Pace - Dec 2017 by Prime Creative Media

DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 | VOL.70 NO.6 | Est. 1953

Accurate Process Measurement with Calibrated Mass Flow Meters

As specifying engineers, whether you are looking for a mass flow meter for pure gases or mixed gases such as flare gas, biogas, or flue gas, you want to accurately measure your process. Why add uncertainty into your measurements by selecting a thermal flow meter that has been calibrated only in air then adjusted with a correction factor, when an actual fluid calibration is available?

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DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 | VOL.70 NO.6 | Est. 1953

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INSIDE PACE

Energy Management

Women in Industry

Internet of Things

Making a tri-generation plant work in an 11-building precinct

Making your mark in a male-dominated industry

A new industry body for the IoT

HOW AUSTRALIAN INNOVATION HELPED CRACK THE LUCRATIVE CHINESE MILK POWDER MARKET EXCLUSIVE:

One manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey through 50 years of the process control industry

CONTENTS

XXX

Managing Director: John Murphy Managing Editor: Syed Shah Editor: Mike Wheeler Ph: (02) 9439 7227 mike.wheeler@primecreative.com.au

IN THIS ISSUE

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26 Editor’s Comment 8 News 8

Process plant and rotating machine engineers need to work together to ensure a safe workplace

State of Industry 12

Internet of Things 26

PCA’s Adrian Smith talks about the changes he’s seen in his 50 years in the industry

PACE is owned by Prime Creative Media and published by John Murphy. All material in PACE is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information, Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published. The opinions expressed in PACE are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated.

Plant Security 14

Keeping networked plants and machines secure Energy Management 16

The technology behind the tri-gen plant in Sydney’s Central Park development

Manufacturing Solutions 18

Articles All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format.

Precision spraying solutions for the food & beverage manufacturing sector

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Zenith Awards Profile 20

How dual Zenith Award winner Matthews Australasia helped a company break into the Chinese powdered milk market

Sydney Office Suite 303, 1-9 Chandos Street, Saint Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia

Health and Safety 24

Women in Industry 22

BOC’s Michaela Craft is a high-flyer going places

Australia has a new IoT body, the IoTAA, and it can hardly keep pace with the interest shown in the market place Profile 28

Analytical product manager Dr Dion Houtman loves his job. He tells us why Case Study 30

How a plant upgrade helped extend a coal mine’s life Promotional Feature 34

Fluid Storage

New Products 36 Warehouse Automation 38

Why efficiency is the key to a good automated warehousing system

ON THE COVER

Entering the Chinese market

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DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 | VOL.70 NO.6 | Est. 1953

INSIDE PACE

Energy Management

Women in Industry

Internet of Things

Making a tri-generation plant work in an 11-building precinct

Making your mark in a male-dominated industry

A new industry body making its mark

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HOW AUSTRALIAN INNOVATION HELPED CRACK THE LUCRATIVE CHINESE MILK POWDER MARKET EXCLUSIVE:

One man’s journey through 50 years of the process control industry

4 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

A lot of companies that entered into this year’s Zenith Awards were offering a range of cutting-edge technologies. These companies also come up with innovative solutions to some tricky problems. One such company is Matthews Australasia, which was given the task of finding a traceability solution for a local dairy

company. The company was hoping to find its way into the Chinese milk powder market and needed a helping hand. Matthews was always confident it could find a solution. However, one of the main bugbears was an eight-week deadline. Matthews got to work. Find out how they went on page 20.

COMMENT

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

Mike Wheeler Editor

Meeting tomorrow’s challenges

LAST edition, I wrote about education and how it is important to the process engineering sector as we move forward, especially having a workforce that is capable and able to work in such a high-tech environment. Well-known physicist Dr Brian Cox recently brought up an interesting point on the ABC’s Q&A. People are worried about AI and how it is going to affect their jobs. He was blunt in his assessment – a lot of our jobs are going to disappear. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they will be replaced by other jobs. The problem is that these jobs will need highly qualified people. I bring this up, because there is an under-utilised

resource in the workplace – women. I spoke with industry high-flyer Michaela Craft from BOC who has won two industry awards this year, and is on the fast-track to bigger and greater things. She estimates that only 10 per cent of the women in her graduation class are at the coal face of process engineering. There are several reasons for this, not the least being a lack of female role models. However, Craft is confident that this is changing and is upbeat about not only her career, but that big business is starting to realise that the lack of women in this industry is something that needs to be addressed soon. Another great story in this issue

6 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

is about Matthews Australasia. Innovation is a word that is easily bandied around when explaining how well a company is doing and how they are leading the way in this or that facet of industry. However, when it comes to entering the lucrative Chinese market, innovation can be stretched to the limit as Matthews Australasia found out. A winner of two 2017 Zenith Awards, Matthews not only helped develop a cuttingedge traceability solution for a client, but it did so under the glare of strict Chinese government guidelines and an eight-week deadline. In this issue, we look at how it helped one of its clients achieve its goal.

Finally, we have a story on how Total Construction put together a tri-generation plant for a modern commercial development on the outskirts of Sydney’s CBD. The interesting part of the development was not only how the team managed to give the site an eclectic, modern feel, but also how it managed to design and engineer a cooling, heating and power generation system that encompasses the 11 buildings that make up the precinct. And to add to the attractiveness of the project, the system also saves the owner money as it not only generates power, but utilises a closed-loop system. Innovation at work, indeed. PACE

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NEWS

Storing lightning inside thunder

Dr Birgit Stiller and Moritz Merklein helped transfer information from the optical to the acoustic domain.

esearchers at the University of Sydney have slowed digital information carried as light waves by transferring the data into sound waves in an integrated circuit, or microchip. It is the first time this has been achieved. Transferring information from the optical to acoustic domain and back again inside a chip is critical for the development of photonic integrated circuits – microchips that use light instead of electrons to manage data. These chips are being developed for use in telecommunications, optical fibre networks and cloud computing data centres where traditional electronic devices are susceptible to electromagnetic interference, produce too much heat or use too much energy. “The information in our chip in acoustic form travels at a velocity five orders of magnitude slower than in the

optical domain,” said Dr Birgit Stiller, research fellow at the University of Sydney and supervisor of the project. “It is like the difference between thunder and lightning,” she said. This delay allows for the data to be briefly stored and managed inside the chip for processing, retrieval and further transmission as light waves. Light is an excellent carrier of information and is useful for taking data over long distances between continents through fibre-optic cables. But this speed advantage can become a nuisance when information is being processed in computers and telecommunication systems. To help solve these problems, lead authors Moritz Merklein and Stiller, both from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), have demonstrated a memory for digital information that

8 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

coherently transfers between light and sound waves on a photonic microchip. The chip was fabricated at the Australian National University’s Laser Physics Centre, also part of the CUDOS Centre of Excellence. “Building an acoustic buffer inside a chip improves our ability to control information by several orders of magnitude,” said Merklein. “Our system is not limited to a narrow bandwidth. Unlike previous systems this allows us to store and retrieve information at multiple wavelengths simultaneously, vastly increasing the efficiency of the device,” said Stiller. Fibre optics and the associated photonic information – data delivered by light – have huge advantages over electronic information. Bandwidth is increased, data travels at the speed of light and there is no heat associated with electronic resistance.

Photons, unlike electrons, are also immune to interference from electromagnetic radiation. However, the advantages of lightspeed data have their own in-built problem – you need to slow things down on a computer chip so that you can do something useful with the information. In traditional microchips this is done using electronics. But as computers and telecommunication systems become bigger and faster, the associated heat is making some systems unmanageable. The use of photonic chips – bypassing electronics – is one solution to this problem being pursued by large companies such as IBM and Intel. “For this to become a commercial reality, photonic data on the chip needs to be slowed down so that they can be processed, routed, stored and accessed,” said Merklein. PACE

NEWS

HMPS appoints new CEO

haun Westcott has been appointed CEO of robotics and automation specialist HMPS. Westcott is an experienced CEO who has developed and implemented strategies for growth in both commercial and operational roles. He brings with him a wealth of experience in leadership and development of multi-disciplined business and project teams using interpersonal and business skills to achieve performance in meeting business objectives. Past roles have included senior management and executive positions in renewable energy, forestry, mining and beverage manufacturing companies. He has an understanding of lean manufacturing and developing an integrated value chain.

“As our company keeps growing, we have identified a need for more systems and quality requirements that need to be met” says Mark Emmett, executive chairman of HMPS. “Shaun’s knowledge of operational procedures and his keen understanding of lean manufacturing is assisting us in streamlining our internal processes and offering customers a slicker and more professional HMPS experience.” Emmett, previously managing director of HMPS, has now assumed the role of executive chairman and will still be fully involved with the business. “I look forward to this new opportunity and the challenges it may bring as we continue to grow HMPS and our market share” says Westcott. PACE

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STATE OF INDUSTRY

Australia: short on expertise, excellent at absorbing technology Adrian Smith talks to Mike Wheeler on the reason there should be two internets, why making lathes and milling machines out of granite is a good thing, and how the PLC changed everything.

lant Control and Automation (PCA) founder Adrian Smith will celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary next year. Having moved from Tasmania to Sydney, and having had several different posts, Smith decided he could do a better job than those he was working for so he set up his own business. “When I first arrived, I worked in

factories and did maintenance jobs,” he said. “I realised that most maintenance was needed due to the wrong selection of product in the first place. It gave me inspiration to design stuff that was a lot better and didn’t need to be maintained. If only they’d spent a little bit more money and gone about it the right way, they wouldn’t have had maintenance problems.”

Adrian Smith’s interest in electronics started in Smithton High School in Tasmania in 1958.

12 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

While other kids were interested in the footie or other endeavours, Smith was busy getting to know electronics. And even among his boffin-like contemporaries, he was doing things a little different. “My interest in electronics started in Smithton High School in Tasmania in 1958, especially solid-state electronics. While all my friends were

playing with valves, I started playing with transistors,” he said. “The first transistor-based product I made was an amplifier for a crystal set radio.” Smith never gave up on his boyhood fascination with electronics, and transistors in particular. He has plenty of anecdotes about the customers he’s helped over the years. One of the more memorable ones was at a brewery where he helped fix a particularly annoying problem for production staff. “It was for Tooths Brewery on Broadway in Sydney,” said Smith. “They built a machine that was made partially of relays and partially of electronic equipment. It used to go crazy every so often and wipe out a pallet of beer. You can imagine a metal plate sheering through the bottom of the pallet. What a mess. It was a waterfall of beer going everywhere. “They asked me to fix it. I said ‘this is rubbish. It’s got to start from scratch’. And they said, ‘well okay then, you build one.’ I thought, ‘well this is a good opportunity to use transistors’. [Dutch electronics specialist] Phillips was introducing these modules called Norbis specifically for the industry. I sat down and played with a simulator and came up with some principles and then built the palletiser control. Then, I built about 25 more of them around Australia.” Fifty years is a long time in one industry and Smith as seen many trends come and go. One constant has been that although a lot of products have been developed in the US, those stateside rarely kick on with ideas on how to maximise their utilisation. PLCs and microprocessors are but two example that Smith cites as being invented in the US, but not developed to their full potential in that country. That was left up to the Europeans. Why is this? Smith isn’t too sure.

STATE OF INDUSTRY

“The microprocessor was developed in the US, but they were slow to use them for industrial purposes,” said Smith. “To get a foothold into the microprocessor market, Phillips bought [US-based] Signetics, which gave Phillips all the technology long before the rest of Europe. Then came along the PLC, which changed the whole world. It started in the US with the likes of Allen Bradley. The first PLC that I can recall was from Gould Monicon but they were popularised in Australia by Texas Instruments with their 4TI and 5TI. Then Europe got hold of the technology and away they went. The PLC has revolutionised industrial controls.” Having started his career when a computer would take up a whole room instead of a small space on your desk, Smith has become used to seeing one technology supersede another. And while he hasn’t always embraced change,

he does have a computer, a smartphone and surfs the Internet. However, there is one part of the technology that bothers him. “Technologies are being more diversified. And you’re seeing it in more places than you saw it before like the Internet. And there needs to be two Internets – one for business and another for the consumer. They’d be fussy about what goes onto the industrial one than the consumer one. Leave the consumer one for all the less important stuff,” he said. As for the future, Smith noted a couple of trends over the past 10-20 years that are a little cause for concern. First, he feels the industry is fragmented and there is little standardisation of products. This is being addressed by Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things, however he is not convinced it will work. The second is the lack of knowledge at the starting point of

One of PCA’s earliest successes was building a palletiser control for Tooths Brewery on Broadway on the outskirts of Sydney’s CBD.

PCA also was instrumental in making control boxes for a window washer cage on the AMP building in Sydney’s CBD circa 1978.

certain technologies. He feels that a lot of graduates are not knowledgeable about the core of the industry. Sure, they know how to replace parts and programme PLCs, but he feels they don’t know the basics of the technology that goes into the making of a PLC. “The fragmentation is good for the people supplying the equipment but bad for the factories overall,” he said. “From a service point of view we’re creating a nightmare for the factories. It happened with the railways years ago. All the British railways ran tracks with different gauges. Same as Australia. Every state had a railway with a different gauge. They didn’t have enough vision to think they were ever going to join up. There needs to be a consistent platform instead of every PLC manufacturer running his own ship. With modern technology, the more brains behind the technology are getting fewer and fewer as time goes on. There are plenty of graduates around, but they are not experts about the absolute core of the technology.” However, it’s not all bad news. Smith said that one of the key ingredients to the industry’s continued success is the ability of Australian companies to adapt to new technologies. “We absorb new technology faster than anybody else. Certainly faster than America. Even just as fast as Europe. The technological capability is here, but the market is not. That’s the way I look at it. So we have to be smart in how we manage that,” he said. Smith thinks Australians also need to think outside the square when it comes to the process and control industry. He told a story of a friend of his who worked and lived in Germany. One

day, the friend decided to leave the company he worked for and start his own business. He wasn’t surprised at his friend’s decision because he had always said he wanted to go out on his own. However, what did surprise him was the type of business he went into. “He starting making granite lathes and milling machines. They cost a fortune,” he said. “I said to him: ‘Why are you doing this’? It turns out granite is 100 percent stable. No expansion or contraction when heated or cooled. No movement. No warping with time. No lubricant except air. He uses them to make the precision machines that make the precision machines. There’s only a couple of places in the world that do it. So, the whole world depends on it. There are some very bits of specialised technology that the whole world uses the results thereof. The real heart of the technology is not very big. We could learn from that.” And the future? As mentioned, Smith is concerned about the lack of knowledge in the basics of some instrumentation, but said this might see a regeneration of specialists starting from scratch. “We’ll be going back to some extent,” he said. “Buying standard products and putting them together to achieve a result is one thing, but you can still do it better if you start from scratch and design from the floor up. I think we are going to see products that are being made smaller and smaller. This is because product designers are taking advantage of new technology and redesigning. You’ll see more products that are designed for more dedicated uses and not so general purposes.” PACE

DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.pacetoday.com.au 13

PLANT SECURITY

The challenge of security for networked plants and machines With a proliferation of connected devices, plant managers need to ensure their networked plants and machines are not compromised. Andreas Fuß from Phoenix Contact weighs up the options.

ver the next decade the majority of plants and machines in production networks will be networked as part of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In order to ensure data and service consistency, production networks in turn will be connected with company-wide networks (office systems) and then connected with the Internet. The number of production networks connected in this way will continue to grow. Although this kind of development opens up a number of opportunities, ensuring access protection for complexly networked plants and machines poses great challenges to operators in terms of IT security, which is known within the industry as ICS (industrial control system) security. Production-related data streams are reduced to a defined volume and machines and plants are consequently protected through the application of known best-practice methods. This includes creating a security architecture in keeping with the Defense in Depth principle, in accordance with ISA99 and IEC 62443. Meanwhile, ensuring maintenance and programming access to these kinds of systems represents a special task in and of itself.

Dial-in nodes pose a significant security risk

As is the case with the onion approach to IT security, implementing the Defense in Depth concept for security architecture involves constructing several network security layers that are protected from one another through access restrictions. The outermost layer is connected with the Internet and thereby represents the least reliable level. These levels are also known as “trust levels”; the trust level increases

with each successive network layer. This means that the heart of the “network onion” consists of systems that require an especially high level of protection – in production networks, these are the machines and plants plus their components. These systems are protected by constructing invisible subnetworks through NAT (network address translation), masquerading, and setting access restrictions that only permit data streams that are absolutely necessary for manufacturing. In order to carry out service and maintenance tasks, the corresponding employees at the operating company, as well as the mechanical manufacturer’s external service technicians, need to receive access to these specially protected network areas. In the past, they could often dial up access to them through their own nodes. Dial-up nodes that are directly accessible through the phone network pose a significant security risk. This is because the dialer can access the entire network and usually doesn’t have to go through any authentication process to access the systems connected to it. Nowadays, this outdated technological setup is often replaced by popular VPN remote maintenance access.

Setting up a service network

The solutions described above enable identity verification of the persons authorised for access as well as encrypted data transmission. However, individuals with access rights still have free access to the protected network. Also, encryption prevents machine operators from gaining any insight into the data, which means they have no control over the data. As a result, damaging events cannot be traced. A further problem resulting from this concept is that each machine manufacturer would like to use their own preferred remote access

14 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

system. This results in heterogeneous, unmanageable IT landscapes. It also means that VPN remote maintenance access does not solve the issue of providing the operator’s service technicians with controlled, authenticated access. If the internal service employees are granted extensive access rights to the plants and machines, the security level drops. Because of this, corresponding access should always be reduced to the minimum necessary level. One way of doing so is setting up a separate, isolated network zone (a service network) to hand over, or

route service connections. In the IT sector, this type of network zone is also known as a demilitarised zone.

Control over all service connections

There are several products available that can fulfil this task, This includes the FL mGuard product range of products, which are suitable for industrial applications and protects individual manufacturing cells. They also enable service network zones to be constructed. The service network is ideally located on the level of the production network. Both networks

PLANT SECURITY

Andreas Fuß believes setting up a demilitarised zone is key to a good plant security system.

cells. A key switch that controls the security appliances via the integrated digital I/Os can be used for this. Alternatively, machine operators can use an HMI device that communicates internal network events. This method allows operators to control possible service connections at all times. Firewall rules within the VPN connections can determine authorised service access. If the use of VPN connections in the internal networks is prohibited, the GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) tunnel function and conditional firewall (or the changeable firewall rule sets) provide the same functionality.

Activation of dynamic firewall rules

are separated and isolated from one another by the security appliances. This product also acts as an access point for the individual networks of the production cells. These networks

are transparently integrated into the service network via VPN connections. Corresponding service connections based on VPN can be built on top of and dismantled from the production

The machine manufacturer’s external service technicians are connected to the service network zone via VPN. Phoenix Contact also offers suitable solutions for this application, with the FL mGuard Secure VPN Client or the FL mGuard Smart2 VPN. The machine operator’s technicians can also

be connected via VPN connections or direct network access. All access can be configured in such a way that the respective technician needs to be authorised via the user firewall of the security appliances. This process opens up the opportunity to activate dynamic firewall rules for defined users. These rules apply to IP addresses that are used for authentication. In this way, each technician is only permitted certain access, which means that a multi-level security concept can be created. If the operator accepts the VPN solutions preferred by the machine manufacturer, the corresponding end devices should be placed within the service network zone. Providing service access to plants and machines opens up advantages to operators, but also entails large challenges in terms of access security. The right strategies and special technologies allow operators to master these challenges and thereby reduce maintenance costs while increasing availability. PACE

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ENERGY MANAGEMENT

A complex system that runs smoothly Central Park’s CTP and tri-gen facility not only has a plethora of practical considerations, but also saves the owners money. Mike Wheeler explains.

ike its namesake in New York, Central Park in Broadway, Sydney is a green recreational area surrounded by buildings. Also like the one in the United States,

Sydney’s version is surrounded by a diverse bunch of structures instead of a series of bland, similar-looking edifices. This was done on purpose, said Total Construction’s general manager for

The brewery’s old chimney not only gave the precinct its character, but also ended up having a practical use.

16 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

renewable energies James Bolton. “The developers decided that each building would be designed by different architects,” he said. A uniform look wasn’t what the developer was after. And it works. From the hovering cantilever of One Central Park to the heritage-listed Old Kent St Brewery, the developments catches the imagination of most passers-by. Total Construction was responsible for building the project’s Central Thermal Plant (CTP) and tri-generation facility, which supplies the heating and cooling needs to the 11 buildings that make up the development. The plant provides hot water for spatial heating and domestic consumption, chilled water for spatial cooling, as well as generating electricity. The main components are boilers for hot water, chillers for chilled water and the tri-gen plant that is fired by natural gas to produce the electricity. The buildings have Energy Transfer Stations (ETS), which is a fancy name for a group of heat exchangers. A software programme monitors the different aspects of the plant, including its tri-generation. This tells Enwave Energy’s operation manager, Atiq Rehman, whose company was responsible for developing the project, and his staff what is happening inside the building at all times. When you delve into the depths of the CTP and tri-gen facility under the old brewery it’s easy to become over-awed at the labyrinth of wiring, pumps, transformers, engines and seven kilometres of piping that make the buildings hum. It looks like a logistical nightmare, unless you’re somebody like Bolton or Rehman. To them it is all pretty straight forward. Even so, it takes going underground to visit the home of the tri-gen plant to truly appreciate the effort and engineering that has gone into making it work. The last building in the development

is expected to be completed by mid 2018. By that time the tri-gen plant would have been running for five years. There have been no mishaps since it started – not surprising when taking into account the amount of detail and considerations that went into having it built. “Since operations began in 2013 there have been no major issues,” said Rehman. “The plant does have some redundancy, which means you can switch loads to different boards. The plant is also N-1 rated, which means there is always a piece of kit that sits there as a backup if anything goes wrong. It gives us breathing space if we are ever off-line.” While the plant has some built-in fail safes, there were some interesting moments during the build. As well as constructing new buildings, the aforementioned Old Kent Street Brewery had to be retained due to its heritage status. There’s nothing like the restoration of an old building to add to the aesthetics of a project, and there was one stand out feature that made the architects salivate – the brewery’s old chimney. An iconic piece of architecture that not only gave the precinct its character, but also ended up having a practical use – albeit leaving the builders with their hearts in their mouths. “We wanted to use the chimney as a chimney,” said Bolton. “However, when we started getting into the technicalities, we thought, ‘Yeah, we’ll put hot gas at the bottom. Nice and simple – stick it in the bottom and off she goes’. But that brought another set of issues. For example, the engines aren’t running all the time. It’s a very old chimney that is going to be heating and cooling all the time. Is it going to start cracking the bricks? The gases inside there can be nasty. They can be acidic. Is it going to erode the bricks?” The solution was one that was not

ENERGY MANAGEMENT

The CTP and tri-gen facility under the old brewery is a labyrinth of wiring, pumps, transformers, engines and seven kilometres of piping. only ingenious but tricky due to the mechanics of the situation. “In the end we ended up building a 55-metre stainless-steel flue for the chimney,” said Bolton. “We first dropped in a seven-metre section through the chimney that was bolted to the foundation. We then had to drop in another 48-metre piece down the centre of the chimney from the top to finish it off . There were only a couple of centimetres of play between the pipe and the internal edge of the chimney. ” It took two days for the job to be completed. Good weather, hard work and a little bit of luck meant the operation went well. Another issue that came up was the placement of two engines in the basement of the main building. These engines were a sophisticated piece of German engineering designed to drive the tri-gen plant. “There was a massive concrete lid that opened up to the basement and we had to drop the engines in there,” said Bolton. “The issue was that the first engine had already been ordered prior to our involvement with the project. The client’s engineer had designed the size of the hole, which was already in place. Then we came along and said, ‘Is the engine going to fit through that hole?’ We went and measured the engine and checked the drawing and

we realised it wasn’t going to fit. The engine was too long. As it turned out we ended up cutting the engine and dropping it in the hole and then putting it back together. We went to put in a second engine in the same hole and we knew we were going to have the same problem. We went back to the engine manufacturer and asked them to cut the engine so we could take it apart and put it back together. They said no. So we had to do the same thing again.” The chimney piping installation and engine-fitting issues aside, there were moments when they had to do testing of the plant itself, which was an anxious time, too. “We had a number of scenarios we had to test,” said Bolton. “A couple of interesting ones were black start tests. We basically had to shut the power off – the whole place – and see if our diesel generator kicked in. There was a 30-second pause and we’re all standing there looking at each other hoping it would kick in. And it did. It was a long 30 seconds.” The last piece of the tri-gen puzzle is the electricity that helps run the plant. The system they set up not only provided electricity to the buildings, but generated power, too. “With the electricity, we take high voltage – which is 11,000V – from the national grid,” said Bolton. “We

bring that into a high-voltage main switchboard and from there we bring it into a number of transformers. From that we step the voltage down from 11,000V to 415V, three-phase, and we then use that electricity to power equipment within the plant – the pumps, boilers and chillers. We generate power with the engine at 11,000V and that goes into the high-voltage main switchboard. We consume less electricity from the grid because we are generating our own power.” Because it is such a big project,

it was important that every aspect was synchronised and worked well together. This was also important for the maintenance of a lot of plant. Rehman said that all aspects of the plant were part of an asset management/maintenance system called Maximo. A lot of the instruments and plant have fixed maintenance plans that kick in either after a certain number of hours, weeks or months. Timing is also key when maintaining plant. “Sometimes it is better to do aspects in winter. Chilled water for example,” said Rehman. “Nobody uses the chilled water in winter. There’s no load so it’s the best to do it then. In summer, it’s best to do the heat pumps because there is less load then.” A side effect of the tri-gen plant set up was money savings for the owners of the buildings. Because it is a closed loop system, water is used to both heat and cool the buildings. This means other than the cooling towers of the CTP, no water is needed, with the exception of slight evaporation, to make the system work. With the completion date of Central Park in sight, Total Construction and its partners are proud of what they have achieved. And so they should be. Sorting out a plethora of plant that not only supplies cooling and heating to buildings, but also does it efficiently, is no easy task. At the end of the day, tenants have a highly efficient air-conditioning system that is also eco-friendly. And looking at the Central Park precinct as a whole, the tri-gen plant fits in nicely. PACE

DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.pacetoday.com.au 17

MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS

Providing spray technology solutions to meet individual needs Getting a system that delivers accurate and precise coatings on baked goods shouldn’t be too hard, should it? According to Spraying Systems it’s not. PACE explains.

hen it comes to food processing, precision is key. From the obvious – making sure the ingredients are measured correctly, that health standards are met and getting to market on time, through to the more intricate details like making sure the exact amount of glaze is added to a bun or loaf of bread. These details can be the difference between making a product attractive to consumers or something less appealing. Spraying Systems sees the bigger picture, which is why it sees itself as a provider of individual solutions to a variety of food and beverage processing companies. It specialises in building systems designed to accurately distribute coatings over various products – it not only produces the nozzles to make this happen, but can build a system to suit a company’s individual needs.

One such system is the AutoJet Glaze Spray System, which was developed by the AutoJet division of the company. Danny Spasenoski, a mechanical project engineer for the company, helped design the system for a client that is in the food industry. Why was it built? More out of necessity than anything, according to Spasenoski. “It was created due to the fact that other systems used for glazing applications were riddled with issues such as misting and overspray,” he said. “Many of the companies could not supply a means to accurately and efficiently coat with glazes.” Like any piece of precise engineering, it’s all about performance. And with any product developed for such precision, there are challenges that needed to be overcome. The client was very clear on what they wanted, and it was up to

The system had to be able to run for eight hours continuously without any issues such as nozzle blockages.

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Spasenoski and his team to get it right. “Our customer advised us of the performance requirements, which included that the system had to be able to run for eight hours continuously without any issues such as nozzle blockages,” he said. Nozzle blockages are a common issue in many bakeries as they are often using the wrong type of nozzles or operating their nozzles incorrectly. This contributes to system downtime, loss of production and an increase in operating costs. Spasenoski ran a trial at the AutoJet workshop whereby he ran a single nozzle continuously for eight hours to simulate how it would run onsite. The results were positive and after he sent the results to the customer, they were more than happy to sign off on the order. There were several other aspects that needed to be taken into consideration

before the system was ready for the client. This included setting up the software to make sure it could meet the strict specifications that the client required. It also meant that each batch of food being produced was able to have its own set points – such as spray time, delay time and configurations of the products being sprayed and the amount of liquid that needs to be applied. A key to the accuracy was the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). “With standard spray nozzles, you would adjust the pressure in order to vary the flow rate. The issue with this is by changing the pressure, you are also altering the coverage of the nozzles, which can cause overspray and underspray issues. Using PWM, we were able to spray at a constant pressure while varying the duty cycle of the spray nozzle,” said Spasenoski.

MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS

“For example, if we are running at two litres per minute, and we need to run at one litre per minute, the spray nozzles ran at 50 per cent duty cycle. This is really easy for the operators because they don’t have to change the individual settings, which are stored. They just have to change which batch is running on the main screen – everything else is automatically adjusted to suit that batch.” Spasenoski is eager to point out that it is different from other companies that offer products for the food and beverage industry. “We provide more than just nozzles,” said Spasenoski. “We are able to design complete and customautomated systems to suit various applications. “The AutoJet Division that I am a part of designs, assembles and tests all systems in-house. Also, it is important to realise that all of the critical screens are password protected to ensure that only the required people have access to the system’s set points. This prevents

Mechanical project engineer Danny Spasenoski says Spraying Systems can design almost any system to a customer’s specifications. any unnecessary errors and potential downtime that may be caused if an unauthorised person decides to fiddle around with the settings. “Every customer is different

therefore we don’t supply systems with a fixed number of nozzles. We always customise the systems to suit each individual application and how many nozzles they require.” PACE

SMC Australia | New Zealand

Precise Control for Peace-of-mind You can’t control the weather, but you can control this… While many things will leave you tossing and turning in the night, peace-of-mind from SMC comes as a given. Nobody has mastered the art of precision quite like the Japanese. So it makes sense to partner with SMC in ensuring precise and accurate temperature control when working with heat generating devices in your production environment. Keep cool and let us handle the heat by maintaining the temperature within strict limits thanks our smart range of thermo-chillers – allowing for proactive control, improved performance and reliability and is backed by world-class, worldwide support. Meet SMC’s general purpose, compact chilling hero: • Simple operation with self-diagnosis and check display function • HRS: 9 kW cooling capacity • HRS: 0.5c +- temperature stability *Various series available to meet application demands Streamline your production with one supplier to meet all of your requirements! Contact us to request your SMC catalogue: AU – 1800 763 862 or AUSales@smcanz.com NZ – 0800 1320 762 or NZSales@smcanz.com

DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.pacetoday.com.au 19

ZENITH AWARDS

Quick turnaround helped open up Chinese market Matthews Australasia won two gongs at PACE’s Zenith Awards including Best Network Implementation. PACE looks at the story behind the award.

elamine is a substance that, when combined with formaldehyde, forms melamine resin, which is used in laminates that include flooring, Formica and dinnerware. It is toxic enough that chronic exposure to humans via ingestion might cause cancers as well as damage to the human reproductive system. It is a substance that has no place in the food chain and when it does, can have catastrophic results. In 2008, distributors in China were found to have added melamine to baby formula, which resulted in the deaths of six babies and the hospitalisation of more than 54,000 others. The resulting inquiry by Chinese authorities led to prison for some perpetrators and, in the most severe cases, two death sentences. It also had a huge effect internationally on China’s reputation as a food stuffs manufacturer.

With this as background, it was of no surprise that when Camperdown Dairy International decided to enter the Chinese milk powder market it needed to make sure it had the best available advice and practices to export to an ever-growing and lucrative market. In order to get a Certification and Accreditation Administration of China (CNCA) certificate to send their product overseas, Camperdown Dairy International needed to put excellent traceability and authentication processes in place. All within an eight-week period. It turned to the family-owned, Australian product ID, inspection and traceability specialist, Matthews Australasia. “Camperdown went to market looking for an identification/ traceability company that could support them,” said Matthews Australasia CEO Mark Dingley. “They

Camperdown Dairy International and Matthews Australasia worked on an all-encompassing solution, said Matthews CEO Mark Dingley. 20 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

were looking to get into the Chinese market for nutritionals, mainly infant formula. At that stage they were a new business looking for a company that could support them based on the requirements of the CNCA Chinese licence requirements, which required traceability.” To help Camperdown get over the line in the tight timeframe, the companies shared the risk in a partnering spirit rather than Matthews working just as an “arms-length” equipment supplier. This meant deciding together what was needed to meet the standards that the Chinese authorities had put in place. Matthews Australasia offers hardware and software solutions in the automation and process control space. A key ingredient for Camperdown was traceability and the ability for consumers to know that the product they were buying was not only what

it said it was on the labelling, but the knowledge they were buying something that hadn’t been tampered with on the way to the shop’s shelves. Matthews developed the solution by using a cloud-based platform that provided advanced cryptographic code-generation and a fraud-tracking algorithms, as well as a consumerinterface to track where the product was scanned. The solution used a Matthews’s Solaris laser to mark each tin with a unique, serialised QR code, generated by the cloud-based provider. Matthews’s production-line software, iDSnet, integrated with the code provider and the Solaris laser scribing system on the production line, provides the customer with an end-to-end solution. “We were in constant contact with Camperdown,” said Dingley. “In particular on the ability to package and do the laser marking on the tins, as well as the software solution. We partnered with a company called Trust Codes, which allowed us to do the cloud-based authenticity aspect of the project.” One of the biggest challenges was the aforementioned turnaround time. “It was a short lead time because once Camperdown had gained Chinese Government accreditation, they couldn’t manufacture without this solution, so the timeframes were challenging and everyone was under a lot of pressure,” said Dingley. “However, we worked very well together to get a solution that has really set Camperdown up as they launched the business in China and other parts of the world. It was an incredible turn around to go from concept to inline printing and validation of the codes. What set us apart was that we were a one-stop-shop

ZENITH AWARDS

Traceability was a key ingredient to get Chinese certification for milk powder.

and we were able to effectively go from concept to live production within eight weeks.” One of the immediate problems they came up against was how the system could be integrated so that consumers could easily use it. China has some strict regulations about social media, which was seen as the ideal platform. However, although the likes

of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are subject to the local censorship laws, China has its own social media outlet called WeChat, which has an inbuilt QR code reader. Using smartphones, consumers in China can scan the QR codes via WeChat on individual formula tins to identify and authenticate the individual product and see its history. Scanned information also shows key data about the company and brand, Australian dairy products, and how best to consume the product. A couple of key outcomes for Matthews were that it showed that they could turn around a solution very quickly and also where the iDSnet software product was heading over the next few years. “This project challenged us on a number of levels in a positive way,” said Dingley. “It gave us an insight as to where our software is going in the future, which is around that trackand-trace authenticity that is required with FMCG manufacturers as they look to export into Asia, and China

in particular. This is especially true if it is food or baby formula where there is a high demand for anti-counterfeit, traceability and authenticity solutions. It certainly set up our software and integration with our hardware and customer interfaces to provide that full solution that we know our customers are looking for.” Matthews owns the intellectual property for iDSnet. The software is now in more than 200 companies across Australia. Its capabilities include things as simple as central management of date code formats, through to running multiple production lines across several sites, through to what this project encapsulated, which was a serialisation solution to manage the Chinese regulations and provide an anti-counterfeit solution. How hard was it to get past the Chinese regulations and find the right solution? “The Chinese CNCA guidelines spell out quite clearly the requirements,” said Dingley. “It’s not a case of demonstrating a solution. It’s a case of anyone that has a CNCA

requirement – like nutritionals or baby formula – needs to comply to it. Yes, you have to state the compliance level but the compliance is only brought into question if and when you need to use it. There is a level of selfregulating as well as providing Chinese authorities with enough details to demonstrate that the traceability regulations are in place.” Overall, Dingley said the company has found the experience to be a positive one. Not only has it given them a Zenith Award for Best Network Implementation, but also opened up other opportunities. “Absolutely we’ve had other work as a result of this project,” said Dingley. “Matthews’ strength is in that connectivity between the production line and the hardware and the actual coding. Our experience on the production line, together with our in-house software capabilities, provides us that unique joining of the two. From a package code management point of view, it is quite unique in Australia.” PACE

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DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.pacetoday.com.au 21

Young up and comer says gender no barrier to ambition

Michaela Craft is not only young, but she’s making great strides in a heavily male-dominated industry. Mike Wheeler talks to her about why there is a dearth of women in the engineering sector, her future plans and why mentors are important.

ichaela Craft has had a big 2017. In June she won the Rising Star of the Year award at the Women in Industry Awards and followed that up with the Young Achiever of the Year award at PACE’s Zenith Awards in August. And to cap off the trifecta, she and husband Luke have found that they are expecting their first child in March 2018. At a time when a majority of men and women are getting married in their early 30s, and starting a family later still, the 26-year-old Craft sticks out from her millennial contemporaries. And it’s just not on the domestic front – she entered an industry that is heavily dominated by males. Graduating with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering in 2012, Craft set off to forge a career first with Mars Foods and then BOC where she is currently the RSP energy manager. Why chemical engineering? “The main reason I entered the field is that I was always better at maths and science,” she said. “Those subjects came a lot easier to me than English. My older sister is also a mechanical engineer so when she started studying engineering I took a strong interest in it. It’s one of the career choices I considered and the logical approach to problem solving – a fundamental part of engineering – really resonated with me.” After graduating, Craft started her first job at Mars Food Australia as a process engineer before heading over to the BOC operations team. However, a spot opened up in BOC’s energy team, which suited Craft as she was interested in how Australia’s energy market worked. “The energy team at BOC crosses over very strongly with the operations team,” she said. “There was a vacancy

Michaela Craft became a member of BOC’s energy team after being interested in how Australia’s energy market worked.

in the energy team so I stepped across as I was really interested in learning how the energy markets in Australia and New Zealand operated. I thought I would enjoy the challenge of managing the flexibility of the site operations to minimise energy costs, without impacting other areas of the business – and this can often be a very fine balance.” One of Craft’s mentors, RJ van Tonder, who is the general manager of procurement at BOC, said that Craft is a natural fit for the role. “Michaela is very clear and logical in her analysis and suggestions,” he said. “She always puts forward compelling arguments. Her ability to convey or influence decisions

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in an often unpredictable market is very good. It provides the confidence that management needs in the administration of a volatile commodity such as energy.” Craft loves her job, but one thing she did mention during her winning speech at the Zenith awards was the lack of women engineers in the workforce. Craft doesn’t pretend she has the answers but puts forward a couple of ideas. One for why female graduates are not coming through and the other as to why some might find it hard to kick on once they are in the industry. “Female engineering graduates made up about 45 per cent of my class, but when I stepped into the

workplace they only seem to make up about 10 per cent of those in the workforce,” she said. “It seemed that a lot of my female engineering friends have stepped more into management consulting or management roles rather than a strictly design engineering field.” Then there is the lack of female role models in the workplace. Craft points out that this is not necessarily the fault of the companies themselves and in the case of BOC, she says that although the management team is male dominated, they are making inroads. “There are not a lot of senior female engineers within the company,” she said. “If you look at our top 50 senior leadership team,

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Michaela Craft said that having mentors has been essential in the development of her career. a majority are male. Our MD is male, all our directors are male but in saying that they realise this and they’re trying to encourage women in industry to reach their potential.” And with a family addition expected in the new year, the managers have been very supportive of her. Which is great, she said, because she is very career focused and doesn’t see the role of stay-athome-mum as being one she will be embracing any time soon. “BOC has a really good paternity scheme whereby they are encouraging women to stay in the organisation even when they are going to have children,” she said. “My managers have always been extremely supportive of me. My mum was an amazing stay-home mum but sacrificed a lot to do that role, so that’s not really something I see myself pursuing. Currently, I plan to return to work full time as I want to continue to develop my career. I would really enjoy going into a role where I’m managing others. I’m quite young at 26 and it’s a scary thing to think I have to step away for six or 12 months. However, I definitely think

I can step back in and continue the career ladder, especially when the workplace is supportive.” Mentoring is also big on Craft’s radar. Van Tonder says that while Craft operates largely independently he understands it is an important role to play. “It’s pretty clear there’s not much in additional subject matter expertise I can offer,” he said. “However, when it comes to the process I make sure we don’t run into roadblocks when we get very close to execution points. Occasionally, I might offer an opinion on redirecting Michaela’s energy or just help plan for three steps ahead rather than the next phone call. This is something she is really open to and responds to really well.” Van Tonder says the scope of Craft’s work is substantial and that she deals with general managers and directors of the company on a regular basis. He’s also impressed by what she has learned over the past 12 months in what has been a steep learning curve. He has also been struck how not only does Craft stick to her guns over certain issues, but also listens to others and is at home talking to

both contemporaries and those in the higher echelons of management. She also isn’t scared to bring new ideas to the table. “For example, one of the things that she has driven this year is the establishment of differing contracting methods for energy in our business,” said van Tonder. “This has been due to a direct response of how she’s viewed the market. Michaela kept in touch with some of the best practices so that we could execute these changes internally. And to do this she needed to have direct conversations with directors and GMs. It’s not just about the one big change she has done but it is an example of how she has come into the role and really pushed to change the way we approach energy.” Having been in the workforce for almost five years, Craft has no regrets about her chosen profession. She loves the challenge and the support she gets. And as a person at the cutting edge of a career that hasn’t attracted great numbers of women in the past, what is her advice to those who are thinking about entering the profession? “My best advice is to go out and

say what you think,” she said. “Get the information you need and really step up into that role that they have offered – you are there for a reason. My second piece of advice is to find a good mentor, whether they are male or female. Both my mentors have been males but they have been really strong in helping me assess situations. One of the best things I’ve discovered is having a strong mentor can make your career path so much easier because they can recognise situations and give you a different point of view, usually this comes from their own experiences. I think when starting out that is the first thing I would get – a mentor to provide that support. “Also get a group of young people around you. At BOC, I wasn’t a graduate however I do get involved in some of the graduate activities. Having grad group activities helped understand where other people are at and what is achievable and what is not. Sometimes you can have unrealistic expectations, which leads to unnecessary disappointment. To have that support network is really, really important.” PACE www.womeninindustry.com.au

DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.pacetoday.com.au 23

HEALTH AND SAFETY

A common approach to improve safety Process plant and rotating machine engineers can learn from each other when it comes to plant safety. Andy Kennard from Emerson explains to PACE why this is important to improve plant safety.

lant machinery and safety considerations are key components when it comes to the day-to-day running of an engineering or manufacturing enterprise. Continual improvement is something a lot of companies strive to reach. However, with some safety aspects there are sometimes different approaches, especially when it comes to process plant safety versus rotating machine safety. The issue is not lost on Emerson’s senior sales manager Andy Kennard, who spends a lot of his time on plant safety issues and the differences between how process engineers and rotating machine specialists see their roles So what is the difference between the two? “Process plant safety is typically about gas explosions and hazardous areas, concerns like that,” said Kennard. “That’s typically handled by a safety instrument system (SIS). Whereas rotating machines are usually handled by the reliability people – so compressors, big fans, turbo machinery. And if that machinery goes off the rails you have tons of steel rotating at thousands of RPM that can cause massive damage. In both cases where failure occurs, there is severe physical impact, cost and production impact, as well a safety impact.” Both sets of engineers can help each other, which is especially true when it comes to predictive maintenance and having to shut down plant – a course of action that can sometimes be avoided. “Reliability engineers have traditionally understood the importance of condition-based monitoring or predictive diagnostics,” said Kennard. “That’s what they do for a living. Process control people

Reliability engineers have always understood the importance of condition-based monitoring. should be able to learn from that and think: ‘I don’t have to shut the plant down’. If they’re smart about this, and use the predictive diagnostics that are now available in technology like smart devices, they can avoid false trips. When there is a real issue they need to shut the plant down. But if they’ve just got a faulty sensor, this shouldn’t happen.” And sometimes it is something as simple as a faulty sensor that can cause an issue. Kennard cannot

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reiterate enough the importance of safety in plant, but also believes a common sense approach is needed. Plant shutdowns, due to false readings or sensors not doing their job properly, is something that is not only common, but costs a lot of money to the company involved. “Some [process engineers] say, ‘if any doubt, shut down. That is the whole point of the safety system. It must be separate from the control system’. You can understand the

mindset of plant managers,” said Kennard. “It’s always got to be failsafe because they think ‘if one of my instruments is faulty what can I do about it anyway? I just have to assume the worst case because I don’t really know if that instrument is really faulty, or is it a genuine trip’. However, it’s all about what smart devices can do for you. In the process control world people don’t always think in the reliability sense. But the rotating machine engineers do.”

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Plant shutdowns, due to false readings or sensors not doing their job properly, is something that costs a lot of money. Kennard gives the example of how its smart safety system, DeltaV SIS, might give users information twice on the same signal and how this can assist process engineers to make a more informed decision on whether to shut down plant or not. “It might give you a traditional analogue 4-20 signal that tells you the pressure,” said Kennard. “Equally, it sends a digital signal at the same time telling the engineer what the pressure is. And process engineers think ‘Well, they’re always going to be the same aren’t they?’ Well, no, they’re not. This is often a cause for unnecessary trips. What can happen in the 4-20 scenario is that there might be a bit of earth leakage, or a dodgy connection. The current can be limited by the earth leakage. Some of the current will leak off somewhere else. If the temperature is at 75 per cent of maximum, it might only read it at 50 per cent thus incorrectly suggesting that things are safe. But the digital signal is not affected by things like earth leakage. It will give you the correct signal.” Kennard said that smart sensors and the signals they send – along with

the right analytical software – can help, especially if a sensor is giving a false reading. This means managers wouldn’t automatically make the decision to shut a plant down. They could flag it to an operator that maybe there is something wrong and they shouldn’t trust the signal. Perhaps if the engineer doesn’t hear from the operator, they shut the plant down. There is a lot of extra data and information and the analytics that go with it that allow people to take a view about safety that still maintains safety, or even improves it, but at the same time helps the availability by avoiding false trips. It gives process engineers more confidence in the safety system. Emerson’s process control safety system – not the machine safety system – does exactly that. It uses the smarts inside smart devices to both warn when there is a false negative and keeps the plant running, or potentially allows you to keep the plant running. It also does this extra safety check when you don’t trust the 4-20 milliamp signal because perhaps there’s an earth leakage there. It just utilises the smarts inside the smart devices.

“If any doubt, shut down. That is the whole point of the safety system. It must be separate from the control system” Kennard is at pains to point out, that while all this is designed to improve availability while ensuring plant is run safely, there is also an environmental aspect that needs to be taken into consideration. “If a plant is closed down, things can solidify in the processes and that leads to environmental problems,” he said. “You have all this waste product. For example, when you look at a gas or chemical plant and shut it down, it doesn’t stop running – you might have to flare the gas. So it impacts environments as well as production and safety.” Kennard said it not a case of engineers trying to protect their own territory. Ideally everybody will work together to get the best safety outcome for the plant and the people who work in it. If that can save money and take into account

environmental concerns, then that is a great outcome all around. “Trying to get both sides of the issue together should be easy,” he said. “They don’t need to be scared about this. Their aims are similar but they are approaching it from a different point of view. One says it is a safety issue based on reliability. The other says it’s a safety issue based on production. Well both are true. It’s two very different worlds. You rarely hear of the discussions between these people even in the same room. “If you had to frame the discussion it would be something like this – these guys have more in common than they think even though they have completely different departments in completely different buildings. They’ve both got the same aim and could learn from each other.” PACE

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INTERNET OF THINGS

Runaway train designed to keep Australia competitive Frank Zeichner and a couple of friends decided Australia needed to step up to the challenge of the IoT. Thus the IoTAA was born. Mike Wheeler explains.

desire to keep Australia competitive on the global landscape was the motivation for Frank Zeichner and his colleagues to form the Internet of Things Alliance Australia (IoTAA). An organisation held together mainly by volunteers, CEO Zeichner says the reaction to the relatively new industry body over the past 24 months has been amazing. “It’s an utter runaway train,” said Zeichner from his office in Broadway, Sydney. “It is ridiculous. Our biggest problem is how do we scale it. We have 350 organisations involved and we are growing at 5 per cent per month. When we incorporated as a non-for-profit in July 2015 we had 150 members.” Zeichner and his colleagues realised Rome wasn’t built in a day so decided to concentrate on certain aspects of the IoT in order to not only prioritise, but strategise with some key industries. This included the food, electricity, manufacturing and transport arenas.

“We identified a whole lot of things that were working overseas but were not necessarily in place here,” said Zeichner. “The key was that the IoT is a broad range of technologies that enable an amazing capability for collecting and sharing, processing and actuating. That requires a lot of collaboration between parties because very few, if any, can do it all. It needs a lot of collaboration between the people who understand how to use the technology and the people who need to use it.” Zeichner uses the term collaboration quite a bit during the interview. It’s an important part of the IoT development, but something he believes that Australians are not that good at for a variety of reasons. This includes factors such as the continent being isolated from the rest of the world, and, for a long time, relying on its own ingenuity and know-how to get things done. Now, with such a connected world, Australia needs, not so much to get rid of that mindset, but readjust it to encompass the

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digitisation and changing environment going on around it. “There is a time to hop on board and a time not to,” said Zeichner. “What I’m seeing internationally is that there’s a greater expectation and urgency in these overseas countries than there is here in Australia. To some degree I think it is because we don’t have as much competition in Australia as overseas. This is especially true for the bigger companies that don’t quite have the same amount of competition and don’t feel the urge to change. I think that the fact that Amazon has come here has put the wind up people. Waiting to be gazumped by people who have worked it out already is not a good way to go for Australia. We can be just as nimble and just as smart. None of it is rocket science. But it does require a tremendous amount of collaboration.” Then there is the issue of standards. With all these devices talking together they all need to be on the same page, right? Well, yes and no, said Zeichner. It’s important to prioritise what is

needed to be put in place. And while standardisation is part of the equation, there is a way things need to be done for an orderly adoption of these technologies to come about. “The issue is not so much about the standards, it’s about the alignment of requirements of platforms and interoperability,” said Zeichner. “We found that people have not thought about what they are trying to do and what sort of data they need to try and do it. Then we start talking about the platforms and interoperability and standards. So there is a pecking order and what some people are doing is coming in from the middle and they’re trying to solve interoperability problems without knowing what they are trying to fix. Sometimes they can’t see the wood for the trees. We need to sort these problems out and then standards are a secondary issue.” At a recent meeting on smart cities that was also attended by the City of Sydney’s executive manager of research and corporate planning, Kate Deacon, Zeichner said that Deacon brought up

INTERNET OF THINGS

Helping to put you in Control

UniPi Neuron S103 PLC

an interesting point. It is estimated that the revenue created by the city over the next 10-15 years is not going to increase by much. However, the number of people visiting and infrastructure projects are growing. As anybody with a rudimentary knowledge of budgeting knows, if you increase expenditure but keep revenue the same, a blowout will occur. What does this have to do with the IoT? Plenty, said Zeichner. “A classic is that they measure the air quality in Sydney using seven measuring stations around the city that are 22 metres up in the air,” said Zeichner. “Yet there is a plethora of IoT devices that can measure air quality. You won’t need a $100,00 sensor on top of a 22-metre mast to measure air. You could source the results from cheaper IoT-enabled devices. “Institutions will need to discover how to deal with this flood of data that is coming from multiple sources – not just from the top down inside institutions, but from the bottom up and outside: from businesses, from communities, from individuals. There will be this big mix. Our biggest job then will be curating and validating to see if the data can be trusted or not.”

Most would think that those in the process engineering sector would have a head start. Maybe not with implementing, but understanding what the IoT is all about and where it fits in the industrial landscape. After all, processes, testing and measurement, as well as a whole range of devices are bread and butter for the industry. Again, Zeichner is not totally convinced that the industry knows as much as it thinks it does. “People in processing engineering companies will need to understand how to discover data,” said Zeichner. “They need to know how to measure the veracity of it through meta data, or even how the meta data is associated with other data. They need to be able to have a data model that will enable them to understand the attributes of the data or sharing it – that is, this kind of data can be used here, or there and what is private and what is not. Under certain circumstances you can share the data, but under other circumstances you can’t due to privacy. There is going to be so much data that managing it will be one thing and the technology will be another. People need to know this.” PACE

IIOT VS INDUSTRY 4.0 You can hear the mirth in IoTAA CEO’s Frank Zeichner’s voice when asked the question. “What is the difference between the IIoT and Industry 4.0?” It’s a vexed question because some are adamant that the terms are interchangeable, while others vehemently disagree. “I love this question,” said Zeichner. “The IIoT can apply to many things. It applies to health. It applies to transport and it applies to manufacturing. In the realm of manufacturing and the IIoT the Germans have really doubled down and gone deep. And they refer to it as Industry 4.0. They have looked at all the sharing upstream and downstream machines, process control – all of that. It is their deep, deep, deep version of the IIoT in manufacturing for industry.” It’s only when Zeichner starts rattling off what this encompasses that it becomes apparent that maybe Australia has a long way to go in terms of the whole IoT/Industry 4.0 paradigm and how it is set up and implemented. “Germans do collaboration really well,” said Zeichner. “Government, research, industry and unions all work together. They can do it because their industry has already had Industry 2.0 and 3.0. They already have data about their machines. They already have quality control systems that provide data outputs. They already know the supply chains for their spare parts and how they are delivered on time. So the next thing you have is full integration. This is where you can – for example – customise a one-off delivery of an item even if the completed parts come from different suppliers and are assembled in a third

UniPi Neuron S103 is a universal control unit. Based on the popular Raspberry Pi 3 model B it features 4 DI, 4 DO, 1 AI, 1 AO and a 1 wire interface. SKU: UPC-001 Price: $289.95 ea + GST

UniPi 1.1 Starter Set

A Raspberry Pi 3 B board fitted with an industrial grade I/O expansion board. Together they form a programmable control unit for universal use in automation, regulation, and monitoring systems. SKU: UPC-075 Price: $269.95 ea + GST

Atmospheric Temperature & Humidity Sensor Rika RK330-01A Atmospheric Temperature & Humidity Sensor Wall Mount with radiation shield. Range: -40~60°C and 0-100%RH. RS485 Modbus RTU output. SKU: RKS-113 Price: $259.95 ea + GST

Indoor PM2.5 Dust Sensor RK300-02 Dust Sensor using laser scattering principle, detecting the existence of dust(PM2.5) particle concentration in the air. SKU: RKS-230 Price: $299.00 ea + GST

BACnet Weather Station Gateway

Interfaces a Davis Instruments Weather Station to a BACnet MS/TP network. SKU: KTA-302 Price: $345.00 ea + GST

Step-down Voltage Regulator Frank Zeichner doesn’t care too much about IoT vs Industry 4.0 as long as people are talking about it. place and delivered by a fourth party.” Zeichner points out that the IIoT crosses a lot of boundaries, and at its most basic, Industry 4.0 encompasses the manufacturing aspect, or boundary, of the suite. While there is a little confusion out there, Zeichner is not bothered. “It has started to be used at the shorthand for IoT which is slightly misleading,” he said. “I kind of care and I don’t care. As long as it keeps the discussion going. Our president of the IOTAA is the chairman of Bosch Australia [Gavin Smith]. He’s also on the prime minister’s Industry 4.0 task force. That taskforce is all about learning what they have done in Germany with Industry 4.0 for manufacturing. But it doesn’t really solve the problem for us because they collaborate in a way we don’t. Hopefully this taskforce will address that issue.”

Compact size step-down break out board loaded with Pololu’s D24V6AHV voltage regulator. Takes an input voltage between 4.5 to 42 VAC/DC and efficiently reduces it to a lower, user-adjustable voltage via on-board SMD potentiometer. SKU: KTA-300 Price: $44.95 ea + GST

Din Rail Power Supply

MeanWell DRC-100B is a 27.6V 100W Din Rail Power Supply with Battery Charger (UPS function). Provides AC Fail and low battery alarms. SKU: PSM-1172 Price: $102.60 ea + GST

For Wholesale prices Contact Ocean Controls Ph: (03) 9782 5882 oceancontrols.com.au Prices are subjected to change without notice.

DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.pacetoday.com.au 27

PROFILE

Being challenged is key to job satisfaction An appreciation of problem solving pushed AMS’s analytical product manager into a career that’s never boring. PACE explains.

love of science and the realisation that variety and the ability to build something was the key to a fulfilling career were the reasons AMS’ analytical product manager Dr Dion Houtman became a process engineer. Having had his current role for the past year, Houtman said he knew during secondary school that the sciences were going to help him in his chosen career. “In high school, I always really enjoyed sciences,” said Houtman. “I never had a preference for one, but rather I enjoyed learning about how things work. Then one day I stumbled upon roles of process engineer and chemical engineer [Houtman is qualified in both fields] and I found out that they were roles you get exposure to in all the different fields of science. You can apply aspects of each science without being an expert in any of them.” He sees the sciences as an eclectic branch of education that opened up a lot of doors, not only to him, but his contemporaries, too. “If I look at all my old class mates who had similar interests they all ended up in careers that had variations within the industry,” he said. “From engineers, to recruitment, to writing patents, while another became a scientist. They all went different ways. Nothing really completely matched with what we studied. Our studies set us up to have the flexibility to be able to adapt to all these various roles.” And it is this flexibility, along with technical knowhow, that not only helps him enjoy his work, but it keeps him challenged, especially with the analytical side of the job. “Sizing a flow meter, or finding a suitable pressure gauge or temperature gauge – that’s pretty straight forward,” he said. “When you talk about analytical instruments, it is a lot more complicated because you have to mix knowledge

Problem solving is one of the enjoyable aspects of Dr Dion Houtman’s job as an analytical production manager.

of chemistry and physics with a clear understanding of the process in which the instrument is going to be installed. Because of these additional complications, a lot of people find it difficult to talk about analysers. It is up to me to educate our sales staff and customers. Together we try to find that best possible solution for a device’s applications.” And this brings up another plus in the job – problem solving. In some industries, problems are considered a necessary evil. Something that has to be solved and can causes stress and issues. To Houtman, it’s all in a day’s work. “Problem solving is a big plus of the job because I love to be challenged,” he said. “Customers constantly throw

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things at you that you don’t see coming. Finding a solution requires me to draw on my knowledge and experience and liaise closely with our analytical suppliers – Michell Instruments, Optek, ECD, Hitech (Eaton) and ECOM – who, similar to AMS, have all been in the business for 30 to 40 years. If a customer comes to us to solve a problem, the limitation is trying to find a solution from our suppliers. If it falls within the capabilities of our suppliers, then we offer a solution. If we can’t do it, sometimes we say we can look around and see if we can find it somewhere else.” As for advice to those who might want to get involved in the instrumentation and analytical side

of the process industry? He has a generic opinion. “It’s very important that when you look for a place to work that you find a company where the culture matches with who you are,” said Houtman. “If you like a role where there is a lot of variation, you might need to look at a smaller to mid-size company where the boundaries of the job description are less defined. So you don’t only get to do what you’re hired for but you also get exposure to other projects where you can jump in and help somebody else. That is where I was lucky enough to roll into with AMS where I have been given the freedom to draw on my skills and experience to grow the analytical side of the business.” PACE

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CASE STUDY

New mill boosts efficiency Having key personal onboard made life easy for Grange Resources when it decided on a plant upgrade. PACE explains.

range Resources owns and operates Australia’s largest integrated iron ore mining and pellet production facility and is the country’s oldest magnetite producer. Located 100km southwest of Burnie in north-western Tasmania, is the company’s Savage River magnetite iron ore mine and concentrator. An overview of the from-mine-tometal process at Savage river, starts with the crushed, stockpiled magnetite ore being transported via a tunnel system and fed into the concentrator. Here the ore is initially ground in two Hardinge 9.75m x 3.66m autogenous (AG) mills, followed by two Nordberg 8.84m x 3.96m ball mills. Magnetic separators then isolate the magnetite from the gangue (valueless adhering rock), with the fine-particle gangue being pumped to tailings dams. The rich iron concentrate slurry is pumped

via an 83km pipeline to the pellet plant at Port Latta. “From an operation perspective each of these factors have to be consistently met, with little margin for error,” said Grange Resources’ engineering superintendent Wayne Peck. “Starting from the pit, right through to the end of the ship loader, our customers’ requirements are our focus. Reliability of supply depends on the performance of our personnel and the processing equipment they use; while remaining price competitive depends on keeping our costs in check. Energy is our biggest cost, and an area where even small changes can have a big impact.” The two Hardinge AG mills were originally installed in the late 1960s, but by 2005 maintenance personnel noticed cracks starting to appear in their shells and cones. The mills required ongoing repairs, which resulted in plant down time and there

was always the risk of catastrophic failure. With the mine’s operation expected to extend till at least 2034, Grange’s management team decided that in order to ensure concentrator reliability and to improve output efficiency, these mills would need to be upgraded. In 2011, the company awarded Metso an $8 million contract to engineer, supply, install, and commission the first of two planned new mills. The project scope involved increasing production volume with a new rotating element that would accommodate a charge weight of 344 tonnes, but with the requirement to use the existing footprint and some of the components from the original 1966 mill. This specific requirement introduced a great deal of complexity to the design. A high level of detailed analysis to assess the impact of increased stress due to the new larger

rotating element was required. A key to the success of the project was the review of the bearing housing structure and ensuring adequate lubrication. The original mill was based on a single-shell design, and although it had lasted more than 45 years, the new design had to be stronger to ensure trouble-free operation beyond the mines expected lifespan. So in the first instance, Metso’s new design replaced the single cone-shell with a two-piece structure that was 3.6 metres wide (from feed to discharge) and featured long-life polymet rubber liners. To provide sufficient space for these liners, the new mill had to be 10m in diameter, 30cm larger than before. The larger shell, together with thicker stronger steel construction, meant that the new mill was 20 per cent heavier than the old one. In order to avoid the need for additional civil works and to keep costs

Reliability of supply depends on the performance of the personnel and the processing equipment used. 30 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

CASE STUDY

The company invested in a lot of interactive planning to make sure everything matched up, said Dan Tonks, Grange Resources projects design engineer.

down, the new mill had to be installed in the same position as the old one. To ensure that the existing structure could accommodate the extra weight and size of the new mill, Metso had to perform extensive FEA’s (finite element analysis) and carefully consider alternate designs. Key to the successful design was the

ability of the mill’s bearings to cope with the increased weight. An overview of the bearing components helped to explain how important this aspect was. Starting from the centre and working outwards, first was the trunnion, the shaft that extended out on both sides of the mill and which passes through its

“Just imagine pumping oil at 10,000 kPa at a rate of 15 litres per second to achieve a 0.4mm-thick film that needs to lift and support a rotating element 10 metres in diameter and weighing over 500 tonnes on each bearing” axis. The trunnion rested on a bronze bush that provided the bearing with its crucial lubrication. The bronze bush was supported inside the bearing housing by the rocker. As its name suggests, the rocker allowed the mill small lateral movements from side-toside along its spin axis. Important to note was that the trunnion rolled in a 0.2-0.4mm film of oil that was pumped at high pressure through ports in the bronze bush. Because no civil work could be considered, stiffening the bearing could only be achieved by thickening the rocker and the brass bush. The increase in load and reduction in bearing clearance meant that the force per unit of area (pressure) increases. Then of

course there was the additional weight that also had to be taken into account. “Making it strong enough was the easy part, next we had to design a lubrication system that would keep the trunnion suspended above the bronze bush with a 0.4mm-thick oil film,” said Metso’s grinding product manager John Aran. “There are no off-theshelf designs for this, so designing an effective and reliable lubrication solution that included a custom-built cooling and filtering system, involved input from Metso’s experts across the globe. “Just imagine pumping oil at 10,000 kPa at a rate of 15 litres per second to achieve a 0.4mm-thick film that needs to lift and support

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31/10/17 12:18 pm DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.pacetoday.com.au 31

CASE STUDY

Energy is our biggest cost, and an area where even small changes can have a big impact, said Grange Resources’ engineering superintendent Wayne Peck.

The two Hardinge AG mills, with the refurbished mills in the background. a rotating element 10 metres in diameter and weighing over 500 tonnes on each bearing. There are so many interdependent variables, providing a solution to this unique arrangement gave us all a great sense of achievement,” said Aran. The base plates that the mill’s bearings sit on also presented an engineering challenge — they had a flatness tolerance of 0.13mm over the entire surface, with a 0.025mm tolerance over an area of 300mm x

300mm. The parallelism tolerance between the top and the underside surface was just 0.13mm. Such precise tolerances are even difficult to achieve in a controlled environment like a machining workshop. “Because all the work would be carried out in the field rather than in a workshop, I was keen to see how closely the team would achieve these tolerances in an operational site environment where the base plates had to be positioned using site surveying

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equipment,” said Metso’s QA engineer Brian Bunch. “Once the sub-sole plates were aligned correctly, the base plates were lowered into position and there was no need for any shimming or additional tweaking to attain the required flatness.” Dan Tonks, Grange Resources’ projects design engineer, was involved in the design aspects of the plant’s infrastructure upgrade, which had to facilitate and match the new mill’s design. “It might sound straight forward, but the infrastructure upgrade consisted of components sourced from different manufacturers located all over the world,” said Tonks. “Together with Metso, we invested in a lot of interactive and iterative planning to make sure everything matched up. An error in the most minor detail – for example bolt-hole sizes – could be a disaster for the project. So there was a sense of pride, and relief too, when everything came together and matched up so perfectly.” Work space during the dismantling of the old mill and the construction of the new mill was a challenge. “Originally the mill was built first and then the building was built around it,” said Frank Lovell, Grange Resources’ engineering manager. “So working on removing the old mill and installing the new mill within the existing building presented major restrictions. We had lifting weight and size limits, as well as difficult work access. “The fact that the whole project was completed without a single safety incident is a credited to the way Metso’s design addressed these construction complexities.”

“Metso didn’t just supply the components and technical expertise for the installation, we were an integral part of Grange’s engineering team,” said Metso’s regional manager for mining services Steve Searle. “This approach makes such a big difference on a project like this. We worked through all of the issues together to ensure that the installation ran smoothly and on time. The installation process was developed with the Grange team, and we performed each operation as a unified team. The outcome is a new mill, which together with the new drive system, will provide the plant with 19 per cent more capacity.” Peck also highlighted how the close inter-company team work maximised efficiency and cost reductions. “Working so closely together on the project meant that Metso could assist us to look at the design of the project as a whole, not just to consider the quickest or lowest cost solution, but to look at improving quality and throughput, reducing running costs, and overall long-term maintenance.” “Efficiency is a big benefit that has been gained from this project,” said Tonks. “The mill is now grinding more, using the same power. Equally important for Grange, are the safety benefits that the new mill has provided. In particular, both our staff and contractors have praised the new mill’s better overall access and larger size work area. “The guarding on the rotating elements is greatly improved and easier to handle. In my view, the project receives big ticks for safety, efficiency, and cost reduction.” PACE

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PROMOTIONAL FEATURE Fluid Storage

Making sure lubricants are stored properly is key to keeping plant running without the chance of critical failures due to contaminated fluids.

How correctly storing and labelling lubricants saves money It may seem like a small thing to do, but correctly labelling and storing lubricants can go a long way to not only having a clean workplace, but saving money in the long run. PACE explains.

ontamination of lubricants is a massive issue on the industrial landscape. One micron of dirt can cause a huge amount of damage to plant and machinery. The late Dr Ernest Rabinowicz, who was a professor emeritus at MIT, introduced a calculation now known as Rabinowicz’s Law. This law stated that up to six per cent of US Gross Domestic Product is lost each year through bearing wear and tear and

failure primarily caused, among other things, improper lubrication. The problem with unclean lubricants is that, in many cases, plant maintenance staff find out contamination has occurred at the same time their plant ceases operation. As well as the costs related with having to replace or refurbish plant, there is the issue of downtime, which in itself can be costly with not only the loss of production, but reputation, too. A survey by

34 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

Jobbersworld on lubrication quality found that 85 per cent of respondents said ‘yes’ when asked whether there was an issue with low-quality lubricants in the workplace. In a recent piece by Ken Bannister titled State of the Lubrication Nation he said: “Up to 70 per cent of all moving equipment failures (loss of bearing surface usefulness) are caused by mechanical wear and corrosion, which can be directly and/ or indirectly attributed to ineffective

lubrication practices.” Bannister further calculated US losses from lubrication-related issues to be an eye-watering $1 trillion annually. While these numbers are at the top end of the scale, even if it was only 10 per cent of that figure, it is still a significant amount and one on which a lot of companies can ill afford to pay. Even as far back as 1938, engineers and plant maintenance staff knew how important lubrication was to

“Up to 70 per cent of all moving equipment failures (loss of bearing surface usefulness) are caused by mechanical wear and corrosion, which can be directly and/or indirectly attributed to ineffective lubrication practices”

industry. Writing in the Mining and Metallurgy Journal author Charles W. Frey had this to say: “Lubrication should not be considered a bothersome detail, something to be attended to after the rest of the work has been done. It should be regarded as insurance against costly breakdowns and repairs. Proper

lubrication will definitely prolong the life and usefulness of any piece of machinery, and the amount of money invested in proper oils and greases is fractional compared to the value of the service rendered.” Frey could well have been writing the piece in the 21st century as it is still relevant today. Another issue is applying the wrong lubrication with the wrong piece of equipment. Not all lubricants are created equal. Lubricants have been designed to be compatible with specific types of equipment and if the wrong type of product is entered into the plant, it can have catastrophic consequences. The liquid’s viscosity and ability to handle temperatures are examples of the different properties needed for different applications. The process and control landscape offers examples of where contamination of lubricants is a daily hazard. Millions of dollars of plant and machinery are invested throughout Australia so it is important that measures are in place that prevent contamination. Because there is a lot of plant and equipment moving all the time, the chances of contamination run high in certain operations. This includes when plant and machinery are being serviced. There are many ways maintenance staff can ensure lubricants are not contaminated. Two simple ways are

making sure that lubricants are stored and labelled correctly. Traditional methods of storing lubricants are no longer considered as safe and secure. Drums, oil cans and similar media have an array of issues – from degradation of the vessel itself, through to storage containers looking the same. Then there is the issue of dispensing the fluid without it spilling, which in itself cannot only cause a hazard but waste, too. If you have an array of plant and machinery that require different types of fluids, how can you store and label them appropriately so they won’t become mixed, or in a way that they are easily identifiable? One solution that works is a colour-coded labelling system. But even this method can cause issues because labels fall off and, again, containers can degrade. This causes discolouration and therefore confusion as to what is the correct lubricant in the container. There are systems that not only are easy to use but is a costeffective method of stopping cross contamination of lubricants. One such system is Alemlube’s iCan, a colour-coded method that allows the user to clearly label containers. It is also robust and can survive harsh environments. The iCan containers are made from HDPE plastic, which come

with UV and anti-static-resistant additives. The UV resistance is important because UV light can cause degradation of lubricant. The antistatic feature is necessary if users are storing flammable lubricants. Then there is the key element to the iCan range – its labelling system. As well as having iPouches that hold and store labels onto the container, there is also the Allsafe option of colour-coded bands that fit tightly on the lid. These lids are also made from tough material and will not degrade over time, so there is no chance of employees or third-party contractors getting the lubricants mixed. There are even colour-coded labels that come with the system. The container itself has a couple of nifty features designed with the end-user in mind. They are rust proof and are fully sealed, which makes the chances of cross-contamination virtually nil. Most have a quick-fill port that is designed to not only make filling easy but also spill-free, and they have a desiccant port for added protection. If plant maintenance staff want to promote a clean and healthy working environment where lubricants are stored and labelled safely, then the iCan system is just one example of how this can be achieved. It is incumbent on maintenance managers to find one that is suitable for their workplace not only to promote a healthy workplace but also save money. PACE

DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.pacetoday.com.au 35

NEW PRODUCTS

Revolutionise workflow with PX4 VTOL drones THE SDP3x differential pressure sensor is available in an airspeed sensor development kit for VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) and fixed-wing UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) applications. The reference design was developed in collaboration with PX4 Pro and is fully integrated with the open-source autopilot. The integration includes a full aerodynamic software compensation model for the sensor and pitot tube, making it a plug-and-play solution. Most airspeed sensors require calibration before every flight to guarantee accuracy, and are not sensitive enough to produce reliable readings at low airspeeds. The fully calibrated and temperature-compensated SDP3x sensor solves these problems and offers accuracy and resolution. The calibration-free setup enables instant launch of VTOL drones, increasing the user experience for end users. And high sensitivity at low airspeeds allows closed-loop control during the transition phase from hovering to forward flight, increasing the reliability and safety of VTOL drones. The performance of the SDP3x sensor is based on Sensirion’s CMOSens sensor technology, which combines the sensor element, signal processing and digital calibration on a small CMOS chip. The differential pressure is measured by a thermal sensor element with flow-through technology. Sensirion AG www.sensirion.com

Mass flow controllers powers MDC’s XpressStick gas delivery module ALICAT Scientific’s MCE mass flow controllers have been integrated into MDC Vacuum Products’ XpressStick MFC gas stick. With precision control of gas flows of up to 20SLPM and onboard display, Alicat’s MCE provides gas programming functionality to the gas connection module, which links pressurised gas inputs to vacuum chambers. The all-in-one design of the XpressStick MFC gas stick eliminates complex hardware specification in processes, which include a combination of specialty gases, pressure, precise regulation, and vacuum. It’s easy programming and precise gas control system allows users to go from bottle to process in one step. Designed to meet ultra-high purity process requirements, the XpressStick is also offered in a stainless-steel model for corrosive environments.

“Fast response time, accuracy, and reliability were all key criteria in choosing an MFC instrument for our XpressStick,” said James Moore, MDC vice president, engineering and technology. “Based on past experience with Alicat, we knew that they could deliver all three, with an integrated display that enables our all-in-one design.” With the MCE’s zero warm up time, the XpressStick is ready to control process flows in one second, with real-time mass flow, volumetric flow, absolute pressure and temperature data, fully compensated for temperature and pressure. The gas module is programmed directly through the MCE’s integrated display, with easy changes to gas type using the on-board gas calibrations. The standard gas calibration list includes 98 gases, with an additional 32 corrosive gases on the stainless-steel model. Alicat’s built-in Composer gas mixing software can be used to compose up to 20 additional custom blends using the standard gas list. Accuracy is virtually unaffected by change in gas type, and full-scale valve range is automatically recalibrated to maintain throughput ranges. Alicat Scientific www.alicat.com

36 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

NEW PRODUCTS

Mechanical analyser for precise measurement METTLER Toledo’s dynamic mechanical analyser facilitates quick, uncomplicated execution of experiments. The new DMA/SDTA 1+ delivers an applied force of up to 40N and a maximum oscillation frequency value of 1000 Hz, enabling accurate measurements while also simplifying sample preparation. It is used to determine the viscoelastic properties of a material as a function of temperature, time, and frequency while subjecting the material to an oscillating stress. The device covers a stiffness and frequency range and is thus a good solution where maximum accuracy is a must. The unit delivers high-quality results for modulus values and is in many respects different from conventional DMA instruments in that it measures both force and displacement. An automatic switch mode controls the measurement and automatically changes from force-controlled to displacement-controlled. This is important for stiff samples (force-controlled analysis) that become soft when they are heated (displacement-controlled). The frequency range of the oscillating stress has been extended to the 1000 Hz range. In shear mode, six frequency decades are available. The region above 1 Hz is particularly important because it means that the measuring times can be kept to a minimum. Special care was taken to develop a system that allows precise temperature control and adjustment. For this, an additional sensor was introduced, which measures sample temperature close to the sample. This permits calibrations that are based on the melting points of pure substances. Moreover, the temperature sensor also allows thermal effects to be simultaneously measured by SDTA – useful for monitoring curing reactions. The company has introduced a sample holder system in the DMA/SDTA, which enables sample preparation and mounting to take place externally, for quick insertion inside the instrument. The concept also allows the user to change from one deformation mode to another without performing an adjustment; users can also prepare samples unhindered while a measurement is in progress. This

gives ongoing benefits in terms of accuracy and time-effectiveness. Finally, the touch-sensitive colour terminal on the DMA/SDTA 1+ presents clear and precise information and can be seen from a distance. It monitors the sinusoidal excitation function. This is important at the start of a measurement as the curve shape presented on the terminal is indicative of whether the sample has been properly inserted in the sample holder. Mettler Toledo www.mt.com.au 1300 659 761

Hybrid sensors for force and pressure measurements MICRO Measurement has introduced a range of miniature, lightweight hybrid sensors, offering cost-effective force, displacement, pressure, strain and acceleration measurements within high-volume OEM and test applications. Design of the range incorporates the brand’s own precision-foil strain gauges, adhesively bonded to flat substrates, constructed of either metal, composite, or polymer. Hybrid sensors are manufactured using high-volume production equipment. The result is a range of strain-gauge-based hybrid sensors with consistent batch-to-batch performance characteristics. Customers may further incorporate an optional miniature signal amplifier, as either a stand-alone component or attached to the sensor. Hybrid sensors may be attached via mounting holes with choice of screws, spot welding, or clamping, thereby eliminating adhesive bonding requirements. The sensors are optionally available with pre-attached lead wires and connectors\ for simplified customer handling without soldering requirements. New hybrid sensors can support a variety of high-volume OEM consumer product, process control, automotive testing, non-critical medical device, educational research, and industrial requirements. Process control applications include HVAC, liquid-level sensing, motor control, and vibration monitoring. Automotive testing applications include passenger weighing, foot-pedal pressure, seatbelt tension, emergency braking, suspension control and engine monitoring. Medical applications include pumps, respirators, and other non-critical devices. Industrial applications include elevators, tank monitoring, bearing insertion, safety systems, gas and liquid cylinder pressures and load monitoring. Vishay Precision Group www.vishay.com

DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 www.pacetoday.com.au 37

WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION

Why the right ASRS makes distribution easy Efficiency is the key to a good automated warehousing system. PACE explains.

When making the most of available space it is important to ensure stock is easily accessible and can be stacked and collected in a safe manner. 38 www.pacetoday.com.au DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018

key ingredient to any warehouse is making sure goods are distributed in a timely manner. Add to that safety standards for staff, clients wanting a bigger range of products to choose from, tracking regulations on certain products, and making sure stocks are up to date, which all add to the bottom line. Space is also an issue. Making the most of available space in a warehouse isn’t just about trying to squeeze the most out every square metre, but also making sure stock is easily accessible and can be stacked and collected in a safe manner. What is needed is a system that can save money without compromising the integrity of a warehouse’s ability to stock and distribute products. Enter the automated storage retrieval system (ASRS). Efficiency is the catch cry of any ASRS. Having the right quantity, replacing outgoing stock, making sure the correct stock has been distributed to the right customer and checking incoming stock – these are all the functions of a reliable ASRS. One example is the RapidStore system from Dematic. It is an ASRS system that is easy to put together, according to the supplier. Most configurations are modular, which means it is possible to build a warehousing solution to fit any size of distribution centre. As the name suggests, a key component of the RapidStore system is that it can move goods – whether stocking warehouse shelves or unloading them – in a fast, accurate manner. This is important when you have serious deadlines to meet and need stock distributed quickly. As well as ensuring the safety of warehouse staff, RapidStore also

comes in various preconfigured versions designed to meet specific demands. There is the UL1500, which is designed to handle loads of up to 1,500kg, and is suitable for retail, cold storage, manufacturing and distribution operations. The UL1400 RF fits into a conventional warehouse with an existing rack and can handle loads up to 1,360kg. It has been designed to replace labour-intensive forklift fleets. If a warehouse is stacked with a lot of heavy products that weight up to 1.8 tonnes then the UL1800 fits the bill. For those distributing smaller produce, then the ML10 and ML14 mini load machines are the suitable solutions, while the ML20 offers good stability with stock that is stacked up to 20m high. Then there are the RapidStore devices designed for the mid-range weight loads of between 350kg-450kg – the ML+350 and ML+450 - which are suitable for spare parts stores and machine assembly centres. Another key factor to consider when deciding upon an ASRS is how can it integrate into a Warehouse Control System (WCS). Dematic has its own WCS that is not only is it easy to use, but provides precise tracking of products and storage locations in real time. The WCS can also be integrated into other systems including monorail, Automated Guided Vehicle pallet transport, conveyors and palletising. In an increasingly mobile world, it’s important to have a modern distribution centre that not only has an excellent ROI, but also meets the high expectations of clients. PACE

B E F E A TURED IN

Pneumatics and hydraulics are the lifeblood when running successful plant and machinery. If things go wrong, catastrophe can ensue. Our February/March issue talks to companies about the latest innovations and processes in pneumatics and hydraulics and the part they play in making sure plant and machinery are run at maximum efficiency.

IF YOUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE INTERESTED IN TAKING PART IN THE NEXT EDITION OF PACE, contact Nick Baker today at Nick.Baker@primecreative.com.au 02 9439 7227

Low-cost level measurement. Radar sensor for water management. Reliable level measurement in water treatment facilities, pump stations and rain overflow basins. Open channel flow measurement and water level monitoring.

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