PACE - Process & Control Engineering - July 2012

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JULY 2012 | VOL.65 NO.6

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PACE Zenith Awards Profiles of the people and projects that took out top honours.

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Winners 19

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Gearmotors \ Industrial Gear Units \ Drive Electronics \ Decentralised Technology \ Drive Automation \ Services

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CONTENTS

IN THIS ISSUE Published monthly by Reed Business Information Pty Ltd

Tower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue Chatswood NSW 2067 Locked Bag 2999 Chatswood DC NSW 2067 Tel: (02) 9422 2999 Fax: (02) 9422 2977 ABN 80 132 719 861 Associate Publisher: Martin Sinclair Email: martin.sinclair@reedbusiness.com.au

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Editor: Kevin Gomez Tel: (02) 9422 2976 Fax: (02) 9422 2722 Email: kevin.gomez@reedbusiness.com.au Deputy Editor: Isaac Leung Tel: (02) 9422 2956 Email: isaac.leung@reedbusiness.com.au Group Sales Manager: Tim Richards Tel: (02) 9422 2818 Mobile: 0420 550 799 Email: tim.richards@reedbusiness.com.au QLD Sales Manager: Sharon R. Amos PO Box 3136, Bracken Ridge, QLD 4017 Tel: (07) 3261 8857 Fax: (07) 3261 8347 Mobile: 0417 072 625 Email: sharon.amos@reedbusiness.com.au Graphic Designer: Justine Dunn Email: justine.dunn@reedbusiness.com.au Production Co-ordinator: Tracy Engle Tel: (02) 9422 2707 Fax: (02) 9422 2722 Email: tracy.engle@reedbusiness.com.au

Printed by: GEON 20 Baker Street, Banksmeadow NSW 2019 Tel: (02) 8333 6555 SUBSCRIPTION: $99 pa incl GST OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTIONS: NZ: $A109 pa & OS: $A119 pa

19 Viewpoint 6

Energy Efficiency 13

Mining 7

Energy Audits 17

Volatile energy pricing Smart machine builders are deploying holistic strategies and technologies to reduce energy consumption.

Accelerating data access Engineers at Tiwest’s mine in Cooljarloo in WA needed a better way to store and access their historical data.

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 1300 360 126

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PACE Zenith Awards 19

Ensure maximum payback Energy use is often the largest single line item on a commercial property’s expense statement.

Winners profiled It was close in most categories but there can be only one winner. Profiles of the outstanding people and projects that won PACE Zenith Awards.

Training courses for engineers Adopting a coherent approach to energy efficiency can quickly unlock new opportunities and financial benefits.

IICA Corner 38

Fill the training gap We need to look at providing access to the ISA CAP and CCST Programs in Australia.

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Copyright © Reed Business Information 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

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PACE Zenith Awards Profiles of the people and projects that took out top honours.

Winners 19

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF: Average Net Distribution 6,849

Post Print Approved PP255003/00539

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Schenck Process Australia comprises of a team of experienced personnel well established in the highly specialised field of weighing, feeding, screening and loading as well as the related systems engineering and design.

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19-Jun-12 3:55:34 PM 3 www.pacetoday.com.au JULY 2012

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COMMENT

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

Future trends for the industry Kevin Gomez Editor

Next Issue

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

IT’S been wet in most parts of Australia. The rains have been welcome and with the downpours comes news about our desal plants being mothballed - Tugun in Queensland; Melbourne and finally Sydney.

When the dry spell hits, one, two or three years from now, it will be a challenge to get these behemoths up and running again.

Engineers will need to battle rust, jammed valves and uncalibrated instruments to get clean water flowing again.

Unless of course, the team at each of these facilities is keeping the various processes in a ready-

to-run condition – something that government run entities do not accomplish very often.

Some of you would have come across Frost & Sullivan’s three big predictions for our industry that was published on www.pacetoday.com.au. There were no major surprises but reinforced some of the key trends we see in the industry today, especially in the area of smart technology.

Calling Smart the new Green, Frost & Sullivan highlights cloud computing, cyber security, mobile and wireless communication technologies as technologies to watch closely.

There will also be a push towards flexible, customised manufacturing as companies align their product portfolios to meet local demands.

This will require paradigm shifts in product formulations, process planning and manufacturing methods.

The programmable automation controller (PAC) is set to grow even faster as they provide a cost-effective alternative to high-end PLCs. The electric drives and motors market in the wind and solar power industry will also attract attention.

With the industry poised

for some significant changes, we may well see some exciting entries to the PACE Zenith Awards in 2013.

This year was one of the best events we’ve had and those who attended the gala dinner Melbourne will remember it for a long time to come.

The high quality of finalists meant that some of the best minds in Australia were in attendance and MC Shane Jacobson did a sterling job and made it an entertaining evening.

Details for next year’s event will be announced soon on our website and in the magazine. kevin.gomez@reedbusiness.com.au

BIO-MANUFACTURING

The inflection point for biotech has been reached

By JIM PInTo

for his many revolutionary contributions In 2008, Venter’s lab built a genome InFLECTIon points are events that to genomic research. now he is thinking which replicates the DnA of a bacteresult in significant, revolutionary of bugs that could swim in a pond and rium. In 2010 they announced that they change. During the past couple of soak up sunlight and secrete oil; of bugs brought the synthetic DnA to life. In decades, most inflection points have that could gobble exhaust and exude theory, this leaves just one step to the been related to electronics and commufresh air. What’s strange about Venter building of a custom species, crossing nications - the Internet, computers, is that the fantasies he concocts actually the threshold to “designer life”. cellphones and the like. In the next come true. He dreamed of mapping Venter is pushing forward with decade, biotech will jump to the forethe human genome faster than anyone, designing new organisms entirely from front, bringing changes that will impact and he did it. He dreamed of creating a synthetic DnA, which would be a radical humanity hugely, more than anything synthetic organism, and he made it. leap forward. Here are the attractions: o Because cells reproduce, they can be that humans have experienced in the In 2003, he sailed around the planet used for bio-manufacturing. Custom past century. in search of new forms of life, and A D _ Venter P A C is E regarded M E T 2 as Mone A Rof_ 1 2 . returned p d f two P ayears g e later 1 after 2 4discovering / 0 2 / 1 2 , organisms 9 : 4 3could A produce M in bulk while Craig feeding on pollutants or solar energy. the leading scientists of the 21st century more species than anyone, ever.

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o Conventional agriculture probably

cannot keep pace with the world’s increasing population. Strains of algae could secrete proteins, using less land and water than traditional crops. o Bio-machinery could result in “distributed manufacturing” using microbes.

For example, people could synthesise bugs and grow them at home.

Craig Venter’s synthetic biology could indeed backfire into biological calamity. But it also offers a transformative approach to many problems which have no available solutions.

Jim@JimPinto.com

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Integrating People, Processes and Information • Management • Openness

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OPINION

Energy Efficiency

Energy pricing is volatile Machine builders are deploying holistic strategies to reduce energy consumption, writes Sal Spada.

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ANUFACTURERS face the long-term prospect of rising energy costs combined with volatile energy pricing. One approach to meeting this challenge is to “desensitise” production operations from both the volatility in energy pricing and incurred surcharges.

Manufacturers often attempt to address this by selecting higher efficiency electrical systems. However, in itself, electrical energy consumption is an insufficient metric. Manufacturers must also factor productivity improvements into the overall energy cost analysis to make the optimal choices in production equipment.

The goal is to identify the capital equipment expenditures that will minimise overall facility energy costs.

Manufacturers need to determine whether equipment retrofits or new capital equipment expenditures are the optimal choice when trying to insulate the business from the volatility in energy pricing.

This decision requires a holistic view of energy costs that also looks at the upstream and downstream processes that can be incorporated in new capital equipment. Equally important, are the productivity improvements that would enable manufacturers to determine the ROI of the investment.

A session at ARC Advisory Group’s World Industry Forum in Orlando, Florida in February featured speakers from leading machine builders and manufacturers that are deploying holistic strategies aimed at reducing energy consumption in their operations.

Some of these initiatives target specific objectives. For example, some organizations are responding to government mandates for minimum energy efficiency performance such as use of IE3/IE4 Class energy-efficient motors, which largely apply to applications dominated by induction motors such as used on conveyors, pumps and mixers.

These case analyses demonstrate that some industrial organizations have looked beyond the isolated piece of 6 www.pacetoday.com.au July 2012

Direct drive brings improved reliability and a reduced carbon footprint by eliminating complexity in machine design. machinery and now apply a holistic approach, which evaluates the potential energy savings in the upstream and downstream processes affected by investments in capital equipment.

Larry Trunek, Manager of Manufacturing Systems at Millers/ Coors, presented his justification for investing in permanent magnet motor (PMM) technology as a substitute to the standard induction motor. The higher cost of PMMs has inhibited adoption of these motors in the majority of the manufacturing and machinery applications. This is because most organizations tend to look only at the initial cost of the capital equipment.

Miller/Coors uses an alternative approach in which it subjects the capital equipment expenditure to an ROI analysis prior to making the investment. Using ROI, the company could justify using energy-efficient PMM solutions in applications such as packaging lines, bottling lines, and material handling conveyance.

Rather than limiting this analysis to new equipment purchases, the company is also evaluating its installed base of induction motors for possible retrofits.

The company can often justify replacing induction motors with PMM motors for equipment that already use variable frequency drives (VFDs).

Manufacturers seeking to benefit from migrating to PMMs should look beyond energy efficiency alone, since their dynamic performance, compact size, and lower maintenance costs, provide additional benefits. However, to reap these additional benefits, companies must apply a mechatronic system

approach to eliminate inefficient gear boxes and belts that prevent the system from performing optimally.

Brian Jones, Electrical Engineering Manager with Mark Andy, offered the OEM machine builder perspective on how productivity improvements can help drive energy efficiency in manufacturing operations. According to Jones, the latest flexographic printer systems help push productivity and capacity utilisation to the limits. The latest designs incorporate enabling technologies such as automation controllers, servo drives, and synchronous permanent magnet motors.

While the latest flexographic printer systems can cost more than twice as much to purchase as earlier models, they can displace multiple machines, reduce waste, and increase overall throughput of the printer operations in a consumer package goods operation.

According to Jones, using a holistic energy analysis, the benefits of his technology reduces HVAC and lighting in the plant, reduces operating time, and eliminates material waste. Higher productivity helps reduce the running time of high-energy-consuming auxiliary equipment such as curing systems and hot air dryers. Over 80 percent of the energy consumed by the flexographic printing press can be attributed to these two auxiliary systems. The company estimates that the energy consumed to produce printed material can be reduced by 45 percent when the ROI analysis incorporates downstream, upstream, and operational improvements.

Dr Allabaksh Naikodi, Integrated Engineering Solutions Manager for Mahindra Satyam, discussed the energysavings potential of using direct drive motors. Direct drive motors incorporate the power electronics along with the motor housing, which also reduces cabinet requirements.

Naikodi presented the example of using direct drive motors in an industrial washing machine. This required a custom-engineered solution that allowed the machine builder to eliminate gears,

belts, and pulleys widely used in earlier designs. While an off-the-shelf solution would have resulted in lower initial design costs, he argued that the ancillary benefits far outweighed the increased cost. According to Naikodi, these benefits included higher energy efficiency, superior performance, and lower operational and maintenance costs.

Integrated direct drive technology has potential in a wide range of industry applications where “green” values and energy optimisation have emerged as dominant issues. New emerging technologies can help machine builders and users realise the benefits of direct drive solutions across a select number of qualified machinery applications.

Direct drive technology brings compactness, improved reliability, energy savings, and a reduced carbon footprint by eliminating complexity in machine design. The applications for direct drive technology are limited only by the form factor of the motor, which tends to be larger in size and have a limited amount of control at lower speeds.

The direct drive approach is generally advantageous for machine builders embarking on new machine designs using a mechatronic approach to leverage emerging motor technology that reduces mechanical complexity. Overall, users benefit from machinery that is highly productive, requires less maintenance, and consumes fewer resources in the facility.

Optimising the use of capital is increasingly complex for manufacturers and other industrial organizations as the volatility in energy pricing must be factored into capital expenditures.

Determining the value proposition of either retrofitting equipment or investing in new capital equipment requires a holistic view of an operation’s energy costs. Technology improvements alone cannot solve the problem, but incorporating upstream and downstream processes provide greater benefits.

[Sal Spada is Research Director, ARC Advisory Group.] www.ARCweb.com

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NEWS

Aurecon Hatch takes top honours for nCiG

By Kevin Gomez

Winner: Process Partners for five:am • Power & Energy Management (sponsored by Schneider electric) Winner: PTronik for PTronik pmC master Controller • Machine Builder (sponsored by B&R) Winner: CKAS mechatronics for CKAS “Cranky” Full motion Wharf Crane Simulator • Automotive & Manufacturing (sponsored by ifm efector) Winner: Robotic Automation & Amcor Cartons for Robotic end-ofLine Solution • Water & Wastewater (sponsored by endress+Hauser Australia) Winner: SAGe Automation for State Water iSmART (integrated Surveillance, monitoring, Automation & Remote Telemetry) SCADA Upgrade Project • • Food & Beverage A D _ P A C E P H O J U L _ 1 2 . p dYoung f PAchiever a g e (sponsored 1 2 7 by / 0SiCK) 6 / 1 2 , Winner: Lucya yunus from Xstrata (sponsored by Siemens)

JUne 14 was a night to remember as the PACe zenith Awards 2012 event saw eight innovative projects and two outstanding individuals take out top honours. mC Shane Jacobson was in superb form. He kept proceedings thoroughly enjoyable with the guests enthralled by his light-hearted, humorous view of the world where nothing was off limits.

The overall Project of the year Award was won by Aurecon Hatch for nCiG Coal export Terminal Control System. The judges commended this well-presented submission which detailed a finely-executed and important project.

The PACe zenith Awards 2012 category winners are:

WINNER: Aurecon Hatch’s Andrew Hepburn (L) receives the Project of the Year award from Martin Sinclair, Associate Publisher of PACE. Copper north Queensland • Transport, Power & Infrastructure (sponsored by Honeywell Process Solutions) Winner: for nCiG Coal 1 1 : Aurecon 2 8 AHatch M export Terminal Control System

• Oil & Gas (sponsored by AmS instrumentation & Calibration) Winner: Qenos for Qenos Altona olefins Advanced Process Control and Plantwide Feed maximiser • Mining, Minerals & Exploration (sponsored by Schneider electric) Winner: iomniscient for BP (British Petroleum) • Lifetime Achievement (sponsored by LogiCamms) Winner: Ken Brown from K e Brown electrical Switchboards

Check out details of the winners in this issue pages 18 to 37 and online www.pacetoday.com.au/news Plus: There are heaps of photographs from the night on www.pacetoday.com. au/awards email editor@pacetoday.com.au if you’d like to be part of the 2013 PACe zenith Awards.

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Miner accelerates data access Process engineers at Tiwest’s mine in Cooljarloo in WA were seeking a better way to store and access its historical data and the solution needed to fit the company’s tight budget restrictions.

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IWEST is the world’s largest integrated titanium minerals production and processing company, with six sites in Western Australia.

One of those sites is a mine in Cooljarloo, 170 kilometres north of Perth, where the company uses two dredges in a purpose-built pond to pump slurried ore at a rate of 2,200 tonnes per hour to a floating concentrator.

To collect data from the three servers that are located on the dredges and the concentrator, the company relied on an in-built corporate historian and archived old files to a corporate file service. As Lee Albert, IS Project Leader explained, finding and RELIABLE: OPC Hub and Spoke ensures data viewing historical data was difficult and time-intensive. from each remote location gets delivered to a “To query five years of history, an engineer would have to go on the corporate network and read through AD_ PACEBURJ UL _ 1 2 . p d f P a g ecentral 1 database 2 7 / 0 repository 6 / 1 2 , despite 2 : unreliable 3 8 PM network connections. long file names to find each and every archive that

spanned that time period. Then the engineer would have to transfer all those files to a specific location back on the server, and use the server software to view the information,” said Albert.

Often, the engineers could not navigate the IT infrastructure well enough to access the data themselves, and their requests for assistance sometimes went unmet because the data could not be found.

The searches had to be conducted on one of the dredges in the middle of the pond, and they had to do so using the same software that was responsible for plant operations.

“You have to understand the data is travelling slowly out there,” said Albert, “and when you use the same software that’s controlling the plant, it can give a performance hit on the server.”

The company clearly needed a better way to > store and access its historical data, and the solu-

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BEHIND THE SCENES

tion needed to fit the company’s tight budget restrictions. When Albert and the team sought out a better solution, costs were a primary concern — including the upfront cost as well as ongoing costs related to maintenance and training.

“We looked at several products, it was important to us to solve our problems but not to overspend on capital if it wasn’t necessary,” said Albert.

“We felt like the MatrikonOPC solution gave us the best bang for our buck. It was affordable, and it was easy enough for a relative novice like myself to set it up and get it working.”

In just months, Tiwest fully implemented OPC Hub and Spoke, a solution designed to reliably transfer process and business data from remote locations to a central repository.

At the mine, a Buffer collects data in real time from the three servers that are located on the two dredges and the concentrator.

That is C sent toLthe A D _data PA EP A central MA R _ 1 2 . p d f hub, where the Desktop Historian

OFFSITE: To collect data from the three servers that are located on the dredges and the concentrator the company relied on an in-built corporate historian and archived old files to a corporate file service.

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Custom Engineering & Automation Precision Mechatronics Pty Ltd provides custom-designed, custombuilt and fully installed equipment solutions for many industries and environments. Located in North Ryde, Sydney we are well placed to

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To query five years of history an engineer would have to go on the corporate network and read through long file names to find each and every archive that spanned that time period.

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wireless link to get to them.”

Network outages can be a concern, so Albert worked with MatrikonOPC to design a solution in which the Desktop Historian actually requests and pulls the data from the buffers. Because Albert is familiar with OPC, she said implementing the solution was “like taking candy from a baby.”

For the engineers who used to turn to Albert for help completing their searches, the new solution enables faster, self-service queries that may help them identify issues and trends before they lead to large-scale breakdowns. With Excel Reporter, engineers can also access and view the data in a familiar, userfriendly format.

Albert said, “The research used to take us hours, but now our engineers can just go in, pull the data they want from Excel, put in the time period they’re interested in, and it’s all done. It’s fast, it’s simple, and it has made things a lot easier for us.”

collects the data. Tunneller supports communication between the networked computers and eliminates the headaches associated with DCOM. Securely and reliably moving the data off the pond to a central location was an important part of the solution. “The majority of the people who are interested in the history actually aren’t down there on the dredge pond,” said Albert.

“They’re up here in the administration building, data close A D _and P Anow C Ethe UO WJis U L _to1 2 . p d f them and doesn’t have to travel over a

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The SUSTAINABLe BUILDINGS ReSeARCh CeNTRe

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“ Now we are also level switching with non-contact microwave technology.”

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Pneumatics and Automation solutions

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5 Port Solenoid Valve Series SY3000/5000 Improve the performance and reliability of your machine with the next generation of solenoid valves and manifolds from SMC. Solenoid valves - the interface between electronic controllers and pneumatic systems.

During the last 30 years, we have witnessed some dramatic advances in solenoid valve technology. Many automation experts would agree that programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are the brains behind the majority of automated processes with integrated solenoid valves and manifolds being the heart of a machine – effectively controlling the power to drive the machines moving parts.

Just like a human being, when a machines operational health suffers and downtime costs start to spiral out of control, problems of reliability can often be traced back its heart – the solenoid valves and manifolds.

1800 763 862 Australia wide enquiries@smcaus.com.au www.smcaus.com.au

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IN FOCUS

Design drives energy efficiency Energy use is often the largest single line item on a commercial property’s expense statement and there are opportunities for minimising operating expenses, writes Samuel Coupel.

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ROPERTY owners, managetheir customers on how energy affects supporting data. In some areas leases ment firms and brokerages their business. Like many operational now include accurate sub metering as a regularly face challenges in expenses, energy and its associated finanstandard clause. maintaining or increasing cial opportunities can be considered Power monitoring systems provide profits and maximising valuation. Energy in terms of three dimensions of costs: a complete sub metering solution that is a significant expense that can represent fixed, variable and exceptional. Specific supports all forms of utilities (e.g., a substantial area of opportunity. information and functionality is required electricity, gas, water). Systems can Property firms are in an enviable to take advantage of each one. Power leverage existing tenant meters while position as compared with other indusmonitoring systems cost-effectively allowing new ones to be added where tries in regards to energy. Utility costs address all three dimensions. required. Meter data is automatically can exceed 30 per cent of a building’s Energy costs are often allocated to uploaded on a frequent basis to the overall operating expenses, yet many tenants based on a common formula – power monitoring system software over organisations are not managing energy normally based on the square footage corporate networks, the Internet, or usages at all or are not fully leveraging of the tenant relative to the total leased wireless communications, realising a low all available opportunities. space in a building. This can be highly total cost of ownership while enabling To help property firms begin to inaccurate. Tenants increasingly ask to limitless reach across all properties in a benefit more portfolio.

A D from _ P AanCenergy E R Omanagement C 2 J U L _ 1 2 . be pd f accurately P a g e billed, 1 and 2 5 if/ they 0 6 / 1 2 nationwide , 5 : 1 or 5 worldwide PM program, engineers first need to educate question a bill, they would like to see Buildings include a variety of

high-demand loads, including HVAC components like rooftop units, chillers and fans, as well as lighting systems. For a data centre or server operating within a commercial building, energy costs can be even higher, with up to 50 per cent of energy cost attributed to power and cooling of the data centre.

In-house operations personnel or outsourced services periodically “tweak” a Building Automation System (BAS) to assure comfort based on some basic measured values and feedback from occupants. Maintenance of systems and components is typically based on estimates of equipment operation and on predefined service schedules.

These methods subject a property >

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MM2002_PRODUCT_SUBS.pdf

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Terms & Conditions Your subscription may be tax deductible, ask your accountant. ABN 80 132 719 861. Please note RBI has a no refund policy, contact Customer Service for details on 130 360 126. *Based on previous $99 annual subscription price. All prices are quoted in Australian Dollars and GST inclusive. We are committed to handling your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act www.reedbusiness.com.au/privacy.asp

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IN FOCUS

management firm to risk in terms of poor energy efficiency and potential equipment mis-operation or failure.

Opportunities are often missed because energy-related information is often limited in both amount and accuracy.

Though often considered a building’s energy management system, a BAS is primarily designed to react to set conditions, not to deliver the breadth or accuracy of data and analysis required to effectively control energy costs.

In contrast, power monitoring systems automatically collect and report detailed power and energy information from all energy assets, including HVAC, BAS, electrical distribution systems and onsite generators. Such a system continuously tracks conditions and alerts operations staff to any potential problems before they occur.

The source can then be quickly isolated using graphical facility overviews of real-time electrical and equipment status, historical information, and and insight “drill-down” These A D _ P Aanalysis.

CERO C 1 tools J U Lhelp _ 1 2 . AUTOMATION: pdf P a g e Power 1 2monitoring 5 / 0 6 / systems 1 2 , deliver 3 : 3 the 8 intelligence PM to effectively control energy assets. drive proactive maintenance, extend

equipment life, avoid capital costs and reduce labour. Power monitoring systems also deliver the information corporate and facility managers need to deal with energy in financial terms.

Browser-based “dashboards” listing key performance indicators (KPIs) help track and verify enterprise- wide conditions and costs on a dynamic basis.

Energy consumption for buildings and other cost centres can be easily aggregated and normalised to remove independent variables such as temperature or square footage from the profile. This allows for accurate direct comparison, helping identify inefficiencies and opportunities to reduce usage.

For example, start-up procedures can be optimised to avoid demand peaks, HVAC settings can be adjusted to reflect occupancy and weather patterns, or elevator timing might be modified to reduce consumption.

The power monitoring system will also provide an accurate energy baseline prior to any retrofit or initiative to > help verify effectiveness afterward.

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IN FOCUS

Ultimately, building performance can be benchmarked and the information used to support certification rating systems such as those developed by the Green Building Council Australia.

Billing errors from a utility or other energy provider can be another area of concern. Errors that benefit the building (i.e. under-billing) can be as problematic as those that are in the utility’s favour, as most supply contracts allow the utility to recover these missed charges months or years after the error occurred.

To help avoid these situations, power monitoring systems can be equipped with utility-class “shadow meters” installed in parallel with the utility’s billing meters at the service entrance to each facility. The power monitoring software calculates an accurate bill, matching the utility’s rate structures, and compares each billing period to the utility’s bill to identify any inconsistencies.

The electrical systems and other undiscovered due to a lack of information and major circuit, helping planners energy distribution systems for new faciliabout energy consumption characteristics. ensure the use of existing capacity is ties are often over-designed, and addiA power monitoring system delivers AD_ PACEABSJ UL _ 1 2 . p d f P a g e 1 2 8 / 0 6 / 1 2 , safely 5 maximised : 2 2 P to M avoid unnecessary tional capacity in existing buildings goes detailed load profiles for each building upgrades. Accurate data on existing facilities helps simplify the estimation of future expansion needs and ensures infrastructure for new buildings is “right-sized” to minimise costs.

The source of reliability problems can sometimes be on the utility side of a facility’s service entrance; for example, lightning causing massive power spikes on transmission lines that then propagates through to the customer. To guard against external sources, companies will often install filtering devices.

A facility can also switch to UPS systems or backup generators in the event of major outage. These techniques will only be effective if equipment is continuously tested and optimised to ensure dependability. Power monitoring systems help engineers evaluate how the overall quality of power is impacting • Micro filtration modular system equipment and uptime.

• Automatic self-cleaning Permanently installed intelligent • Environmentally friendly & savings through meters monitor key distribution points reduced water consumption and upload real-time data and event • Variable micron rating down to 0.2 logs to visualisation software that helps personnel analyse conditions, isolate the • Membrane life expectancy 6 years. source of disturbances or failures, predict • 3-4 times reductions of pathogens future occurrences, and validate the • Ideal for mining camp water supplies, plant water, proper operation of all mitigation equipmunicipal water supplies, recycling of cooling water ment during a critical event.

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BENEFIT: Power monitoring systems can help to ensure energy investments realise maximum payback.

frequencies and high-voltage transients onto a facility’s electrical distribution network. These, in turn, can cause data loss and malfunctions in computers, building automation systems, or process equipment. Worse, transformers and conductors can overheat and fail or power breakers can trip needlessly, any of which can cause a complete facility outage.

Using phone or workstation, a power monitoring system will alert personnel to imminent problems, help them isolate and analyse high-risk conditions, and perform the necessary control functions to avoid downtime and the associated lost revenues.

Capital replacement costs can be avoided or deferred and workload for maintenance staff reduced. Being able to guarantee higher reliability can also help keep existing tenants satisfied and attract businesses that are especially sensitive to power quality glitches.

Power monitoring systems can help to dynamically identify and respond to opportunities, drive best practices, and provide the essential follow-up that ensures energy investments realise maximum payback. From automated bill checking to improved procurement, operational efficiencies, and power reliability, power monitoring technology offers the key to extracting true financial and competitive advantages from energy.

[Samuel Coupel is Product Manager, Energy Management & Power Quality, Schneider Electric Australia.]

Schneider Electric www.schneider-electric.com

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OPINION

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Quality energy auditing Existing buildings and industrial facilities will benefit from energy auditing, writes Paul Cooper.

E

NERGY efficiency is a necessity in all sectors of society in the current climate of rising electricity and fuel prices, increasingly stringent government regulation, and the carbon tax.

But one of the key challenges for engineers and professionals in the industrial and built environment sectors is to maximise energy efficiency of existing facilities, since most of us do not have the luxury of designing for new-build or green-field sites.

Establishing the performance of your existing building or manufacturing plant is the first step in developing a holistic and cost-effective program of upgrades to equipment and facilities. Yet there is still a considerable way to go for many organizations in adopting best practice approaches to benchmarking their energy performance.

“Understand your process” must be the starting point for anyone looking to reduce their energy consumption through good energy management and retrofitting of high efficiency equipment. This is equally important for the manufacturer looking to minimise electricity and fuel consumption through optimisation of their plant as it is for the commercial building owner who needs to replace an ageing air conditioning system while minimizing disturbance to the tenants in the building.

Development of a structured approach and acquisition of key background information is critical to optimal energy efficiency investment decisions.

In the case of existing commercial buildings, determining the optimal building upgrade is no longer a case of examining historical fuel bills and taking a walk through the building and plant rooms.

An extensive audit should start with determination of the requirements of the occupants and constraints on the building operation. Then installation of sub-metering (if required) and in-depth examination and interpretation of detailed real-time consumption data may reveal unexpected energy “treasures” where equipment, such as

Adoption of a coherent approach to energy efficiency can unlock new opportunities and financial benefits. the HVAC system, may be operating far from optimally. Then a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of all the major retrofitting options will need to be carried out, possibly including hour-by-hour simulation of the building performance of the key options. Recent mandatory disclosure legislation has also ratcheted up the pressure on building owners to improve the performance of their buildings through retrofitting energy efficient technologies to improve performance and attraction of tenants.

A similar philosophy should be adopted in manufacturing and process industries. Initial and continuous commissioning should be employed to ensure all equipment, measurement instrumentation and industrial utilities operate efficiently and reliably. A Whole System Design (WSD) approach and comprehensive energy and environment management system (EEMS) should be adopted as well to systematically manage and control energy use.

In response to the need to improve research and training in energy efficiency enhancements through retrofitting of buildings and manufacturing/ industry, a new centre is currently being established at the University of Wollongong (UOW).

Construction of UOW’s Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC) is now underway at the University’s Innovation Campus with completion scheduled for mid 2013. Funded by substantial capital works grants from the Commonwealth and NSW State Governments the centre will be a unique facility with a primary research focus on technologies and systems for

retrofitting of existing buildings and industry for sustainability. As a ‘Living Laboratory’, the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC) will provide a demonstration space for display of energy efficiency and sustainable building technologies.

The building has been designed to achieve a 6 Star Green Star Rating, and is aiming to be the first building in Australia to achieve Living Building Status through the Living Building Challenge. Based on optimised passive design principles, natural ventilation and careful equipment selection, the SBRC will be an ultra-low energy building.

TheASBRC produce D _ Awill MS E M J more U L _energy 1 2 . pd each year than it consumes by using a

number of renewable on-site generation technologies including solar, wind and a variety of storage systems.

The SBRC is currently offering a suite of energy efficiency training courses for engineers and other professionals, focussing on four key areas: (a) energy efficiency enhancements in industry (b) the built environment (c) electricity transmission, distribution and demand-side management and (d) changing user perceptions and behaviours.

[Professor Paul Cooper is Director, Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at the University of Wollongong.] f ForPmore a g information e 1 1 on 3 /the0building 6 / 1 2and , courses go to sbrc.uow.edu.au

July 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 17

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Machine Builder CKAS Mechatronics CKAS “Cranky” Full Motion Wharf Crane Simulator THE CKAS “Cranky” Full Motion Wharf Crane Simulator is an innovative training tool for the container port logistics industry, offering for the first time in Australia, a simulator for training crane operators on a full motion high fidelity device.

It is an exact replica of a typical crane cabin built to scale and includes a large array of switches, lights, gauges and other specialised, sophisticated instruments.

The software used in the model is highly accurate in showing the performance of the crane and features four crane types in the one machine.

A full six degrees of freedom is built into the motion system supplying all the correct cues to properly train crane drivers on the wharf.

Director at CKAS Mechatronics, Chris Kasapis says the system is mostly Australian and is revolutionary in its niche in the Australian market.

“Basically we built all the heavy equipment hardware that went into it,” explained Kasapis. “We built the six degree freedom motion systems and all the infrastructure which houses it.”

The company wanted to set themselves apart from the rest and did this by developing a visual system that was able to provide the same large field of view offered to crane drivers in a real crane.

The unique mechanical design specially incorporates full motion sixdegrees of freedom in a confined space and manages to supply all of the realistic vibrations and cues for full immersion.

“Effectively from a hardware point of view it is quite a sophisticated system and has many features which are pretty much either world firsts or Australian firsts,” said Kasapis.

One of the biggest hurdles that the company had to overcome was the fact that the project required a large set of multidisciplinary engineering skills.

They managed to overcome this through the selection of engineers who were highly skilled in many facets of engineering, and had proven track records of working on high stress jobs in the past, as the four month deadline meant extra pressure was on the staff.

The judges recognised this fact in the appraisal of the company.

“This project represents a good application in simulation for operator training in the workplace as well as contributing to safety management. A small engineering innovation company was able to master very large set of multidisciplinary engineering skills to deliver this project,” they said.

The company outsourced just one aspect of the software but are proud of the Australian talent that produced the simulator.

“In terms of the software all the motion control software and all the motion system firmware was developed all in house completely in Australia and we used basically a partner or third party piece of software to do some of the crane simulation – that’s an Indian company that we work with, ARI,” Kasapis said.

Kasapis is looking forward to the future of CKAS and the potential it has to achieve even more success in the crane simulation field.

“Thankfully for us it looks like we are now also on the verge of signing up the client again for at least three more units of the same thing and also to further expand the amount of crane models that we simulate, so it is a case of hopefully the customer coming back for more.”

The Machine Builder category is sponsored by B&R.

WINNER: Chris Kasapis (L) of CKAS Mechatronics accepts the award from B&R’s Stefan Zeintl, sponsor of the Machine Builder category.

CRANKY: The simulator is an exact replica of a typical crane cabin built to scale.

JULY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 19

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Power and Energy Management PTronik PTronik pMC Master Controller THE PTronik pMC consists of a unique software solution on a hardware platform that collects and uses real time plant data to automatically monitor and control the cleaning process thereby optimising plant performance.

The development of the pMC relied on employing accepted engineering principles to monitor the ongoing performance of filtration units. Its sensors need to measure key indicators including header pressure, differential pressure, hopper temperature, humidity level and dust particle concentration to determine the state of the air filtration unit’s collection bag.

The most important element of the innovation is that by continuously tracking and collecting data describing the ongoing operational state of the plant, sophisticated algorithms are employed to continuously and automatically change the cleaning regime in real time.

The pMC is available in two forms: an “off the shelf” system for retrofitting into existing dust collector installations and an embedded solution for integration as an OEM component of new dust collector installations.

Managing director, Robert Bosshard points out the diversity of industries that can benefit from the pMC Master Controller.

“Pharmaceutical, dairy industry, cement, where there is wood, wood filing, metal aluminium machining, any metal machining, iron and also in the mining industry where there is a lot of dust – it’s incredible how extensive the whole thing is. Our solution can be retrofitted into existing systems, so you can buy new or you can retrofit it and that’s an important factor,” said Bosshard.

The system has meant that companies large and small benefit in a variety of ways from typically seeing a return on investment within 12-18 months as well as improved occupational health and safety requirements through hazard reduction and improved environmental control.

“It saves energy and helps with maintenance. It also reduces the cost of filter bags in the dust collection as it can extend their life by 30 percent or more. That’s a big saving,” said Bosshard.

The pMC is adaptable to many environments and is capable of monitoring up to eight external parameters which makes it suitable to monitor and prevent explosions in hazardous areas with combustible dust. The pMC is also well adapted to be used in remote area locations to control, for example, the gas turbine air intake filtration systems.

“We can measure within five percent of the accuracy. We know how much energy we’re saving energy and can do that quite easily,” said Bosshard.

When asked about the future for Ptronik, Bosshard said that he is keen for the company to focus more on the overseas markets.

“We have deals now with international companies but in Australia only,” he said. “Now we have to promote our product overseas and that’s our next big step.”

Bosshard was honoured by the award and expressed his pride and support for other innovative Australian companies.

“I’m very humbled,” he said. “This is an Australian product completely invented and manufactured here. This prestigious award supports and recognises our efforts as well the excellent work done by other pioneering local companies.”

The Power and Energy Management category is sponsored by Schneider Electric.

WINNER: PTronik’s Robert Bosshard (R) receives the award from Schneider Electric’s David Musso, sponsor of the Power and Energy Management category.

ADAPTABLE: The pMC is capable of monitoring up to eight external parameters.

JULY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 21

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Precise Level Measurement New technologies provide new solutions 4HE NEW ,EVELmEX &-0 X RANGE OF GUIDED WAVE RADAR ENSURES COST EFlCIENT RELIABLE

CONTINUOUS LEVEL MEASUREMENT PERFORMANCE EVEN UNDER THE MOST DEMANDING APPLICATION CONDITIONS IN LIQUIDS POWDERS PASTES LIQUElED GASES AND BULK SOLIDS -AKING OPERATION EASY IS THE INNOVATIVE (ISTO2/-¤ DATA MEMORY MODULE WHICH ALLOWS FOR EASY SYSTEM RESTORATION AND MULTI POINT COMMISSIONING WITHOUT THE NEED FOR SPECIALISED TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE 4HIS NEW RANGE IN PARTICULAR SHOWCASES THE PATENTED INNOVATION OF INCORPORATING CAPACITANCE MEASUREMENT TO ACTIVELY MEASURE DIELECTRIC CONSTANTS TO PROVIDE A LEVEL OF RELIABILITY PREVIOUSLY UNACHIEVABLE IN INTERFACE MEASUREMENT 4HIS TECHNOLOGY IS AN UNRIVALLED WORLD lRST 3UITABLE FOR ABRASIVE AND CORROSIVE ENVIRONMENTS THE SENSORS CAN OPERATE IN CONDITIONS OF PRESSURES FROM VACUUM UP TO BAR AND TEMPERATURES FROM UP TO  # %ACH SENSOR IN THE &-0 X RANGE HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO PROVIDE A MORE EXACTING MATCH FOR A VARIETY OF LEVEL MEASUREMENT APPLICATIONS ENSURING OPTIMUM COST AND PERFORMANCE COMBINATIONS

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Water & Wastewater SAGE Automation State Water iSMART (integrated Surveillance, Monitoring, Automation & Remote Telemetry) SCADA Upgrade Project IN April 2010, State Water released a tender to the market for the design and construction of a fully integrated SCADA System to support all aspects of State Water’s delivery and management systems. SAGE provided a full set of electrical control system drawings. These included topology drawings and interconnection and schematic drawings.

SAGE undertook the programming of the SCADA system along with a design review phase which incorporated the production of detailed process function and specification on which the SCADA programming was based.

This was a highly interactive stage with extensive input from the client to ensure that the end product met or exceeded operational and functional requirements and expectations.

The judges praised SAGE for the implementation of the SCADA project and the transfer of information and knowledge onto a large scale project.

“This project employed concurrent teams so that design, construct and commission stages could progress simultaneously. The client successfully transitioned to industry standard protocols and devices giving them vendor independence in the future.”

The most difficult aspect that was encountered while installing the project was the large physical distances and remoteness of New South Wales said Paul Markwick, General Manger at SAGE Automation.

State Water owns, maintains, manages and operates major infrastructure to deliver bulk water to approximately 6,300 licensed water users across the state’s regulated rivers along with associated environmental flows. It also manages an asset portfolio spanning 250,000 km, worth $3.5 billion and operates from regional centres throughout New South Wales which shows the scale of the project that SAGE was enlisted to do.

“One of the biggest challenges for us was obviously the remoteness of New South Wales - it’s a big state and there were 60 sites that we had to get across. In order for us to do that we drew from resources from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. To pull it together and work collaboratively without actually having to travel is a great achievement for us,” said Markwick.

With this project, State Water now has the technical infrastructure in place to allow for the increasing needs of securing critical works into the future and a single interface to all of their state assets. This will allow them to add enhancements in the future and real time reporting to the business across the whole state.

Maintenance personnel also now have 24/7 access to a system that allows them to make business decisions based on the network as a whole. For example, someone 200 km downstream can make decisions based on a dam level upstream.

SAGE benefited from the experience as it developed enhanced business systems to handle a project of this scale. A team of 13 full time staff in three teams collaborated and worked on different areas of the project simultaneously. SAGE will employ this proven delivery model for large scale projects in the future.

Markwick added: “We’re currently into the support phase of this project but we’re looking at other possibilities with State Water. We’re looking at other opportunities, to use lessons learnt from this project to benefit more of our customers and go on to win other projects.”

The Water & Wastewater Award is sponsored by Endress+Hauser Australia.

WINNER: Paul Markwick (R) of SAGE Automation accepts the award from Endress+Hauser’s Jason Jurgens, sponsor of the Water & Wastewater category.

COLLABORATIVE: The fully integrated SCADA System needed to support all aspects of State Water’s delivery and management systems.

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Transport, Power and Infrastructure Aurecon Hatch NCIG Coal Export Terminal Control System AURECON Hatch was engaged to provide total engineering design, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services to NCIG for all stages of the Coal Export Terminal Control System. This included providing entire control systems engineering services, as well as system design, function specification for PLC and SCADA configuration, factory testing, site commissioning, performance testing and operator training.

The judges were impressed: “This complex project was impressive as it required a diverse range of control equipment and a fast track schedule. The team demonstrated a range of engineering skills to deliver the project on time and within budget.”

As part of the EPCM services, Aurecon Hatch project managed 11 different supply contracts, including HV switchgear, transformers, 415V MCCs, HV cables, power factor correction equipment, wagon vibrator, conveyor drive units, pulleys, conveyor belting, vibrating feeders, and sample plant modifications. The project was completed early and under budget. The controls design and controls capital works were also finished under budget.

Andrew Hepburn, Principal Engineer Automation at Aurecon Hatch outlined some of the difficulties involved in the project, specifically when it came to timing.

“We were given an overall schedule for the project and we knew our target dates and our durations. We planned the various steps of the work from design to installation and commissioning to work out and meet the end date of the overall program.”

The NCIG Coal Export Terminal is a plant rated at 66Mtpa and was developed in three stages of 33, 45, and 66 Mtpa. The plant involved a rail receival system, conveyor system, coal stacking, reclaiming and sampling as well as ship-loading.

The expansion to 45Mtpa and 66Mtpa represented a much more challenging task and involved both greenfield and brownfield works. In response to market pressure, NCIG required expansion to 45Mtpa to occur over a period of just two years and to 66Mtpa one year later.

“The control system usually comes at the end of the project and we had to almost work from negative program,” said Hepburn. “We had to design to the best guess of the progress the work. As contracts and plant were selected, we were able to modify the design in accordance with the real information but it was a very tight schedule to get the job done on time,” said Hepburn.

Aurecon Hatch established a multidisciplinary project team to cover various aspects of the project which provided a true one stop shop for the client. Skills included were project management, scheduling, cost control, change management and contract administration.

In relation to the control system, the team provided a full set of technical skills including PLC, SCADA, MES, building management, networking, fibre, fieldbus, instrumentation, access control, CCTV, historian, telephone, wireless and radio.

“It was a large $3 billion project. We were able to put together a team and different staff members had different parts of the job to manage. Effectively they all worked under the guidance of a project leader and in that way a very large job was successfully managed,” said Hepburn.

In order to provide a modern robust automation solution for the coal terminal’s infrastructure, that would allow a minimum staff of 50 to operate and maintain the plant a high level of automation, extensive diagnostics and condition monitoring, first up alarm system and integration of data between the controls and corporate systems had to be incorporated.

The Transport, Power and Infrastructure category is sponsored by Honeywell Process Solutions.

WINNER: Aurecon Hatch’s Andrew Hepburn (L) receives the award from Garry Mahoney of Honeywell Process Solutions, sponsor of the Transport, Power and Infrastructure category.

VIEW: The NCIG Coal Export Terminal plant was developed in three stages.

JULY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 25

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Lifetime Achievement Ken Brown K E Brown Electrical Switchboards KEN Brown is the Founding Managing Director of K E Brown Electrical Switchboards who, at the age of 91, still goes to work regularly to guide the company he built and developed.

It was humble beginnings for Ken who as a young returned soldier from the Royal Australian Navy was at a loss for what to do. “It took a while to settle down when you came back, it was so different. My first ‘job’ was to spend three months on Manly Beach, going to the pub a lot. A mate had just got out of the Army at the same time I left the Navy so we teamed up and enjoyed ourselves for a while.”

However he soon realised that the skills he’d learnt before the war as a boiler maker for the Eveleigh railway workshops were in high demand. That was when he began working with a company making ice chests.

“They gave me the chance to take the company over in 1948, and fix the engineering problem to get them out of the hole. I did that and as we got the company back on the rails, we found there was a big demand for anything to do with houses,” said Ken. Ken set up the company some 64 years ago with three people in the Manly Ice works doing sheet metal fabrication of ice chests and ice moulds. Today, K E Brown employs 75 staff with two factories in Sydney manufacturing advanced switchboards and line power projects.

“We went on to progress from making enclosures for little switchboards to making whole units, then bigger units, and ultimately some of the most sophisticated switchboards in the country,” said Ken. He says the key to his success over the years as simple and unchanging - you must listen to your employees and your customers. “People were always the key – they still are. Without good people you’ve got nothing. You’ve got to get the right people, train them and give them the right tools.”

“Quality, customisation and innovation are what keep people coming back – you listen to what they need, and you aim to exceed their expectations,” said Ken, whose company recently delivered its 800th switchboard for the world’s largest fast food retailer.

Ken is a founding member of the National Electrical Switchboard Manufacturers Association, NESMA, and the company as a whole routinely involves itself in product development and product testing initiatives well beyond just what is required by Standards.

“We are very proud of what we achieve and what’s really good is that we are doing it with local skills we developed in-house,” said Ken. “When we send a switchboard off around Australia or throughout the Asia-Pacific, we know it is going to work because it has got the quality, design and reliability built into it by our own people. That’s something that’s never changed and isn’t changing now.”

Unfortunately Ken couldn’t be at the PACE Zenith Awards night.

However his grandson, Adam Lovegrove who works as Business Services Manager at K E Brown, accepted the award on his behalf.

When asked what he thinks is his grandfather’s greatest achievement, Adam replied: “I think perhaps the longevity of the business that he’s built - he has such a good team of people behind him. I think he was trying to build something that is going to last, that will succeed him, that will continue until after he’s not around.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award is sponsored by LogiCamms.

WINNER: Adam Lovegrove, grandson of winner Ken Brown accepts the award from David Cotterell of LogiCamms, sponsor of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

KEN BROWN: Built a company that manufactures electrical switchboards but started 64 years back doing sheet metal fabrication for ice chests. He is pictured here with his wife, Rose.

JULY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 27

Siemenspac121111715[QUAIT8].pdf

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World market leader in PLCs according to the ARC Report 2011

www.siemens.com.au

‘Automating my dairy lets me milk 240 cows an hour … single-handedly’ Next time you’re enjoying full cream,use lowoffat or one the myriad milk Farmer Joe Lenssen’s innovative PLCs hasoftransformed his combinations, rotary dairy raise your glass to Joe and his innovative use of the world’s most popular PLC.

Next time you’re enjoying full cream, low fat or one of the myriad milk combinations, raise your glass to Joe and his innovative use of the world’s most popular PLC. Dairy farmer Joe Lenssen’s radical use of SIMATIC PLCs has enabled him to single-handedly milk his herd of 240+ cows, saving him around $60,000 annually in additional wages. And the extra information he gathers from the fully automated solution increases his farm’s milk production and improves the health of his herd.

As the world market leader in automation, Siemens is proud to support the PACE Zenith Awards category of ‘Food and Beverage’. But it doesn’t stop there. We’re also proudly helping provide Australian

industries with sustainable technology solutions – including solutions from breweries to bottling lines; mining to manufacturing; oil and gas, even water, waste water and desalination plants.

To see the full article and video on Joe’s dairy installation, visit: http://aunz.siemens.com.au/news/news-centre-2012-ss-rotary-dairy For more information on Siemens PLC solutions, visit: www.siemens.com.au/plc or call 137 222

Innovation for generations.

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Food & Beverage Process Partners five:am MELBOURNE based process engineering group, Process Partners have taken out this award for the work they did with five:am, an organic yoghurt manufacturer. five:am secured a contract with a leading supermarket retailer before it had the capability to produce its organic yoghurt product on a large scale. To accomplish the task, they teamed up with Process Partners and Schneider Electric.

Working to a strict time frame of just eight months, Process Partners conducted a detailed audit of five:am’s requirements, taking into account the need to produce more variations of the product than was initially required. From this, Process Partners developed a manufacturing strategy for the plant and worked with five:am to amend and evolve the strategy based on its budget and business objectives.

Entrepreneur David Prior from five:am wanted to get the project off the ground as he not only had a tight time frame but also wanted to ensure every aspect of five:am’s production and operation processes was environmentally sustainable.

“When the contract was signed to produce and distribute our yoghurt within an eight month timeframe, all we had was a 35,000 square foot site located just south of Melbourne,” explained Prior. “Our site had no manufacturing system in place, inadequate air flow and water supply, and none of the technology needed to produce organic yoghurt.”

A crucial element of the plant design and strategy proposed by Process Partners was its project partnership approach with Schneider Electric to provide a full suite of automation and control technology. Michael Francis, Director of Process Partners recognised that timing was a crucial element of the unique project.

“The time taken from ordering components to delivery was just a matter of weeks. Schneider Electric was the only organisation that could meet this timeframe,” said Francis. “The deployment of the SCADA package was very quick as the solution could be configured offsite and then downloaded at the plant.”

Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure architecture was leveraged to provide an integrated solution comprising automation and power technologies. The suite of solutions included an integrated SCADA package and motor control solutions to ensure motors and drives run in the most efficient way possible. The SCADA package was implemented to provide operators with complete visibility of plant operations.

“Inefficiencies, such as motors running unnecessarily when systems malfunction, can easily be identified through the SCADA system deployed in five:am’s plant. This insight is most valuable when fed into the SCADA management system that presents information in an easy-to-digest dashboard. It allows plant managers to have complete visibility of the plant systems and identifies and isolates problems before they have an impact on the product,” explained Francis.

The judges were impressed with the design and fulfilment of the project.

“This is a well designed and executed project given the tight time frames involved to get a new production plant up and running. The solution helped deliver sustainable manufacturing processes by reducing wastage and enabling significant time savings.”

Francis said that the new interface is convenient and simple for five:am to operate and help grow the burgeoning business. “Now five:am has one interface for the whole plant – this gives visualisation of everything such as batch, recipes, mixing, pasteurising and fermenting,” explained Francis.

“The automation technologies helped us achieve sustainable manufacturing processes by reducing wastage, and ensuring a smooth running of the plant, enabling significant time savings from not having to manually operate and clean machines,” added Prior.

The Food & Beverage category is sponsored by Siemens.

WINNER: Michael Francis (L) of Process Partners accepts the award from Steven Kemeridis of Siemens, sponsor of the Food & Beverage category.

EFFICIENT: The system allows plant managers to have visibility of the plant systems and identifies problems before they impact on the product.

JULY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 29

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Automotive and Manufacturing Robotic Automation & Amcor Cartons Robotic End-of-Line Solution ROBOTIC Automation teamed up with Amcor Cartons to offer them a solution to the problem of high-speed printing, folding, gluing and packing machines suddenly being “bottle-necked” by manual staffhandling the boxed product in a labour-intensive process.

The Robotic End-of-Line Solution consists of three main component technologies: Robotic Palletising, Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Automatic Pallet Wrapping. The design and integration, including R&D, manufacture, build, testing and final on-site installation and commissioning was performed by Robotic Automation.

Each robot performs at the equivalent rate of two manual staff per shift, in up to three shifts per day, without need for break-times or shift changeover time. With seven lines in full operation to six cells, the six robots can do the work of more than 42 staff per day.

AGVs have allowed a more efficient and flexible use of current floorspace and cost-free adaptability to changing needs. Laser-guided accuracy optimises efficiency and safe motion of the vehicles.

The outcome has meant more on-going savings, productivity gains, reduced damage to product and a fast return on investment which meant the cost didn’t have to be passed on to customers.

Group engineering manager at Robotic Automation, Robert Gropp said that the major challenge during the project was to create a cost effective solution and they did this by keeping the population of the AGVs down to a minimum while still achieving the changeover speeds needed.

“Pallet changeover times was actually the challenge, so we came up with some fairly innovative solutions involving multiple time arrangements on the AGVs in order to achieve it.”

Sales manager, Stuart Scott explains the principle behind the Endof-Line Solution. “We took the cartons from an end of line system, we basically stacked it onto a pallet and moved it onto an AGV for distribution.

The basic design was based on a lot of numbers so we had to do a lot of number crunching to come up with a plan and we’ve got to thank Amcor because they supported us no end.”

Robotic Automation had to think outside the box in order to come up with solutions that would benefit their client most and this included double stacking the pallets for more efficiency.

“The AGV would normally carry only one pallet at a time and the innovation came about when we planned to carry two - the empty and the full at the same time. Now, that’s easier said than done because the infrastructure around that needed to be specially designed to cater for this. So we actually carried model pallets, empty and full, over and under,” said Gropp.

The judges recognised the innovative nature of the designs in their comments on the project. “This well-designed and excellently engineered project resulted in tangible gains for the stake holders. The project was delivered on time and within budget and delivered enormous productivity gains and helped lower costs.”

When asked whether the concept behind the robotic end-of-line solution could be extended to other areas of the plant, Gropp said that it was without question. “Definitely, and we’re actually talking to Amcor currently about doing just that.”

The Automotive and Manufacturing category is sponsored by ifm efector.

WINNER: Stuart Scott (L) of Robotic Automation accepts the award from ifm efector’s Dave Delany, sponsor of the Automotive and Manufacturing category.

SOLUTION: Each robot performs at the equivalent rate of two manual staff per shift in up to three shifts per day.

JULY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 31

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Young Achiever Lucya Yunus Xstrata Copper North Queensland AS Metallurgist at the Xstrata Mount Isa Mines copper smelter, Lucya Yunus is responsible for technical, training and providing support to the operations, maintenance and management of the Feed Preparation, Primary Smelting and ESP Dust Leaching areas of the copper smelter.

“I was able to work with Xstrata Copper when I graduated and have been working with them for three and half years now. In the first two years I was exposed to a lot of the processes and gained valuable experience. Coming into my third year, I was given a lot of freedom to confront some of the challenges and explore new ideas,” said Lucya.

“So it was really good that I was allowed to go out into the plant and experiment with all the ideas I had. It has really worked out, I did manage to give a positive contribution to the company,” she added.

Xstrata Copper’s ISASMELT furnace experienced an accelerated brick wear of 260 mm per year. At that time Lucya was working as a graduate metallurgist in the copper smelter project team working on the Slag SlowCooling project but was promoted to the role of Primary Control Metallurgist to help determine the cause of the unusually high ISASMELT brick wear rate.

Lucya assisted the team in the investigation and recommended, trialed and monitored the implementation of a number of initiatives as well as some of her own solutions, of which she was particularly proud.

There is one achievement of which she is particularly proud. “That was getting brick wear (lowered) in an ISASMELT furnace. Last year we faced significant brick wear in our plant. Our operational and metallurgical teams implemented a solution that has given us one of the lowest brick wear rates in the world.”

The lower brick wear rate equates to a directly attributable capital expense saving of $5 million, thanks to the reduced need for regular re-bricking maintenance projects.

Lucya is obviously a valued member of the Mount Isa team as was pointed out by Xstrata Copper when nominating her for the PACE Zenith Awards.

“Lucya is a passionate and diligent member of the Xstrata Copper team with problem-solving skills and technical abilities beyond her years of experience.

She displays a desire for making valuable operational improvements for the company. Her innovative and tireless approach to developing and implementing costsaving initiatives has resulted in increased profits and production efficiency, and helped us develop new ways

WINNER: Lucya Yunus (R) of Xstrata Copper accepts the award from Jeff Walker of SICK.

to recover our resources.”

Lucya’s many proven skills meant that the company had the faith in her to establish a cost saving device to help recoup production losses which had amounted to 20-30 percent compared to previous years.

“At first, I didn’t know how exactly I could contribute but then I thought about developing a cost tracking tool. From that simple tool, which is really just an Excel spreadsheet, we managed to generate a lot of ideas. One of the projects currently in progress is to minimise oxygen wastage and this can save about $80,000 per month.”

“Each month we check oxygen costs and can show that we are actually saving oxygen costs by minimising the wastage. Each week the operational manager and superintendant are excited to have the cost review meeting so now we make it mandatory.”

Lucya’s enthusiasm for her work is genuine as she sees direct results from her initiatives and she was pleased to win an award for the first time in her life that recognised these efforts.

In June she is off to Zambia to attend a conference based around her brick wear work, showing that the future is indeed bright for the young metallurgist.

The Young Achiever Award is sponsored by SICK.

AT WORK: Lucya’s enthusiasm for her work is genuine and she sees results from her initiatives.

JULY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 33

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Oil & Gas Qenos Altona Olefins Advanced Process Control and Plantwide Feed Maximiser QENOS was tasked with providing a plantwide Advanced Process Control (APC) scheme to enable the Altona Olefins (ethylene) site operations department to take advantage of high feed availability scenarios.

Maximising utilisation of available feed was critical to the ongoing profitability of the site.

The highly integrated Olefins site is complex to run and was difficult to maintain in terms of quality and stability when rates were pushed to equipment limits.

Feed and offtake variations to and from the site caused operators to favour conservative operation, frequently anticipating a change that never comes.

The APC replaces around 90 traditional advanced control (TAC) schemes and simplifies the overall running of the site.

The efforts undertaken throughout and prior to 2010/2011 with underlying APC implemented during that time, undoubtedly contributed to an above plan production year and increased ethylene yields in 2010 with production benefits of 2 to 5 percent being easily achieved.

The judges said: “This project is a good example of overcoming the difficulties of using Advanced and Multivariable Controls to improve plant operations.

A small team was able to deliver a world class solution which generates a return on investment in a difficult local manufacturing environment.”

The APC project and plantwide feed maximiser has resulted in a paradigm shift in the way a 50 year old plant is being run and couldn’t have been achieved without the contributions by local staff engineers said Richard Wawrzon, Process Control Team Leader.

“They had to have a good mix of in depth process knowledge as well as a high level of process control skills because a whole range of process control solutions needed to be used to deliver the final product,” he explained. “So people had to be experienced process engineers and experience process control engineers also with good knowledge of analyser systems and instrument systems.”

This structure enabled the project team to manage the risk of delivering a world class solution which generates a return on investment in a difficult local manufacturing environment. Although there were difficulties encountered, an improvement to safety has been one of the biggest benefits of the new system according to Wawrzon.

“There were significant technical challenges as well as personnel and work practice challenges because the way operators interact with the process is quite different. There had to be a lot of buy in from operations. The model base controls or multivariable controls need to be justified economically but there are a lot of safety benefits as some of the operator’s attention can now be redirected to the safety issues and machinery observation.”

Australian ethylene manufacturing is small scale by world standards, and generally needs to work smart to justify the cost of assembling a team of specialists and consultants for implementation. Wawrzon believes ethylene production is important for the future of Australia’s natural resources.

“Polyethylene is a critical ingredient to make products for the water management industry. Qenos supplies a lot of the raw material to make irrigation piping and water storage devices. Maintaining a viable ethylene and polyethylene manufacturing industry in Australia adds value to our natural resources.”

“This award is a nice acknowledgement by peers of some of the good work that we’ve done. We’re not a vendor or an external consultant but just the staff of a manufacturing company - and that was particularly gratifying for us.”

The Oil & Gas Award is sponsored by AMS Instrumentation & Calibrations.

WINNER: Richard Wawrzon (L) of Qenos accepts the award from AMS Instrumentation & Calibration’s Thomas Kuiper, sponsor of the Oil & Gas category.

ADVANCED: The APC project and plantwide feed maximiser resulted in a paradigm shift in the way a 50 year old plant is being run.

JULY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 35

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

Mining, Minerals & Exploration iOmniscient BP (British Petroleum) THE objective of the British Petroleum (BP) project was to protect the exposed portion of the Azerbaijan pipeline, against intrusion by thieves who may damage the pipeline and steal the oil. It is one of the world’s longest pipelines in rough conditions particularly with wide ranging temperatures, high winds and sandstorms.

Previously BP had guards who would patrol the fence by driving along it every 30 minutes. In addition, BP had also implemented a system of CCTV cameras which were manually watched and a Fence Vibration Detection system. None of these systems proved adequate.

Humans cannot effectively watch large numbers of CCTV cameras on monitors for any length of time. Also the fence Vibration detection system was generating large numbers of false alarms and was not able to detect people or objects moving slowly or in the dark. High winds could generate false alarms as could local wildlife.

This project consisted of implementing an Advanced Video Analytic System covering several hundred cameras. Each camera covered the pipeline for approximately 100 to 120 metres.

Dr Marlene Kanga, Director at iOmniscient said that the technology involved in the Video Analytics System means that false alarms are now kept to a minimum.

“Our patented technology is always ‘learning’ about its environment and can distinguish, for example, between leaves moving on trees and small animals as well shadows and light changes on moving water. For the BP oil pipeline, our system can cope with complex lighting environments including dust storms, which could affect the accuracy of a video analysis system.”

Animals and humans can also be distinguished with the system. It can easily distinguish between small animals and a human being and can also distinguish between a crouching human and an upright one.

“Our Nuisance Alarm Minimisation System (NAMS) has been developed to make these distinctions so that systems do not get flooded with false alarms. Minimising the false alarms that can occur involves very sophisticated artificial intelligence based techniques,” she said.

BP has also implemented iOmniscient’s Surveillance HealthCheck system which provides immediate notification if cameras are malfunctioning which is particularly important for a project with a large network of cameras which are distributed over a long distance. The positions of these cameras can be viewed on a map or a diagram to allow for a complete overview of the health of the surveillance network.

The operator will be informed promptly if any cameras are not functioning properly and the cause of the malfunction will also be recorded.

“Our HealthCheck system monitors contiguous cameras so if any camera is tampered with, an alarm is transmitted to the central control room. Secondly, the HealthCheck system enables the control room to monitor if every camera is operating effectively. If the camera has been sabotaged or if the image cannot be seen clearly, a warning is sent to the control room to raise an alarm,” said Kanga.

The system has many applications and is currently being used throughout the world in various industries from theme parks, airports, shops, traffic management and railway stations.

“Our systems go beyond security to counting, monitoring congestion and crowding and observing the behaviour of people to enhance safety and customer service,” said Kanga. “iOmniscient is continuing to develop its patented technology to include both detection of a wide range of objects and people and identification such as facial recognition and license plate recognition. It is also developing the capacity to analyse large volumes of video data to provide additional realtime intelligent responses.”

The Mining, Minerals & Exploration category is sponsored by Schneider Electric.

WINNER: iOmniscient’s Marlene Kanga (inset) was overseas on business and unable to attend the Awards dinner. The winner was announced by Schneider Electric’s Vice President Industry Business, Scott Wooldridge, sponsor of the Mining, Minerals & Exploration category.

SECURITY: Minimising the false alarms that can occur involves very sophisticated artificial intelligence based techniques.

JULY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 37

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COMMUNITY

TOP TWEETS

WHAT’S ON

CISCO Certification Training CCNA1: Network Fundamentals 7 July 2012, Melbourne wendy.gillies@rmit.edu.au Introduction to Graphical Programming with LabVIEW and PC-Based Data Acquisition Seminar 17 & 19 July, NSW australia.ni.com/events Embedded Data Logging with LabVIEW and CompactRIO Hands-On 17 July 2012, Melbourne australia.ni.com/events Programmable Logic Control and Automation Short Course 4 18 July 2012, Melbourne wendy.gillies@rmit.edu.au Instrumentation, Process Control and Automation Conference 24-26 July 2012, Brisbane idc@idc-online.com

For daily updates visit www.pacetoday.com.au

Here’s what you may have missed this June if you weren’t following @pacetoday on Twitter: o Process plant engineers found responsible for design defects and fined $5.7m http://dlvr.it/1gjJ9D

o Three big predictions for industrial automation and process control http://dlvr.it/1gzXGJ

o Australia’s combined wind and wave powered energy generation facility is a world first http://dlvr.it/1ghPml

o Virtual plant retrofitting and maintenance http://dlvr.it/1hDg8X

o Queensland looks to downsize desal plant http://dlvr.it/1gQRlG

o Endress+Hauser becomes principal member of ODVA http://dlvr.it/1jPNyH

o ABB to acquire Tropos Networks http://dlvr.it/1gQ2Zg

o Honeywell launches Experion Orion globally http://dlvr.it/1jRlhk

o Swedish robotic equipment manufacturer appoints local distributor http://dlvr.it/1g6dBy o Defence industry manufacturer helps commercialise tidal power generation http://dlvr.it/1g6VCm o Iron ore yield at Rio Tinto Paraburdoo boosted with particle monitor http://dlvr.it/1f98DM

o Tapping geothermal energy to create fresh water for Western Australia http://dlvr.it/1jPNZp o LogiCamms awarded $8.5m contract at Meandu Coal Mine http://dlvr.it/1kXPly o UltraBattery energy storage technology puts wind in sails of renewable energy market http://dlvr.it/1kXVd8

Follow @pacetoday on Twitter for the latest news, analysis, new product information and commentary. And never miss out again.

IICA CORNER

Filling the training gap We need to look at providing access to the ISA CAP and CCST Programs, writes Brett Simpson.

IN THIS article, I want to ‘fly a kite’ about an issue that was the subject of some discussion by Members of the IICA Federal Council meeting in May this year.

The issue in question was the possibility, feasibility or even the desirability of our Institute seeking license from our sister organization in the US, the International Society of Automation (ISA), to conduct the necessary training courses, preparatory to candidates sitting for the ISA’s formal examinations leading to either the Certified Automation Professional (CAP) and /or the Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST).

Unfortunately, the majority of readers of this article will not have heard of either qualification. Which is a pity 38 www.pacetoday.com.au July 2012

because many countries internationally widely recognise that anyone with the above credentials is simply better equipped to gain an advantage over other candidates seeking similar employment. Conversely, companies with staff having the CAP or CCST post nominals, recognise the value they bring to a company’s competitive position, efficiencies and profitability. But not so in Australia!

A brief overview of these qualifications will not go astray.

Both the CAP and CCST qualifications are Certified by the ISA, which provides an objective, third party assessment and confirmation of a person’s skills and gives them the opportunity to stand out from the crowd and be recognised. Generally, the qualifica-

tions criteria for such programs include specific requirements of education, experience and examination.

Persons who successfully complete the CAP Program are usually responsible for the direction, design and deployment of systems and equipment for manufacturing and control systems. Those with the CCST certification are usually persons who calibrate, document, troubleshoot and repair/replace instrumentation for systems that measure and control level, temperature, pressure, flow and other process variables.

Why aren’t Australian based companies demanding that candidates have specific purpose credentials like the CAP or CCST or even dedicated degrees in engineering geared to IC&A? There may be a couple of reasons,

one being that Australian universities generally do not offer such specific degrees. They tend to offer electrical or computing engineering courses with add-on IC&A content. Thus employers do simply train recruits on the job for their specialist requirements.

Also, the majority of Australian companies, including many multinationals, are unaware of the existence of the CAP and CCST qualifications.

There is a gap that needs filling. It is perhaps timely for the IICA to initiate and explore the possibility of the IICA providing access to the ISA CAP and CCST Programs to Australians.

I would be very happy to receive feedback and input from our readers.

[Brett Simpson is President IICA.] admin@iica.org.au www.iica.org.au

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