the raw material in one end of the machine and getting finished parts stacked on a pallet ready for strapping and shipping out the other with much greater process control and reporting.

Over the last five years, large servo drive motors have been developed to drive extruders rather than the standard electro hydraulic set ups or variable speed drives and gearboxes.

There have been claims of up to 30 percent efficiency gains by using this technology so after biting the bullet Replas decided to incorporate this type of drive into the Queensland plant’s moulding machine.

The claims were accurate and the machine is very quiet while it is running. A few other mods Replas

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

The judges were impressed by Replas’ unique technology which allows the mixing of different plastic polymers together to create complex three dimensional shapes. Plastic film recycling is one of the major challenges facing the recycling industry and the company must be commended for moving from a simple manual operation to a robotic processing system. made on this project pertained to the hydraulics. They downsized the hydraulics from a 50 kilowatt pump to a 15 kilowatt VSD geared pump. It now only turns on when needed and runs at the required speed to only move enough oil that is required for the various stages of production.

At this stage the machine is running at Replas’ R&D facility in Lilydale Melbourne and will soon to be shipped to their new site in Queensland.

Replas hopes this plant will be the stepping stone to send their technology all over the world. Plastic film recycling is one of the biggest challenges in the recycling industry and is mainly just used in waste-toenergy plants overseas. www.replas.com.au

PA0514_000_DAA

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2014-04-29T09:50:31+10:00

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PA0714_020

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2014-07-04T08:32:21+10:00

PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS

Proudly sponsored by

Food & Beverage WINNER

AP Automation Grinding and Batching upgrade After partnering with AP Automation to modernise its manufacturing plant, Thompson & Redwood, an animal feed manufacturer, has achieved a seven percent increase in production while reducing its energy consumption by two percent.

Based in Upper Swan, WA, Thompson & Redwood has been providing local farms, studs and stockfeeders with quality animal feed for over a quarter of a century.

But over the many decades of repetitive action, the plant has certainly seen better days.

Thompson & Redwood Projects & Operations Director, Henry Little, realised the need to upgrade his plant in the face of increasing operational and industry pressures.

“Over the years, we’ve noticed a decrease in the number of technicians that are familiar with our unique system which has led to massive downtime issues and loss of production during equipment failure.

“In addition, with changes in the food safety regulations, we are now required to trace back any batch of product for quality assurance. Our existing system was not capable of this,” explained Little.

AP Automation, a Siemens Solution Partner, was engaged to devise a solution that would see the plant grow in line with its modern requirements, become more efficient, while being robust enough to handle the repetitive grinding and batching functions.

“The Thompson & Redwood plant was experiencing the typical growing pains of a facility this age,” said Andrew Phan, AP Automation’s Managing Director, after his initial visit.

“Due to its obsoleteness, we couldn’t re-use any of the plant’s existing equipment, which was PC-based and had limited visualisation and diagnostic abilities – all very common of technologies from 20 to 30 years ago,” Phan continued.

Phan devised a risk-free solution that would help

Thompson & Redwood realised the need to upgrade their old systems (inset) in the face of increasing operational and industry pressures.

20 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

Andrew Phan (R), Managing Director AP Automation Services receives the PACE Food & Beverage Award from category sponsor Dave Delany, Managing Director of ifm efector.

Thomson & Redwood improve product quality and reap the benefits that a modern control system offers.

AP Automation’s strategy was based on the use of generic applications, allowing Thompson & Redwood to quickly and easily adapt to any grinding or batching application required.

With a growing number of products including 25kg and 40kg bags of feed for poultry, horses, sheep, cattle and birds, generic software applications were used to allow Thompson & Redwood the flexibility to quickly change from one production line to another, in a simple and easy-to-setup way.

Recognising that Thomson & Redwood is a small business with no ‘deep pockets’, the generic software applications were not just for the sole purpose of plant flexibility in its current operations but also provide the feed manufacturer with the flexibility to cost-effectively upgrade the facility when required.

Phan also explained that the new active front end drive implemented as part of this upgrade would achieve energy savings due to the reduction of harmonics which would result in virtually no energy losses.

The Siemens’ Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) concept covering all aspects of industrial automation, was the foundation supporting AP Automation’s successful design.

TIA delivers risk-free integration of hardware,

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

The solution enabled AP Automation’s client to easily adapt to any grinding or batching application and also included advanced diagnostics capabilities. Boosting efficiency while reducing energy consumption for the animal feed manufacturer is indeed a commendable achievement. user-friendly software, visual diagnostics for proactive maintenance and fault detection as well as automated reporting, to name a just a few features.

Phan has utilised TIA technology to the benefit of his customers for many years. He explains: “As an engineering company, we have the freedom to integrate any equipment into our designs as we see appropriate and we’ve found TIA to consistently bring results.

“I’m especially pleased with TIA’s diagnostic ability, as this has assisted many of my clients in preventing a lot of potential breakdowns and issues while maximising their uptime and most importantly, their profits.”

“The batching software is designed to work with any number of raw materials and an unlimited number of recipes which makes it adaptable to any grinding and batching,” explained Little. www.apautomation.com.au

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2014-07-03T14:27:40+10:00

PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS Proudly sponsored by

Young Achiever WINNER

Daniel Egan-Wyer Machinery Automation & Robotics The primary automation project that Daniel has worked on during his 18 months at MAR involves designing, manufacturing, testing, supply, installation and commissioning of a multi-million dollar, mobile robotic, idler change out system for underground and above ground whilst the conveyor is still running under load.

Key technologies utilised are 3D vision, PC control, and 6-axis robot control. Daniel worked on this project as one of three key MAR automation engineers.

His primary responsibility, under the mentorship of the other two senior automation engineers, was the development and integration of complex Visual Basic code. This inputs from real time 3D scanning and outputs to coordinate robot for multiple automatic robot tooling changes and robot paths.

This project has a high level of innovation and essentially R&D embedded in it with the commercial pressures of a normal project. Achieving Site Acceptance has been a long and challenging road and Daniel has handled himself with composure in achieving these challenges, displaying initiative, and innovation, and highly structured technical problem solving capability well beyond his years.

Furthermore, he has handled well the pressures

Thomas Hughes (R) of MAR accepts the PACE Young Achiever on behalf of his colleague and winner Daniel Egan-Wyer from category sponsor David Duncan, Managing Director of SICK.

Young Achiever Daniel Egan-Wyer was on an assignment and unable to attend the PACE Awards dinner event.

22 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

of short timeframes, extended time on-site and a challenging site environment. His motivation and attitude throughout the project despite his inexperience is exceptionally noteworthy.

This has been shown through his ability to operate well within, and become a key contributing member to the team. Without this, the project could never have achieved success.

Besides the significant added value to MAR that this project brings, there is a very solid prospect of repeat system orders both within Australia and internationally.

Daniel has shown great innovation, initiative and technical skill in cutting edge automation technologies of 3D vision and complex robot control. He has developed structured Visual Basic code to coordinate the actions of the robot and implement the sensing algorithms to automatically execute multiple robot tool changes.

Actions include raising the conveyor belt whilst still running and complete replacement of worn idlers with new idlers before lowering the conveyor belt down on the new idler set.

The code written by Daniel controls the steps of this process, during normal operation as well as under fault conditions or when the cycle needs to end prematurely.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS

Daniel has shown great innovation, initiative and technical skill in cutting edge automation technologies of 3D vision and complex robot control. This project has provided significant uptime savings to the client by being able to change out worn idlers without stopping the conveyor belt as well as totally eliminating the risk of injury to operators which is prevalent in the traditional manual idler change out process.

His program also provides a Graphical User Interface for the operator to provide feedback on what the system is currently doing, and implement user interaction appropriately.

This project has provided significant uptime savings to the client by being able to change out worn idlers without stopping the conveyor belt as well as totally eliminating the risk of injury to operators which is prevalent in the traditional manual idler change out process.

Through this project Daniel has developed into one of MARâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most capable automation engineers.

PA0714_000_SICK1

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2014-06-24T16:32:19+10:00

BULKSCAN® LMS511: NON-CONTACT AND MAINTENANCE-FREE SENSOR FOR MEASURING VOLUME FLOW.

The Bulkscan® LMS511 uses time-of-flight technology for non-contact measurement of volume flow on conveyor belts. Using the multi-echo technology, the Bulkscan® LMS511 can combine time-of-flight data with the belt speed to generate a reliable volume flow signal, regardless of the bulk material’s properties or weather conditions. Aside from calculating total quantities and mass flow, the Bulkscan® LMS511 can monitor the operation of the conveyor belt without coming into physical contact with it and promptly gives warning of any belt slippage. The integrated center-of-gravity calculator can be used to detect uneven loading of the bulk material and avoid excessive belt wear. Its tough industrial housing is well suited to rugged operating conditions. An integrated heater also ensures safe operation at low ambient temperatures. Discrete signals as well as Ethernet TCP/IP can be used to connect the measuring system to a host communication system. For more information please visit www.sick.com.au or call 1300 405 807.

SICK Bulkscan Full Page Advertisement Cirrus Media.indd 1

24/06/2014 3:39:57 PM

PA0714_024

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2014-07-03T14:30:04+10:00

PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS

Proudly sponsored by

Mining & Minerals Processing WINNER

Machinery Safety Systems Machinery Inspection Operating Control System MiOCS MiOCS is an electronic, stand-alone access control system that is specifically designed to control the pre-starting and use of machinery by personnel that are unauthorised or untrained. It is commonly accepted that plant and machinery must undergo pre-start Inspections at the beginning of each shift.

The standard method of recording pre-start is commonly referred to as the “Tick & Flick” carbon book, which is normally kept with the plant or machinery. The policy of pre-starting plant and machinery is sensible, but this “Tick & Flick” method leaves pre-starting open to abuse with check sheet copies going missing and check sheet books being lost or damaged.

This can equate to a general lack of control. The plant and machinery may be used by other operators during the shift and, should an accident or damage occur, there is no way to establish who was using the machinery at this time.

If you cannot determine who was operating the machinery, you will not know if the person was authorised/ qualified to use it, putting the company and their personnel at risk of contravening HSE regulations and site policies.

The MiOCS system allows the company to control the total process by issuing Access Control Cards to the personnel who are authorised/qualified to carry out Pre-Starts and use the plant and machinery.

As the machinery cannot be used without this card, every time the card is presented the user is logged on in real date/time with all events being stored in the MCU database which auto-syncs with the PDA. Machinery Safety Systems (MSS) applied for and was granted a Commercialisation Australia Grant for

Access Control Cards are issued to personnel who are authorised to carry out pre-starts.

24 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

Loretta Reid (R), Director Machinery Safety Systems receives the PACE Mining & Minerals Processing Award from sponsor Karl Wigginton, Managing Director of Emerson Process Management.

Proof of Concept and Skills & Knowledge to assist in the development of the system.

MSS have now developed a system which is market acceptable and plan to develop the product further to meet market requirements.

Following are the expected development phases over the next year.

Phase 1: MSS is currently busy working on this development. Android based PDA development will deliver a product that will include the function to email reports and faults, as the recently developed M3 PDA. Phase 2: Expected completion date is end of September 2014. Additional development to add cloud based computing and a webserver. This function will allow the customer to manage faults, etc. more easily than to sorting through a bunch of emails.

Phase 3: Expected completion date is end of December 2014. GPS tracking and cellular communications from the MCU to the webserver. This will allow the customer to update information and track the status of the vehicle/machinery in real-time.

Phase 4: Expected completion date is end of June 2015. New custom made PCB for the MCU. Firmware for the new MCU PCB. New add-on GPS tracking and cellular communications PCB. Firmware for the new add-on GPS tracking and cellular communications PCB.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

The judges were impressed by the unique solution being that enables an electronic pre-start system to replace hard copy log books traditionally used to record checks on components and the use of machinery. The Machinery Safety Systems offering will ensure the safety of personnel and offer management a higher level of engineering control for personnel and plant and equipment.

The MiOCS system has the additional benefit of identifying the individual undertaking the pre inspection and the data can be further interrogated to see if that individual is appropriately trained to use the equipment and that their training is up to date.

In the event of an incident the MiOCS provides pre inspection data to the reviewer which will assist in identifying if any steps were skipped or ‘red flag’ warning(s) were overlooked.

In the event of persistent mechanical or other operational problems, the data can assist in identifying patterns of breakdowns; are they linked to a particular activity and or operator? This may help in solving or reducing the occurrence of such problems. www.machinerysafetysystems.com.au

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2014-03-25T10:43:22+11:00

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2014-07-03T14:30:50+10:00

PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS Proudly sponsored by

Water & Wastewater WINNER

Tahmoor Coal (Glencore) Tahmoor Coal Recycled Water Treatment Plant Tahmoor Colliery is an underground coal mining operation situated in the Southern Highlands region of NSW, approximately 75km south west of Sydney.

Tahmoor Colliery has historically purchased approximately 1.5 million litres of potable water per day from the Sydney Water main supply system, for virtually all underground and most surface processes, including all cooling and dust suppression water which are significant points of use).

During the peak of the drought in 2006, Tahmoor Colliery was named in Sydney’s top ten water users on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald.

At that point, with Sydney’s water supply dams at record low levels and residential water restrictions were in force, there was strong pressure from Government for industry to reduce water use.

The initial proposal to recycle water at Tahmoor was to utilise a reverse osmosis (RO) plant to treat mine waste water, and to produce approximately 1 million litres of potable grade water per day to offset the mine’s existing water purchases. Detailed review of this concept revealed a significant increase in electricity consumption, and a brine waste stream that could only effectively be disposed by road tanker haulage to an ocean outfall.

The Tahmoor Environment and Community team developed an alternative concept, which was more sustainable, producing fit for purpose water, with lower capital and operating costs, significantly reduced energy requirements, and no community impacts from increased road traffic. It is this improved system which has now been commissioned.

The treatment plant design involves utilising a clean stream of high quality groundwater from the base of the No.3 Ventilation Shaft approximately 450m below the surface.

Project managers inspect the recycled water filters.

26 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

Glencore’s Nicholas Wandke (L) and Ian Sheppard (R) receive the PACE Water & Wastewater Award from category sponsor Jon McKenna (C), Sales Manager, Bürkert Fluid Control Systems.

Historically this clean water stream (approximately 1 ML/day) had been mixed with process water from the underground operational areas, and pumped to the surface sedimentation ponds to form part of Tahmoor’s daily 3-4 ML/day mine discharge stream to the Bargo River (in accordance with mine dewatering licences and the site Environment Protection Licence).

By separating the No.3 Shaft water, a fairly simple aeration, precipitation and filtration system was developed and installed to meet an output design specification recommended for industrial applications such as dust suppression and machine cooling (without risk of causing scaling and calcium build up in equipment).

The project involved the construction and commissioning of a 1 ML/day Recycled Water Treatment Plant and two 250,000 litre concrete water tanks to provide a balanced supply of treated water to the underground mine. The fully automated system includes in-line real-time monitoring, which is monitored via the mine’s computer control system (Citect SCADA).

The Recycled Water Treatment Plant has offset Tahmoor’s daily potable water consumption by approximately 1 ML each day, utilising a simple and sustainable low energy water treatment process to produce fit for purpose water to the mine.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

The judges were impressed by Tahmoor Colliery’s construction of a sustainable recycled water management system that conserved approximately one million litres of fresh drinking water per day by treating and utilising waste mine water. The project team was able collaborate with several government agencies and departments to ensure a successful outcome.

The immediate benefit from the introduction of the water recycling system is the direct offset of purchased fresh water by recycled mine water. The treatment plant is saving the operation approximately 1 million litres per day (an operational cost saving of around $620,000 per year to the mine). The operating cost of the treatment plant is less than the cost of purchasing water (approximately $150,000 per year).

The capital cost of the plant has been assisted by a $2,000,000 Water Savings Funding Agreement with the Office of Environment & Heritage. The former waste water stream that was discharged to a local water course will now substantially offset fresh water purchases for the life of the mine. www.glencore.com.au

PA0514_000_BUR

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2014-05-01T15:42:30+10:00

INSPIRING ANSWERS | Type 8905 – Online Analysis System

“Who‘s to say that you have to constantly keep an eye on a number of different meters to guarantee clean drinking water?“ With our new Online Analysis System Type 8905, this is no longer just wishful thinking.

Compact and modular, it meets all water sensor system needs from a single source – at a single glance. www.inspiring-answers.com

www.burkert.com.au 1300 888 868

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS

Transport & Energy Management WINNER

SAGE Automation SAGE Automation Inline Fuel Delivery System To ensure sufficient fuel for long distance travel by its fleet of locomotives, Pacific National required a manned re-fuel station in a remote Nullabor location.

This was a costly set up due to three factors manning the station, additional fuel usage to stop and restart the locomotives and high fuel costs per litre.

To alleviate this, a fuel tank car and fuel delivery system was put into place, but Pacific National found the system was not functional, regularly failed, was not designed for the rugged environment, and did not interface with the locomotives systems properly.

This resulted in the locomotive drivers needing to stop and pump fuel manually (at times the system did not work manually and they would have a lengthy wait for assistance). The business was experiencing high operational costs, delays and down time as well as operator/driver frustration.

In partnership with Pacific National, SAGE Automation developed a detailed user requirements specification (URS), ensuring an in depth understanding of exactly what the system needed to do and all expectations are understood and met. A strict 6-month time frame was associated with the project to ensure the solution was in place in time for the delivery of new locomotives that required the system to haul to Perth.

The use of a fieldbus network allows minimal wiring, high level of information communication, multiple operating screens and multiple skid operation.

One of the project challenges was to ensure the system stood up to the extreme environmental conditions it would be subject to. SAGE worked with Pacific National’s ride quality analysis engineers to determine the exact vibration and shock forces that the unit would be exposed to and undertook testing with operational hardware to confirm suitability.

SAGE also reverse engineered the existing communications from locomotives on-board fuel level

SAGE Automation worked with Pacific National to develop a robust system to refuel the locomotives on-route which is suited to the environment in which they operate.

28 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

Ty Borlace (R), Project Manager SAGE Automation accepts the PACE Transport and Energy Management Award from CSIRO’s John Barnes. detection and request system to ensure its system communicated reliably and safely.

Suitability to harsh environment: • able to operate at temperatures ranging from -20 to +75 degrees • able to tolerate 8-32 volt fluctuation • meets rail approved high vibration ratings • meets ingress protection (IP67) standards • complies with rail standards in relation to cabling and power supply User friendly: • user-friendly operator interface featuring alarms which descript what the fault is and provides a picture of the specific equipment failure point • plug and play feature – easily removed, replaced for cost effective installation, upgrades etc • USB friendly – operators can download fuel usage data and email to head office as well as have a program update or change emailed to them for updating the system PLC. • level displays, accurately show fuel levels remaining • auto sequencing features remove the need for operators to need to push multiple buttons and undertake a complex process to operate the system, reducing the training required. The one button ‘filltanker’ is simplified and efficient to operate.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

SAGE worked on a tight timeframe to design and supply a fuel delivery solution suited to extreme environmental conditions in remote Nullabor where the temperatures ranged from -20 to +75 degrees Celsius. The judges were impressed by the cost savings that ensued as well as the enhanced data that became available on fuel usage, maintenance and cost management.

Data collection: The system now contains a number of business friendly features including • logs maintenance data automatically for maintenance scheduling • includes a modem with GPS which allows data output to a smart phone or web portal • modem feature enables remote fault finding to reduce downtime • system was designed with bio-directional flow meters to capture ingoing and outgoing flow data for billing purposes and cost monitoring. This cost effective feature removed a flow meter and improves accurate measurements to be obtained www.gotosage.com

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2014 WINNERS

Oil & Gas WINNER

Apex Optimisation and Esso Australia Hot Oil Process Control Improvement Project In late 2010, Esso Australia commissioned Apex Optimisation (Apex) to assess opportunities for improvement of the Hot Oil system process control configuration at the Long Island Point (LIP) LPG Fractionation Plant.

A number of improvements to the DCS control configuration, as well as a new multivariable predictive controller (MPC) were recommended to reduce Hot Oil temperature variance (primarily via better rejection of disturbances such as changes in Hot Oil demand and fuel gas calorific value) and improve overall efficiency of the two hot oil circuits onsite. Reduced hot oil temperature variance leads to improved benefits on the process side where product yields are affected by the quality of this utility stream.

The project was kicked off March 2012, and Apex Optimisation conducted plant testing to determine the process dynamics required for the redesign of the DCS control schemes for the five Hot Oil heaters at the site.

The existing control scheme designs were inconsistent, so a key objective was providing a uniform approach for the operators to deal with.

The proposed solution consisted of well accepted approaches to furnace control and optimisation.

• An advanced regulatory control scheme for each furnace consisted of a combination of feedforward and feedback controllers, providing improved hot oil temperature control during furnace load changes and fuel gas quality changes.

• The new MPC application provided further feedforward and feedback control and optimisation of the hot oil circuits, to minimise fuel gas consumption and reject disturbances, such as those caused by changes in the overall plant load.

The MPC application is continually minimising excess hot oil circulation as well as distributing the load between the furnaces in each circuit to preference the most efficient furnace.

George La Grange (R), Senior Consultant, Apex Optimisation receives the PACE Oil & Gas Award from Ian Swift, Lead Instrumentation & Controls Engineer Ma’aden Aluminium Project. Swift is on the Awards judging panel.

One of the key requirements of the project was to implement the changes to the process control schemes, without impact on the process or plant operations.

• The process control schemes and implementation procedures were developed utilising the Apex team’s expert knowledge of the client’s DCS and experience in similar significant control system changes.

• Part of this process was to conduct offline simulation and testing of the process control schemes to ensure proper initialisation and bumpless transfer of the entire integrated control scheme – it’s important to provide a robust solution that operators will love to use, as well as minimal impact on the process when the changes are commissioned.

• It was decided to make the highest impact changes during a plant shutdown in order to minimise the overall risk of the implementation phase. However, some changes were still required whilst plant was running, and this is where Apex’s combined process and systems experience was valuable.

The modifications to the first set of three heaters were implemented and commissioned in October 2012,

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

Apex Optimisation was able to optimise the operation of existing equipment at the LPG Fractionation Plant by implementing better process control. There were impressive reductions in energy consumption of the hot oil circuits as well as significant increases in MPC controller uptimes. An overall project payback period of less than six months is impressive. following extensive and successful off-line functional testing. This was followed by a plant test campaign to collect the data required to develop the dynamic models for the MPC application. The first version of the MPC application was commissioned in December 2012.

Following the commissioning of the MPC applications and reassessment of the process context, it was apparent that there is another opportunity for efficiency improvement in one of the major Hot Oil users – the Amine Regeneration section. The same process was followed, in close consultation with the client engineer, to define modifications to control scheme and MPC application. www.apex-opt.com

JULY 2014 www.pacetoday.com.au 29

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IN FOCUS

Cycle of security awareness In a new era of awareness manufacturers learn security is a process not a product, writes Eric Knapp.

A

VIRUS containing a piece of malware slithers into a nuclear enrichment facility system and sits there for a year, learning more and more about the operation, just waiting for the call to attack. When the call comes in, operators view control indicators as normal, however centrifuges in the facility run wildly out of control, causing severe damage.

If this scenario played out in a movie four years ago, it would have been considered science fiction. But with breaches like Stuxnet, the reality has hit.

Cybercriminals can gain access and cause harm to industrial control systems that were once thought to be impenetrable.

Stuxnet, a virus created to damage a nuclear enrichment facility in Iran, created an awareness that continues to grow today as manufacturers are looking into the world of security to protect their infrastructure. With each escalation of the attack capability, awareness continues to improve.

There is definitely a clear and present danger facing the industry, with the compounded annual growth of cyber attacks on industrial control systems at 54 percent over the past seven years.

More than half of U.S. companies surveyed now regard cyber threats as one of their top three business risks.

The survey, conducted by BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, highlights a demand from major global companies for greater intelligence about cyber threats and a better understanding of business vulnerability.

In addition, increased knowledge, frequency, sophistication, and impact on the business has taken cyber security planning and protection from an operational concern to a vital piece of the strategic agenda with chief executives, said a report from Bain & Company.

The catch is that senior management still face an information gap, with the report also finding many organisations fail to align IT security capabilities with larger goals and overall risk.

Because business groups and IT often fail to discuss emerging threats, there is a disconnect between organisations’

30 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

risk management efforts and the development of security.

This is despite a study by Symantec finding top-tier companies employing security strategies are 2.5 times less likely to experience a major cyber attack and 3.5 times less likely to experience downtime.

While there is an awareness of security on the enterprise side of the network, it is not specialised enough to provide the value that is needed on the operations (OT) side. There are cultural conflicts between IT and OT that also lend to the issue.

They both have the same goal to make reliable and protected systems, but have a different lexicon and background.

Unless both teams fully understand the realm of their compatriots, it is hard to communicate.

One way to overcome this communication challenge is to ensure IT takes the time to talk to the industrial side of the business to understand their problems. At the same time, operations has to understand information security so it can help shape what does, and does not, belong on its network.

This cultural challenge might be one of the largest to overcome, but it is not insurmountable. Honeywell has seen several cases where IT and operations have worked very closely together and shown significant progress and success.

Making progress

Once manufacturers realised malware could specifically target an industrial network, they began to think about cyber security in a new way. However this cultural change took a lot of time

and education, while building out the necessary staff.

This process has tended to be slow, depending on the industry. But these days more companies in most industries are making real progress. Some have more of a mature security plan in place than others, but having a plan is a good starting point.

It’s a learning process in the beginning and in many cases, manufacturers simply don’t know what they don’t know and education plays a big role in improvement.

After awareness and education, the manufacturer begins to understand which assets need protection and what could possibly go wrong, and manufacturers can achieve a lot of basics with what they have. There are ways to secure systems just through end point

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IN FOCUS

hardening and proper network design. If networks are architected correctly, they will have a degree of inherent security.

If systems are hardened with disabled ports and services and applications are removed that don’t need to be there, then those systems also have an inherent level of security.

While the manufacturer is implementing a security plan, he or she must also consider the risk equation.

How is a dedicated attacker, or a malicious agent focused on a targeted attack at my company, going to hack into the system? What are the chances of that happening? What are the targets that could suffer a compromise? What is the value? When a risk equation is presented, it is easier to propose and implement a countermeasure with network security monitoring, intrusion prevention systems, firewalls and anti-malware.

These additional levels of security each provide greater defense in depth.

Once there is awareness, the architecture is correct and counter measures are in place, the manufacturer

still needs to be diligent – always watching, and always improving, because threats are always evolving.

Diligence means people

Manufacturers need to make security a part of their culture. The industrial world understands safety very well but security requires the same attention.

someone from entering a dangerous area without the proper safety equipment.

That is where security as a culture makes a difference.

Creating a secure system has its challenges and no one size fits all.

Manufacturers need to make sure the right people in the organisation have input into the development of security

Top-tier companies employing security strategies are 2.5 times less likely to experience a major cyber attack and 3.5 times less likely to experience downtime In terms of culture, security and safety should be very close. Each involves understanding risks and how to address those risks, hopefully to the point where avoidance is second nature. When cyber security also becomes second nature, more cyber incidents will be avoided.

Employees should be trained to stop someone from inserting a USB stick into a workstation, just like they’d stop

and a plan best suited for its needs will be the result.

Understanding that a plan of action is needed is the first step. However, justifying cost will come into play quickly – and that is a real organisational concern.

There are proven risk assessment methodologies that can determine if a countermeasure is justified by the

financial impact of an incident.

If you have a chief information security officer in an organisation, they’re typically very familiar with making these types of decisions. The difficulty comes when not everybody on the business side sees the intricacies of an industrial operation.

For instance, they know if an explosion occurs and causes loss of life, there is high value in prevention.

But they need to understand there are secondary and tertiary systems that could potentially impact business and productivity, and these are easier to overlook.

By improving awareness, understanding technology and adopting a cultural shift with staffers, investing in security can illustrate a significant business advantage. Security is no walk in the park, but the days of ignoring it are long gone.

[Eric Knapp is Director of Cyber Security Solutions and Technology, Honeywell Process Solutions.] www.honeywellprocess.com

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Web: Web: www.idec.com/australia www.idec.com/australia JULY 2014 www.pacetoday.com.au 31

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IN FOCUS

How to select the correct fan Variable-pitch fans are often used in process industry especialy where precise control of static pressure within supply ducts is required, writes Amin Almasi.

A

MECHANICAL fan is used to create flow within a gas. Most fans are powered by electric motors, but other sources of power may be used, including, a steam turbine, a hydraulic motor or an internal-combustion engine.

Fans usually produce gas flows with high volume and low pressure, as opposed to compressors which produce relatively high pressures at a comparatively low volume. A fan blade generally rotates when exposed to a gas stream.

Axial vs. centrifugal

The axial-flow fans have blades that force gas (such as air) to move parallel to

EtherNet/IP

32 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

the shaft about which the blades rotate.

Axial fans blow gas along the axis of the fan, linearly, hence their name. This type of fan is used in a wide variety of applications. Axial flow fans are applied for industrial and process applications.

Standard axial flow fans have diameters from 0.1-4m.

Variable-pitch fans are often used in process industry. A variable-pitch fan is used where precise control of static pressure within supply ducts is required.

The blades are arranged to rotate upon a control-pitch hub. The fan wheel will spin at a constant speed. As the hub moves toward the rotor, the blades increase their angle of attack and an increase in flow results.

A centrifugal fan has a moving component (called an impeller) that consists of a central shaft about which a set of blades, or ribs, are positioned.

Centrifugal fans are sometimes called a “squirrel cage” or “scroll” fans.

Centrifugal fans blow gas at right angles to the intake of the fan, and spin the gas outwards to the outlet (by deflection and centrifugal force).

The impeller rotates, causing gas to enter the fan near the shaft and move perpendicularly from the shaft to the opening in the scroll-shaped fan casing.

A centrifugal fan produces more pressure for a given gas volume compared to axial fans. They are often typically quieter than comparable axial fans.

Axial fans are well-known options.

Their power characteristic is usually non-overloading. They are most often used in very low pressures and high flows. The vane axial and tube axial can be selected for higher outlet velocities than the centrifugal fans (say even 10 m/s or more).The axial fans should usually be connected to ducts by tapered cone connection. The peak efficiency range of the tube axial is 30-55% vane axial is 40-68%.

Three types of centrifugal fan blades (radial, backward and forward) could be feasible which give three different characteristic performance types. The backward blade is usually well suited for many applications and

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IN FOCUS

it is used extensively on clean and dirty process gas streams. They are the most common blade types. The outstanding and important characteristic is the non-overloading power.

The usual operating static efficiency range for the regular blade is 65-80% and for the streamlined design is 80-92%. Radial blades are sometimes used in special fans. They are not popular. They sometimes are used for handling gases with suspended materials, gases with abrasive materials, gases which are dirty or oily/greasy and other difficult services.

The performance curve could be relatively flat. The rather sharply rising pressure curve of the radial blade centrifugal fan, as the resistance of the system changes considerably, might result in small changes in capacity. A fair running static efficiency is about 50-72% for both the straight radial blade and radial tip blade. They are rarely used.

Forward blades are very rarely used.

They are mentioned just to complete

the theory since practically they are not in use. They are usually shallow and operate at slow speed for a given capacity and usually have low outlet velocity; their operating characteristics are poor for nearly all applications they have used, since the power rises sharply with a decrease in static pressure once the peak pressure for the fan has been

Between-bearing (BB) fan designs are used in most of process applications.

In any between-bearing fan designs, fan wheel located between-bearings whereas the bearings are mounted on independently supported pedestals, and the bearings protected from the gas stream. As a very rough indication, between-bearing (BB) fan designs are

Expensive rolling-element bearings do not usually offer a better reliability than simple designs of hydrodynamic radial and thrust bearings reached. The operating static efficiency range could be 55-65%.

Design and operation

Different arrangements and bearing support have been used for fans. For instance, double-width, double-inlet or single-width, single-inlet can be mentioned. Overhung fan designs are usually used for small sizes applications.

used when Impeller diameter greater than 0.8m, power greater than 100 kW or speed more than 1800 rpm.

They are used for critical services; say gas temperatures above 200°C, toxic, flammable, or hazardous gases, corrosive or erosive services or applications which could be subject to fouling deposits that might cause rotor unbalance.

Generally in the fan design and

selection of the fan arrangements the following should be considered: • Induced draft impellers should not usually exceed 750 mm diameter.

• Reduced speed is desirable for critical services such as process gases, corrosive applications, or erosive service.

• Fouling deposits which result in unbalance should always be respected and proper mitigations are required.

Fans should preferably be of “stiff shaft” design; in other words, the operating speed is usually less than the first critical speed. There are high-speed fans with flexible shaft designs, but their applications should be limited to small and non-critical fans. Usually a wide operating range is required for a process fan. As an indication, fans should have turn-down capability to 60% (or less) of the rated flow.

A fan curve performance should have a continuously rising characteristic, the pressure versus flow plot, from the rated capacity to the surge. In many services, fans should be designed to allow the installation of fan blade cleaning systems.

JULY 2014 www.pacetoday.com.au 33

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IN FOCUS

The fan scroll and housing should be continuously welded plate construction.

Strong and rugged fan housing designs are always preferred. As a very rough indication, plate thickness 5 mm, 6 mm or thicker should be used. For medium and large fans, bolted and gasketed access doors, minimum 600 mm × 600 mm are required in the scroll and inlet box to access the fan internals for inspection, cleaning, rotor balancing and any internal bolting necessary for rotor removal.

Fan housings are usually designed to accept small external forces and moments from the inlet and outlet connections. The external loads that will be imposed on the fan housing from the ancillary equipment such as ducting, sound trunks, silencers, filters, etc should usually be limited. These items and fan housings should be designed in a way that the distortions resulting from imposed loads does not affect the fan’s performance and specifically no internal rubs result.

Forced-draft fans impellers may be provided with backward inclined or backward curved airfoil type. Induceddraft fan’s impellers may be radial, radial tipped, backward inclined or backward curved airfoil type; with consideration of operation in possibly dirty gas environment.

The sizing of fan and its driver is a subject of great debate. Usually, proper safety margins have not been considered and the fan or its driver is undersized.

Consideration should be given to sizing forced draft fan motor drivers for un-dampered fan performance at minimum operating temperature.

Induced draft fan driver considerations include possible variations in operating temperature and gas density from start-up through normal operation.

The driver power rating should be at least 110% of the maximum power required, considering all specified operating conditions.

Often, it is a good recommendation to increase the above-mentioned to 112% or even 115%.

The fan control parameters could be a combination of inlet condition, discharge condition, and flow. The fan control and capacity control are usually accomplished by variable-speed, the suction throttling (by a damper or variable inlet guide vanes), or discharge bypass or adjustment. Variable fan 34 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

An example of an industrial centrifugal fan. speeds are well-known in many applications.

Manufacturing and reliability

Shafts should be one piece, forged steel, heat-treated after rough machining.

Shafts smaller than 130 mm (in diameter) might be fabricated from hot-rolled steels. Shaft bearings should be accessible without dismantling duct works or fan casing.

Hydrodynamic radial and thrust bearings should always be preferred for fans. Based on experience, standard rolling-element bearings (anti-friction bearings) have been failed in many fan applications. The rating life (L10) is the number of hours at the rated bearing load and speed that 90% of a group of identical bearings will complete or exceed before the first evidence of failure.

In various fans, bearings with L10 rating life of more than 80,000 hours with continuous operation at normal conditions (say more than 9 years) have been specified. However, due to many reasons, for instance, the actual loading conditions much more than the specified normal conditions, or other unforeseen problems and issues, these rolling-element bearings (anti-friction bearings) have been failed prematurely.

Specifying very expensive and high life rating rolling-element bearings (anti-friction bearings) might be possible, but they cannot usually offer

a better reliability than simple designs of hydrodynamic radial and thrust bearings.

Hydrodynamic radial and thrust bearings are mandatory for critical services or medium/ large fans. As a rough indication, they should be specified and used for any fans above 130 kW. They should always be used for any critical applications such as toxic, flammable gases or when gas temperature exceeds 170°C. It is also preferred to use hydrodynamic radial and thrust bearings for small fans and even so called non-critical fans, because overall, for a 10 or 20 years of operation they offer a better reliability and overall cost rather than any rolling-element bearing.

Hydrodynamic radial bearings should be split for the ease of assembly, precision bored, and of the sleeve type, with steel-backed, babbitted replaceable liners (or shells). These bearings should be equipped with anti-rotation pins and should be positively secured in the axial direction. For high speed, tilting-pad bearings should be used.

Thrust bearings are critical components in a fan. Hydrodynamic thrust bearings should be of the babbitted multiple-segment type, designed for equal thrust capacity in both directions and arranged for lubrication to each side. The thrust bearings should preferably be selfaligning.

Considering the reported cases of

overloading of thrust bearings and longlists of issues and problems associated with them, ample design factors are always recommended. As an indication, hydrodynamic thrust bearings should preferably be selected at around 40% of the bearing manufacturer’s maximum allowable load rating for all specified operating conditions (in other words, a “2.5” safety margin is recommended).

It is true that the lubrication oil has been also used for the bearing cooling, however, there are always some limits on this oil cooling capability. Generally, the rise in oil temperature through the bearing and housing should not exceed 30°C under the most adverse specified operating conditions. The bearing outlet oil temperature should usually not exceed 75°C. When the inlet oil temperature exceeds 50°C, special consideration should be given to bearing design, oil flow, and allowable temperature rise.

The operating beyond the abovementioned limits might be possible using sophisticated synthetic oil, but such oils are expensive and special.

Of course they are routinely used in special fans, for instance, fans with high operating temperatures, but their applications should be limited to fans where mineral lubrication oils cannot be used. Often all bearing housings for fans operating above 100°C should have provisions for proper cooling such as water cooling circuits.

Some inlet variable guide vane (IGV) systems have previously introduced some operational issues and problems.

Generally damper and IGV systems have been used in many fans, but the details of their design and operation should carefully be reviewed to make sure about their long-term reliability.

Inlet variable guide vane operating mechanisms should be located outside the flowing gas stream. The mechanism should be readily accessible for in-place inspection and maintenance, and be of bolted attachment construction to permit removal if necessary. Proper and reliable provisions should be furnished for lubrication of the mechanism during operation.

[Amin Almasi (amin.almasi@ymail. com) is a rotating machine consultant in Australia. He specialises in rotating machines including centrifugal, screw and reciprocating compressors, gas turbines, steam turbines, engines, pumps, condition monitoring and reliability.]

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Medicine to secure Australia’s future Medical technology can play a key role as Australia strives to transition into an advanced manufacturing economy but there are hurdles, writes Hartley Henderson.

A

S THE trend continues of Australian manufacturing shifting away from mass production, there is an increasing focus on developing the potential of advanced innovative growth sectors such as medical technology.

This is a highly innovative sector with the capacity to create advanced manufacturing jobs which in many instances are similar to those in the declining automotive industry, such as design, skilled engineering, miniaturisation, computerisation, and materials science.

According to the Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), the medical technology sector in the 2011-12 financial year consisted of over 550 companies and had an estimated turnover of just over $10 billion, which meant that it was larger than the wine industry and on par with the automotive industry.

MTAA’s CEO, Susi Tegen, believes that the medical technology industry in Australia has all the prerequisites that are needed to expand an already successful, globally relevant, world leading competitive industry.

“However, while the environment is right for expansion of the industry, there is a need for forward looking policy and a cohesive national plan for the industry. There is significant room to improve the support systems such as the development of collaborative structures including innovation hubs or clusters,” she told PACE. “Red tape should be cut and systems streamlined, including the slow Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) processes in Australia, which restrict the competitiveness of this industry. Ensuring safe technology for patients is important, but TGA red

Signostics manufactures the smallest hand-held diagnostic ultrasound system on the market. tape is often prohibitive for Australian companies.

“Red tape in other areas is also having a negative impact on businesses including in relation to employment, innovation, and in import and export requirements.”

Integrated technologies

Ellex Medical Lasers manufactures leading-edge integrated technologies including ophthalmic laser and imaging products for use in the fight against blindness that can be caused by conditions such as macular degeneration and glaucoma.

The company, which employs 140 people in Adelaide and 210 worldwide, has evolved from manufacturing primarily OEM products, to direct marketing of its own branded products through

subsidiaries in the US, Japan, Australia, Germany and France.

CEO, Tom Spurling, says Ellex has a strong emphasis on the protection of intellectual property and research into new and better treatments for ophthalmic disease.

“Current research includes Retinal Rejuvenation Therapy, we call it 2RT, which is a project focussed on new treatments for diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.

As populations age, we see a rapidly developing market for our products, not just in Australia, but around the world,” Spurling said.

“In 2013 we launched our world-leading Selective Laser Trabeculopasty technology for the treatment of glaucoma in the US, and Rapide was also launched, which is a fast pattern scanning photocoagulator that enables up to 2,000 laser shots to be delivered during treatment in less than seven minutes.

“This year we have expanded our glaucoma program through acquisition of a canaloplasty business in the US, thus cementing the company’s position as a global leader in the non-pharma treatment of early to moderate glaucoma treatment intervention.”

However, Spurling says action is required to streamline the evaluation of new developments and the long and tortuous road to market.

“There are big opportunities for medical technology manufacturing and Australia is a trusted brand around the world. But more needs to be done to reduce the complexity of the research grants and commercialisation processes.”

Global reach

Sirtex Medical is a Sydney-based manufacturer and

JULY 2014 www.pacetoday.com.au 35

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Helping to put you in Control IR Webserver The KTA-294 IR Webserver has primarily been designed to allow IR controlled Air Conditioning units to be controlled via a mobile internet enabled device. It is Arduino programmable and can learn up to 7 IR commands.

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5 Digit Micro-Process Meter Micro-process meWHU ¿YH GLJLW SURFHVV indicator accepts 4 to 20 mA signal of 2 or 3 wire sensors. Features include 24 VDC excitation for powering 4 to 20 mA transmitters and 1 alarm relay. 22 to 60 VDC powered.

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Liquid Level Sensor 2 wire 4 to 20 mA liquid level sensor 0 to 60 m.

Suitable for raw and waste water. Supplied with 70 m cable. 24 VDC loop powered with stainless steel 361L housing.

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F54 Capacitive Sensor F54 capacitive proximity sensors comes with 4-wire. NPN-style output with NO+NC contact type.

It has a sensing distance of 36 mm and is 10 to 30 VDC powered.

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Wireless Ultrasonic Tank Meter A simple solution to remotely measure tank liquid levels, wireless signal transmits up to 100 m in open areas. It comes with a transmitter and a receiver that has LCD display. Battery powered & not included.

SKU: UTS-001 Price: $95 each + GST

AM882 Stepper Drive AM882 fully digital microstepping stepper motor driver with anti-resonance tuning and sensorless stall detection. Suits large stepper motors up to 8.2 A. SKU: SMC-011 Price: $129 each + GST

NEMA 34 Stepper Motor Industrial grade stepper motor, ideal for driving heavier loads. Has a holding torque of 87 kg.cm (8.5 Nm or 1208 oz-in). Front & rear shafts are 12.7 mm in diameter.

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For OEM/Wholesale prices Contact Ocean Controls Ph: (03) 9782 5882 oceancontrols.com.au 36 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

marketer of SIR-Spheres microspheres, which are supplied globally for use in the targeted treatment of liver cancer.

The company has manufacturing facilities in the US and Singapore and a new facility is due to open in Germany in 2015. According to CEO, Gilman Wong, more than 40,000 doses of SIR-Spheres microspheres have been supplied as a last line treatment for inoperable liver cancer patients in more than 600 medical centres and 30 countries.

“Globally there is a large unmet medical need for better treatments because mortality for liver cancer patients remains higher than other cancers,” he said.

“A key issue that the company is addressing is the need to demonstrate, educate and generate wider awareness among the global community. This is a challenge faced by all medical technology companies with a product that promises to change established practices.

“To this end, Sirtex is building the case for wider use of its main product by investing $60 million over five years in five major post-marketing clinical studies involving leading international medical institutions, key medical opinion leaders, and more than 2,000 patients.

“This investment is designed to demonstrate the efficacy of our SIR-Spheres microspheres as a first-line treatment for primary and secondary liver cancer and grow our markets.”

Wong says Sirtex is a global Susi Tegen: business with a very bright CEO, Medical future with markets and sales Technology that continue to expand at a Association of Australia steady pace.

“We are recognised as an emerging international leader in cancer treatment. A large part of our future success is based on investing in a highly skilled workforce capable of taking our business to the next level of growth on a global scale,” he added.

Regulatory compliance Based in Adelaide, Signostics develops, manufactures and markets a hand-held ultrasound diagnostic system, which the company says is the smallest, lightest and most affordable hand-held ultrasound system on the market.

Signostics quality and regulatory manager, Stewart Bartlett, says the company sees significant opportunities for expansion internationally into new markets and there are plans

Gillman Wong: CEO, Sirtex Medical

Sirtex Medical is a Sydney-based manufacturer of SIR-Spheres which are used in the targeted treatment of liver cancer. to continue to develop the product so that it appeals to a broader range of clinical segments, including superficial imaging.

However, he said a key issue confronting the industry relates to regulatory compliance. “Whilst it is recognised that medical devices need to be safe and effective, time to market for new products is hard to manage due to the uncertainty associated with regulatory approvals, which can vary significantly around the world,” he explained.

“In Australia, the key to employment creation is the development of a cooperative ecosystem where local manufacturers have easier access to medical device users for clinical trials and product testing, with a view to early adoption of products.

“This would enable Australian companies to reduce time to market and achieve initial market validation in Australia before expanding into overseas markets.

“The TGA needs to look at its role in assisting the competitiveness of Australian industry because currently TGA approval times can be lengthy, which is an impediment to the Australian medical technology industry. Equivalent approval times in Europe for European manufacturers are much shorter, and some US approvals can be achieved in 30 days.

“The potential for significant employment growth in medical technology is there if all of the stakeholders can work more constructively together.”

Sirtex 02 9964 8400 www.sirtex.com.au Ellex Medical 08 8104 5200 www.ellex.com Signostics 08 7424 0600 www.signosticsmedical.com

Tom Spurling: CEO, Ellex Medical Lasers

Medical Technology Association of Australia 02 9900 0650 www.mtaa.org.au

PA0714_000_AUT - 1 2014-06-25T11:02:57+10:00 paceaddjuly14_Pace 25/06/2014 10:49 AM Page 1

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WOMEN IN INDUSTRY AWARDS: WINNERS

OVER 150 people turned out for the inaugural 2014 Women in Industry Awards where ladies from across the mining, manufacturing and engineering sectors were rewarded and recognised.

Held at The Establishment in Sydney, the evening was kicked off by guest speaker Ruth Medd, executive chair of Women on Boards, who shared her three tips for success.

She said women looking to advance their careers needed to learn how to better selfpromote their talent, make focused and strategic plans and build a supportive network base.

ABC commentator Bernie Hobbs then took the reigns as MC for the night, and had the crowd in stiches with her good-natured ribbing and witty one liners.

The room was abuzz with excitement as a total of nine awards were handed out to very deserving recipients.

Commenting on the success of the night, business development manager at Manufacturing Skills Australia, Marilyn McMahon, said the event was the most “genuine” awards program she had attended.

“Tonight was very encouraging,” McMahon said. “The hosting was amazing, people are very keen to chat and very friendly, and the crowd is made up of a broad spectrum of people from across the industry.”

PACE would like to congratulate the winners of the 2014 Women in Industry Awards:

Brookfield Multiplex won the Employer of the Year Award. HR Manager Rachel Surgeon accepts the award from Scott Berkin of NLT Australia. Leading by example, the company’s executive team has increased its female representation from zero to 33 per cent over the last three years as part of its wider “Women@BM” program which aims to promote talent. It also has a number of programs in place to support women and ensure the company’s high retention rate is maintained. Most recently, one of these programs has centred around supporting mothers returning to work.

Winner of the Mentor of the Year Award, Natasha Cann (R) of NM Cann with Helen Wood of TMS Consulting. Cann was acknowledged for her delivery of a no-cost online mentoring service. Ten years ago Cann began actively working towards her goal of encouraging more women to flourish in the mining industry by developing a free mentoring service via Skype and face-to-face.

In 2013, Cann decided to formalise her work and created two confidential services: Mining Mums and Mining Mentors. Cann also speaks at industry events to promote the benefits that the mining industry has to offer women.

BDM of the Year

Jacky Magid: General Manager of Sales and Marketing – Charlie’s Cookies

Winner of the Excellence in Mining Award, Julie Shuttleworth of Fortescue Metals Group with Mark Irvine from MMD. During her career Julie has been at the forefront globally on metallurgical issues such as cyanide recovery using the sulphidisation-acidification-recyclethickening process at the Telfer Mine; operating paste tailings facilities at Bulyanhulu Mine when this was relatively new technology; and surface water collection, storage and water conservation at Buzwagi Mine. She also presented on these topics at global conferences.

Employer of the Year – Sponsored by NLT Australia

Brookfield Multiplex Excellence in Engineering – Sponsored by Direct Automation

Naomi Mathers: Industry Liaison Engineer – Australian National University Excellence in Manufacturing

Lynn Johnson: Manager SME Engagement Program – Industry Capability Network, Victoria.

Excellence in Mining – Sponsored by MMD Australia

Julie Shuttleworth: General Manager, Cloudbreak Mine – Fortescue Metals Group Industry Advocacy

Naomi Mathers: Industry Liaison Engineer – Australian National University Mentor of the Year

Natasha Cann: Director – NM Cann Rising Star Award – Sponsored by QMI Solutions

Cassandra White: CEO – Miners’ Promise Social Leader Award

Natasha Cann: Director – NM Cann

38 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

Winner of the Rising Star Award, Cassandra White of Miner’s Promise with QMI Solutions CEO Gary Christian. White was recognised for her work in helping to build a support organisation for miners and their families through the not-for-profit organisation Miners’ Promise. The group works to support families in whatever it is they need in times of grief.

This includes emotional, financial and/or pastoral support. This is achieved by travelling to the family’s location; assessing their immediate needs and affecting strategies aimed to support and comfort.

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Sponsored by

Winner of the Excellence in Manufacturing Award, Lynn Johnson (R) of ICN with Ruth Medd from Women on Boards. Under the leadership of Lynn Johnson $446 million worth of offshore and national supply contracts have been secured

by Victorian SMEs. Another area in which Johnson has helped manufacturers is in local government procurement activities. Since the inception of the SME engagement program, ICN has started working with five councils, including Kingston, Cardinia, Casey, Geelong and Wyndham.

For her passion to see women in the mining industry thrive, and for going out of her way to do something about it, Natasha Cann has been awarded to 2014 Women in Industry Social Leader Award.

Cann said she often receives calls or emails from women asking for advice but feeling they have no one to turn to.

Her two programs foster talent by giving women working in the mining sector an avenue for open and honest communication. A major advocate of social media, Cann urges women to jump online to engage with each other and share their stories.

Winner of the BDM of the Year award, Jacky Magid (R) of Charlie’s Cookies with Australian Mining’s Vicky Validakis. Magid was recognised for her efforts in spearheading a campaign which saw Melbourne-based food manufacturer Charlie’s Cookies go from a small local cookie supplier to a national business turning over almost $5 million per annum. A driving force behind the development of an entirely new product range – the Mini Melting Moments – Magid had a role to play at every step of the way from packaging, marketing, sales and distribution.

For her dedicated work in advocating Australia’s space industry to the world, Naomi Mathers has won the 2014 Women in Industry, Industry Advocacy Award. Mathers has distinguished herself by working across the differing domains within the space industry including government, defence, research and academia, and has demonstrated the ability to understand the needs of each domain and facilitate projects that benefit all partners and grow the sector as whole.

Pacific Merchandising

Winner of the Excellence in Engineering Award, Naomi Mathers (R) of Australian National University with Katie Davies from Direct Automation. Mathers was an advocate for the space industry in Australia at a time when there was minimal activity, and very little government interest, in the sector. Aiming to create a sustainable Australian space industry, Mathers also led the preparation of the successful bid for a Space and Spatial Industry Innovation Precinct. Mathers believes Australia’s space industry has massive potential and her job is to connect the dots between researchers, industry and policy makers to ensure growth can flourish in the sector.

Pacific Merchandising is a specialist Promotional Merchandising supplier to Mining, Oil & Gas, Construction and Transport Industries and Australian Trade Unions.

Operating since 1994, our reputation has been built around our wholly Australian custom designed and manufactured pewter belt buckles and custom-made products such as key rings, plaques, medals, commemorative badges, medallions, coasters, models and figurines.

Today our belt buckles are prized collectors pieces recognised globally and shipped internationally.

And we source across a wide range of products.

As a premier supplier to major companies and organisations we have close relationships with premium global brands, such as Leatherman multi-tools, LED Lenser torches, Seiko watches, Maglite and Victorinox. This enables us to offer you best value access to quality gifts backed by leading brands.

Busy industry project managers look to us for a painless and easy solution to corporate giving.

They value the personal service and expert advice from an industry specialist. And the benefits in time saving and logistical headaches saved through dealing with a one-stop shop from sourcing ideas or products to art design, from decoration to manufacture, and attractive gift packaging to freight.

We help you celebrate your company achievements, its milestones and your people…hence our tagline, celebrating excellence!

Level 1, 117-131 Capel Street, North Melbourne. Vic 3051 t: 1300 88 77 95 e: sales@PacificMerchandising.com.au www.PacificMerchandising.com.au

JULY 2014 www.pacetoday.com.au 39

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SPOTLIGHT

7best of the

PACE showcase of the best engineering technology releases of the month.

Hazardous area gear units and motors

Wireless voltmeter

Motors and gear units from SEW-EURODRIVE meet the requirements for equipment intended for use in potentially hazardous areas in accordance with IECEx standards (international). Additionally, SEW’s motors and gear units meet ATEX (Europe) and HazLoc-NA (Northern America) standards. Being certified according to these standards makes them suitable for worldwide use. The motors and gearmotors are offered in IECEx according to equipment protection levels (EPL) Gb and Gc (gas protection) and Db and Dc (dust protection). The combined gas/ dust approvals for SEW gearmotors simplify the selection process for the relevant drive components, reduce the number of variants and allow you to use the gearmotors in combined gas/ dust zones. The 4-pole motors of categories 2 and 3 (or EPL .b and .c) are suitable for operation on a frequency inverter and in field weakening operation.

SEW motors and inverters are available as electrical equipment in protection types “e” (increased safety), “nA” (non-sparking) and tb and tc (dust explosion protection).

The gear units as non-electrical equipment are certified in protection types “c” (design safety) and “k” (liquid immersion). The compact, performance-oriented properties of the standard drives from SEW-EURODRIVE are also included in the hazardous area motors, which are available in various designs in the power range of 0.12-75 kW.

CircuitSpy, recently released by Redbusbar, is a multichannel, wireless voltmeter. CircuitSpy allows any worker with a smart phone or laptop to measure voltages within a closed electrical panel. CircuitSpy measures voltages and reports the measurements, via WiFi, to a web browser. The system supports three phase, single phase AC and DC voltage measurements.

It is available in portable and fixed versions and it reports to a webpage so a special App is not necessary. Fault finding and commissioning of electrical and control system equipment can be inconclusive if performed on a de-energised circuit. However, working on energised circuits exposes the worker to the risk of an electric shock and an arc flash explosion. This elevated safety risk has led many companies and authorities to discourage energised work by introducing onerous procedures and requiring the use of cumbersome personal protective equipment. CircuitSpy Portable Comms Module is a temporarily installed, test tool for fault finding and commissioning purposes.

SEW-EURODRIVE 03 9933 1000 www.sew-eurodrive.com.au

Redbusbar 07 3262 5880 www.redbusbar.com

SmartLine temperature transmitters increase efficiencies Honeywell Process Solutions has introduced its latest range of temperature transmitters based on its SmartLine modular design. The transmitter helps reduce project costs and startup time, avoid unplanned downtime, improve product quality, and shorten time to repair. Industrial plants use field instruments that measure temperature throughout the manufacturing process to enable operational safety and product quality. Large industrial complexes can employ thousands of these devices within their manufacturing processes. SmartLine temperature transmitters lower plant lifecycle costs by making it easier to maintain field devices with their unique efficiency-enhancing features such as an advanced graphic display capable of showing process data in graphical formats and communicating messages from the control room. All SmartLine transmitters across the pressure and temperature measurement ranges utilise modular components, which simplify field repairs and reduce the parts inventory required to make those repairs. Key features of the SmartLine temperature transmitters include a dual-compartment housing for maximum robustness; intuitive diagnostics for both the transmitter and sensor; diagnostic information also uniquely available on the transmitter display providing a real-time view of sensor health to 40 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

support proactive maintenance; and built-in dual-input and digital output option to minimise the number of instruments needed for both monitoring and switching needs, reducing lifecycle costs.

Honeywell Process Solutions www.honeywellprocess.com/smartline

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Email your product news to editor@pacetoday.com.au

Flow meter improves air compressor system efficiency The ST50 Air Flow Meter from Fluid Components International (FCI) can help accurately measure compressed air and detect system inefficiencies or leaks. The ST50 provides precision flow measurement to reduce the consumption of pneumatic air, helping manufacturing, assembly and process plants reduce air consumables and the energy required to support compressed air systems. The installation of ST50 Flow Meters in large facilities with multiple air compressors allows the operators to compare compressor usage and adjust them for optimum efficiencies. In addition, the use of mass flow meters at the point of compressed air output helps to ensure peak performance at a given flow rate. Comparing the performance of multiple air compressors is also useful in predictive

maintenance applications where higher flow rates may indicate leaking valves or seals in one unit versus other units operating under similar conditions. The ST50 Flow Meter utilises FCI’s thermal dispersion mass flow sensing technology to provide direct mass flow measurement at a lower cost. With the ST50, there is no need for the temperature sensors, flow computers or other devices required with orifice plates, Venturis, Vortex shedding and other meters.

The ST50’s design provides built-in temperature compensation for reliable measurement over a wide temperature range with almost no pressure-drop.

AMS Instrumentation & Calibration 03 9017 8225 sales@ams-ic.com.au

powerfast for Process Automation

Proximity sensors provide long range sensing Rockwell Automation has introduced the AllenBradley 871P VersaCube inductive proximity sensor. These 4-Wire DC sensors integrate both standard and specialty features into a redesigned 40 mm rectangular housing suited for an even wider range of general purpose and welding applications.

The VesaCube combines Factor 1 sensing, high IP67, IP68 and IP69K ratings, extended sensing ranges, weld field immunity, slag resistance, complimentary outputs and high visibility LED’s into the one package. TThe VersaCube offers extended range, complementary (N.O. + N.C.) outputs and equal sensing distance for all metals.

The VersaCube features a new high-visibility status indicator that can be seen from a long distance at 360°. When coupled with the unique mounting flexibility of the VersaCube, installation, alignment and troubleshooting are greatly simplified. For the most demanding applications, the 871P VersaCube can be ordered with ToughCoat, the patented weld-slag resistant coating on the sensing face. ToughCoat prevents the adhesion and accumulation of weld splatter, as well as the associated problems – including physical damage or burn-through to the internal components.

Rockwell Automation 03 9757 1111 www.rockwellautomation.com.au

TURCK has expanded its powerfast line of connectivity products to include a full line of solutions for process automation applications.

Designed to replace hardwiring methods, powerfast for process automation provides a robust and reliable modular wiring solution. A full line of cordsets, receptacles, reducers, reducer tees, and power lokfast devices provides users with the ability to configure a complete power distribution system.

The products are UL approved and available in A-Size (7/8”) and D-Size (1-3/8”) connectors and are rated for up to 30 Amps of power for a wide range of operation. Additionally, the products carry FM approval for use in class I division 2 hazardous locations. The A-size powerfast for process automation solution is IP67 rated and the D-size solution is IP67, 68, and 69k rated. Both product lines are NEMA 1, 3, 4, and 6P rated with a temperature rating up to 90 degrees Celsius.

TURCK 1300 132 566 turckaustralia@turck.com

Eddy current displacement sensors Bestech Australia has introduced a costeffective eddy current sensor. The eddyNCDT 3001 comes with integrated electronics including temperature compensation, offering good price/ performance ratio, and is compact as well as easy to operate. The high measurement accuracy and linearity as well as the high frequency response rate of 5 kHz are outstanding characteristics compared to other sensors in the same price class. The sensors are factory-calibrated for ferromagnetic and non-ferromagnetic materials in the measuring range of 4 mm. The sensors are protected to IP67 and are therefore universally applicable in automation, machine building and machine design. As the sensors are easy to use and cost-effective, they are suitable for standard production in OEM applications.

Bestech 03 9540 5100 www.bestech.com.au JULY 2014 www.pacetoday.com.au 41

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THE LAST WORD

OIL & GAS

Modernise for availability and safety Aged electrical infrastructure can be a weakness in the network, writes Catherine Moriarty.

T

42 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2014

The consequences of an arc fault in oil-filled switchgear.

Electrical distribution systems left unchecked or in poor condition as a result of lack of maintenance for prolonged periods of time exposes both equipment and people to unsafe and avoidable risk compared to total cost of replacing the entire switchboard. The operational life of the existing assets is also increased.

Modernisation also shifts the financial model from capital expenditure of switchboard replacement to operational expenditure that can be incorporated in the maintenance budget or as part of a services contract.

Modernisation also lends itself to a â&#x20AC;&#x153;roll-out; roll-inâ&#x20AC;? phasing program supporting maintenance budget allocation and availability, as well as improving maintenance planning schedules and reducing downtime.

Lack of availability of spare parts

for legacy or aging electrical equipment during times of unplanned shutdown is an issue that can be easily avoided by modernisation. Modernising the assets

ensures quality spare parts are available.

The introduction of new technology brings with it improved performance and additional features that can be used to monitor the health of electrical equipment. It assists in improving maintainability and diagnosing trends in the equipment before failure.

An active modernisation program enhances safety of the facility. The modernisation program will detect any faults or deteriorated equipment as a result of age, environment or operation.

Electrical distribution systems left unchecked or in poor condition as a result of lack of maintenance for prolonged periods of time exposes both equipment and people to unsafe and avoidable risk. The consequences of aged faulty oil filled switchgear or incorrect operation under fault conditions have the potential for catastrophic failure resulting in arc flash and potentially fire.

[Catherine Moriarty is Marketing and Offer Manager, Schneider Electric.] www.schneider-electric.com

COSTS

HE Oil and Gas sector in Australia is heavily exposed to the export market. As such revenue is highly volatile and follows price movements in supply and demand. This volatility impacts production decisions, highlighting the importance of reliability in this area.

Ensuring the electrical distribution network is available and safe is dependent on the condition of the existing infrastructure.

The electrical distribution network is often overlooked in maintenance schedules and asset management planning. By the time your plant has experienced a power disruption as a result of aging infrastructure it is already too late.

The Oil and Gas industry operates in what are inherently harsh environments.

Factors such as temperature, humidity and the presence of corrosive agents, as well as the operation conditions experienced by the electrical equipment, can have an effect on the reliability of the distribution network. Increased stress can result in equipment failure and unplanned downtime.

Aged electrical infrastructure, i.e. equipment that is 25 years or older; can be a weakness in the electrical distribution network and can be the cause of unplanned failure. Complete replacement is an option, however it causes significant disruption to day-to-day operations.

Modernisation of electrical equipment is the proactive approach to ensure the electrical distribution system remains available and achieves the highest possible standard, as well as ensuring the safety of people and equipment. The core of modernisation is to retrofit the aging infrastructure, rather undertaking than a complete replacement.

By modernising the critical devices within the switchgear rather than the whole switchboard, investment of existing assets are maximised and significant cost savings in the order of approximately 50% are achieved when

New Equipment

Cost of process downtime (Z = from a few minutes to one hour) Material cost Site work cost

Optimisation with minimal shutdown.

ECOFIT

TM

The easiest way to find the right products and suppliers

MANUFACTURING | MINING | INDUSTRIAL

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ferret.com.au

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1300 156 836

PA0714_000_SICK2

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2014-06-24T16:33:50+10:00

THERE IS NOTHING IN THE AIR TONIGHT.

From power generation and cement production to waste treatment and the distribution of natural gas – the more complex a plant, the greater the demands on systems engineering and services. When it comes to monitoring emissions, evaluating gases for optimal process control and ascertaining custody transfer measurements for pipelines, SICK is a step ahead in every segment of the industry. With complete solutions for gas analysis, dust measurement and flow measurement that are perfectly tailored for each process environment. With superior equipment availability, easy operation, certified explosion protection and robust measurement technology with long maintenance cycles. When it comes to finding a clean solution, the whole world takes measurements with SICK. We think that’s intelligent. For more information please visit www.sick.com.au or call 1300 405 807.