PACE - Process & Control Engineering - May 2012

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PACE Zenith Awards Introducing the people and projects vying for top honours.

Nominations 27

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ifm full metal sensors: Reliable in harsh environments.

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AD_PACEBECMAY_12.pdf Page

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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 Publisher: Michelle Graves Email: michelle.graves@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

27 Networking 6

Security risks Networks and business infrastructures are increasingly exposed to new security risks.

Networks 16

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CUSTOMER SERVICE: 1300 360 126

Conversation 18

PACE Zenith Awards 27

Innovation 20

IICA Corner 42

Service responsiveness is key Software Toolbox’s Managing Partner and President, John Weber spoke with PACE on his recent visit to Australia.

Soil remediation technology Adelaide teams dig deep to design and build a sophisticated control platform for a soil remediation machine for export.

Nominations received With the sheer number and quality of entries received in all ten categories, the judges have their work cut out for them.

Bridge education gap We will not produce enough graduates who will be sought after by industry for their leading-edge knowledge.

ON THE COVER P A C E . MA Y 1 2 . P G 0 0 1 . p d f

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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.

Viewpoint 11

PACE Zenith Awards Introducing the people and projects vying for top honours.

Nominations 27

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF:

ifm full metal sensors: Reliable in harsh environments.

Average Net Distribution

Post Print Approved PP255003/00539

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The safest bet when the going gets tough – Full metal inductive sensors for the food industry.

Isn’t it great when things just work? ifm inductive sensors are designed to work in harsh conditions, and are reliable in environments where competitor’s products fail.

Full metal sensors from ifm offer: • Wide temperature range of 0...100 °C. • High / IP 69K; 1 ingress 3 / 0 4protection: / 1 2 , IP 67 1 0/ IP : 68 2 0 A Mfoodgrade housing materials. • Temperature shock

resistant even in cases of frequent temperature fluctuations. • Resistant to high-pressure cleaning and aggressive cleaning agents. ifm is one of the leading manufacturers in the automation industry. The company began in 1969 with the invention of inductive proximity sensors on the basis of film technology. Today ifm is synonymous with position and fluid sensors, object recognition, diagnostic, networking and identificawww.ifm.com/au tion systems.

Put Integrated Architecture — at the heart of your machine CompactLogix offers a scaleable, integrated control and motion solution to meet your needs simply and effectively, while reducing costs. www.rockwellautomation.com.au

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PACE.MAY12.PG004.pdf

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COMMENT

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

We need to market our skills Kevin Gomez Editor

Next Issue

• Test & Measurement • SCADA & MES • Water & Wastewater • Instrumentation

THE May issue of PACE is always eagerly anticipated each year – both by our readers as well as by the team that puts it together. I continue to be amazed by the skill and engineering capability that exists in the country. This year is no exception with several innovative projects and high achievers.

Twenty pages of this bumper issue are devoted to the entrants as well as the sponsors who have supported the PACE Zenith Awards 2012. A big thank you is in order to ifm efector, Siemens, B&R Automation, Schneider Electric, AMS Instrumentation & Calibration, LogiCamms, Honeywell Process Solutions,

Endress+Hauser and SICK. A few years back, faced with severe shortages, water was liquid gold for our industry.

There were desalination plants to be built and water conservation and recycling projects were high on the agenda. But recent rainfall and lower consumption have resulted in a 34 percent decrease in water infrastructure spending. Urban water utilities have cut capital expenditure by 18 percent after a record high in 2009-10.

On the flip side, spending on wastewater and sewage treatment plants and projects is bucking the trend, showing an increase of 8.7 percent.

Herein lie the industry’s

‘water’ opportunities. Perhaps.

I just stepped off a flight from Qingdao as this page was getting ready for press. Siemens PLM Software had organised a mega-event in China to launch Teamcenter 9.

I also had the opportunity to meet with a couple of manufacturers in China. The degree of automation and development in that country must be experienced first hand as words cannot describe the unbelievable assimilation of cutting-edge technology. Senior manufacturing executives there anticipate future growth to be akin to a “nuclear explosion” in terms of size and scale.

Scrambling from Shanghai’s

domestic to international airport, I happened to share the one-hour taxi ride with Nick Xiao, VP of STUAA, a maker of custom engineered robots and work cells. Nick was on his way to Europe, seeking advanced design and technology inputs from companies in Germany and France.

Can Australia too hop on the back of the dragon? We have many small and medium size companies doing incredible work – that much is evident in the 70-plus PACE Zenith Award entries received so far.

What’s needed to make people like Nick put Australia on their tech-travel itinerary? kevin.gomez@reedbusiness.com.au

CONTROL

Understand the paradigms of automation innovation

By JIM PINTO

Perhaps only a gutsy CEO with good ating advantages. Automation is overdue RADICAL innovation is disruptive. It market insights can make that kind of for a revolution. Here is a major case in creates an inflection point that genercall. How many of those are there in the point – Decentralised Control. ates fast growth for the innovators and automation business? The two largest How effectively would the Internet inevitable decline for those that are stuck segments of industrial measurement and operate if it ran primarily with centralin old paradigms. The large automation control systems – PLC and DCS – were ised intelligence? Well, that’s how companies are developing mostly extenboth 1970s era developments. process controls and automation systems sions of old stuff, reincarnations of tired While there are isolated pockets of operate today – deterministic, centralconcepts that can’t generate real growth. growth in the automation business, no ised, hierarchical systems.

They are too conservative to do much other innovations have succeeded in The inventor of the PLC, Dick beyond short-term extrapolations. achieving an equivalent inflection point Morley, has been preaching peer-to-peer A D _ Jobs P Asaid, C E “If M Eit’s T good, 2 M Adon’t R _ 1 2 . by pd f Pimprovements a g e 1 of 2 4ten/ times 0 2 / 1 2 decentralised , 9 : 4 3control A Msystems for two Steve offering do it - it’s got to be insanely great!” or more in price, performance and operdecades, but no one has really run with

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it to prove the practical advantages of real alternatives in large systems. The automation majors are too chicken to invest significantly to prove the point.

They’re waiting for some gutsy little company to prove the overwhelming benefits. Meantime, most top managers in the automation world are too busy looking into their rear-view mirrors to see the future coming at them. Fast.

Look for new leaders to blaze the path to explosive new growth.

Jim@JimPinto.com

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Integrating People, Processes and Information • Management • Openness

• Modularity

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PACE.MAY12.PG006.pdf

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OPINION

SECURITY

Network security is the key Addressing security risks and cyber threats poses many challenges, writes Steve Lawlor.

I

NDUSTRIES are becoming Cyber security is a factor that can impact and financial services. increasingly reliant on advancing both these operational goals—remote Regardless of industry or applicatechnology and the benefits it operation relies on timely data transmistion, attacks on networks are becoming provides. The rapid development sion and the efficiency and safety of the increasingly more sophisticated and of long distance communication techmanufacturing environment is reliant targeted. They often originate as a nologies has created a global interconupon networked system integration. ‘simple’ email scam or virus that is nected platform allowing for boundless As Internet connectivity expands to spread like the common cold from information sharing that is not limited touch industrial control systems, new computer to computer. by proximity. variables are introduced to automated The advanced design of contemRemote systems in isolated locations systems. Left unchecked, these variables porary malware allows it to be skilare able to rely on control centres in can lead to compromise of the integrity fully cloaked from detection. Once a capital cities where diagnostic and operaof information and control aspects of the computer asset is successfully infected, tional data is relayed back and forth system. Critical infrastructure is defined what was merely a latent security risk can through a network, eliminating the need as assets that are essential for the funcquickly evolve into a real and insidious to have a large physical presence on site. tioning of a society and the economy. threat and all-out attack that expands In the manufacturing environment, Some examples include power generafrom one asset to an entire system. facilitating efficiency A D _ Poperating A C E Euptime, A T MA Y _ 1 2 . p tion d f andPsupply, a g e water 1 supply, 1 8 / telecom0 4 / 1 2 , 9Many : 0 new 7 cyber A M threats first manifest and safety are crucial to productivity. munication, transportation and health their effects as simple information-gath-

ering activities. As the malware continues to evade security countermeasures, espionage activities may be altered to target specific assets such as intellectual property or confidential information.

In the extreme case, elaborate cyber attacks on critical assets may successfully disrupt safe and reliable control system operation. Targeted malware attacks validate previous fears that the frequency and impact of critical infrastructure incidents will increase in the future. As a result, it is essential that companies assess their risk of both physical and cyber attacks and execute measures to help address, and where possible, eliminate known cyber vulnerabilities.

Industrial network security is multi-

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faceted; it is essential that all variables vent risk controls. Intellectual property that introduce risk be proactively identi(IP)—patents, trademarks, employee fied, tracked and addressed in order to knowledge or trade ‘secrets’—are often help facilitate a safe and reliable industrial more valuable to an organisation than process. For manufacturing customers, its physical assets. For this reason, primary foci of control system operation protecting IP is another very important have historically included uptime, integaspect of network security. rity and safety of operation.

“A holistic view of security, control Risks that may affect any one of system and enterprise has been shown these foci continue to be carefully evaluto be the most effective way to protect ated and mitigated. Such risks typically IP assets,” said Brad Hegrat, Senior look toward potential mechanical failPrincipal Security Consultant, Rockwell ures, human-errors and oversight and Automation. “It is essential because there unforeseen operating conditions brought is no single element that can fulfil the on by the environment. whole range of security needs. Security Security proves another element that needs to encompass both technical and requires strong risk consideration. It too non-technical factors to address risk.” is a variable that can affect the safety Communication between people in of the system, integrity of the operaan organisation on an ongoing basis is tion and productivity; however, unlike critical. If employees are informed about traditional activities to address risk, information that needs to be protected, security mitigation actions must work they can be more aware of ways to to address a creative and, regrettably, protect it. The technical standpoint is sometimes A D _ Pmalicious A C E P human-element L C M A R _ 1 2 . p based d f on P using a g econtrols 1 that 2 2 interact / 0 2 / 1 2 , > that may specifically seek to circumwithin this framework for people.

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OPINION

Software tools can be used to locate confidential documents, and also identify people that are using them and what they are using them for. It is advisable to keep sensitive data in a particular location (physical or virtual) that can be secured to monitor and restrict access to those who need it.

Using strong passwords and changing them regularly is also a simple but effective way of keeping sensitive information secure. Implementing a holistic approach to developing an effective security process involves adopting policies, strategies, guidelines and organisational instructions to create a framework for people to interact with a complex system.

Firewalls continue to be used as one of the first lines of defence to segregating company assets and protecting operations against potential security threats external to a particular system or subsystem.

The firewall isolate AD_ P AC E C Ocan NM A Y _busi1 2 . ness, office and industrial networks from

The convergence of manufacturing and IT relies on networks and business infrastructures are thus increasingly exposed to new security risks.

one another standing between subnets in various parts of a facility.

Furthermore, these same firewalls can separate systems from open access to the Internet, or other infrastructure-means used to enable remote network access.

The use of firewalls is often supplemented with other defence measures, utilising several layers of protection such as access control, anti-viral software and pintrusion df Pdetection. a ge 1 1 8 / 0 4 / 1 Appropriate asset maintenance and

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No More Tangles

management of these defence measures can determine the level of protection offered by security measures such as firewalls. Proper configuration is essential to maintain the efficiency and efficacy of a firewall system. Regular updating is recommended to keep it current with the internal and external environment of the network.

By checking activity logs on a regular basis, attempted and successful intrusions can be monitored and addressed.

Technical controls such as intrusion detection/prevention and a host of other software systems can be implemented to help protect the security framework.

More industries are connecting to wireless networks to access the benefits that the increased flexibility offers. For example, on a factory floor, wireless, remote, monitoring systems can lead to reduced installation and maintenance costs and an enabling of mobile 2 , workers, 9 : 0no3 longer A Mtethered to a particular machine.

In remote operations, such as mines and oil refineries, wireless networks remove the need for personnel to be in close proximity to hazardous environments. Although wireless networks provide substantial benefits for organisations, stability and uptime can be a concern for the application engineer and security remains the number one concern — to avoid unauthorised access to the networked environment.

In the absence of appropriate security measures, a wireless connection is easily accessible to potential threats. It is an air-based media, without the pathway limits of copper wires, that extends in many directions; often well beyond the physical envelope needed by the system.

Technological advances continue to evolve allowing advanced methods of restricting wireless network access to only authorised users. Modern encryption techniques can be used to avoid someone accessing data maliciously, while filtering and strong authentication allow only authorised devices on the network. It is advisable that organisations interested in deploying wireless networks consider a multifaceted approach to security that involves both procedural and physical components.

While it is well established that organisations such as government departments, defence contractors and financial institutions are likely targets of

highly sophisticated, malicious attacks, industry should not be complacent. By far the biggest threat to industrial organisations is the non-direct effects of an unintentional security breach — such as an employee making a parameter change online that has far-reaching effects somewhere else in the plant: potentially creating a safety risk, damaging equipment or resulting in information contamination, exposure or loss.

In addition to non-direct threats, critical systems are increasingly prone to the effects of many broadly-focused, illtargeted malware attacks. Such malware, whether or not intended to affect mission-critical control systems, may still lead to operational disruption with potentially grave consequences to those depending on safe, reliable operation of these systems.

By conducting an asset-based risk and vulnerability assessment, security procedures can be developed that will address potential risks and threats targeting control systems so that people, assets and key information are protected.

Specialist consulting services can often help achieve a more thorough and complete evaluation of security posture.

Industrial security affects all business sectors, but it is possible to significantly reduce the risks by adopting some simple and actionable steps. By controlling who has access to critical control systems, unauthorised threats can be mitigated. The employment of firewalls and intrusion detection/protection systems can help protect an organisation’s valuable assets.

Keeping up to date with patches and updates, managing passwords and changing them frequently using a variety of upper and lower case letters and numbers are simple but effective ways to reduce security risks. Control systems should always remain in ‘run’ mode and use measures like controller mode and key switches to help thwart unintended or malicious attempts to make changes to an operational system.

When used concurrently, these measures help address basic security risks to control systems and provide a good foundation on which additional measures can be built.

[Steve Lawlor is Business Manager, Customer Support & Maintenance, Rockwell Automation.] www.rockwellautomation.com.au

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PACE.MAY12.PG010.pdf

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NEW PRODUCTS

Rugged RB sensor Emerson Process Management has added a new rugged pH sensor line to the company’s pH product families. The new Rosemount Analytical Model RB Sensor is designed for optimum sensor life in demanding scrubber applications. pH sensors are most vulnerable to failure due to poisoning of the reference junction. The new RB sensor features a proprietary multi-junction that hinders reference poisoning. This design is particularly successful against aggressive sulfides found in scrubbers. The multi-junction reference chamber of the RB extends survivability. IThe sensor is built of chemically resistant Kynar adding to its long life. Instead of replacing the entire sensor, the Model RB Sensor can be reassembled inside its titanium sheath high-pressure body, reducing replacement costs. The sensor allows for optional installation methods including in-line, submerged or ball-valve insertion.

Rosemount Analytical 1300 55 3051 www.RosemountAnalytical.com

Switches for hazardous locations The 12 Series hazardous location switches are suitable for operation in tough applications where space is at a premium. Models are available to measure temperature, pressure and differential pressure. A snap-action Belleville spring assembly is used to provide vibration resistance and prolonged switch life. The 316 stainless steel enclosure and hermetically sealed switch provide rugged protection from the environment.

Pryde Measurement 1800 688 211 www.pryde.com.au

Magnetic sensors Power meter in full-metal for entry-range housing applications The new magnetic sensors from ifm efector offer ingress resistance in all media. Due to the full-metal housing, the units are used in long-life applications in hygienic areas and the food industry and also in mechanically demanding applications on telescope and swivel arms or industrial trucks.

Some models of this series can be installed behind covers, such as stainless steel, which ensures inexpensive and fast mounting. Drilling in stainless steel or adjustment for flush installation is not necessary. Due to the tolerant response behaviour, reliable switch-point detection is ensured even with high mechanical tolerances. The sensors are also used for cleaning pipes to detect pigs through pipe walls. They offer long sensing ranges even through non-magnetisable metals, plastic or glass. The switch point is temperature stable and reproducible. Mutual influences of the sensors are excluded. The food-grade full-metal housing offers IP 69K up to 100°C.

The PowerLogic PM5350 power meter offers superior accuracy for demanding applications where accuracy is paramount. It features a comprehensive measurement package, language customisation, tamper-resistant revenue seals, alarm capabilities, simplistic operation and installation. With a simple setup, the display of the PowerLogic PM5350 presents meter data in languages such as Chinese — a key factor for successful decision-making taken according to local readings. Readings in English are not truncated and therefore easy to understand. The PowerLogic PM5350 does the work of several devices and lowers the total cost of ownership. Its two relay outputs eliminate the need for an additional relay switch to command circuit breakers, and due to its four wetted digital inputs the meter does not need an external power supply. A compact design of only 44 mm also makes the PowerLogic PM5350 suitable for space-limited areas.

ifm efector 1300 365 088 sales.au@ifm.com

Schneider Electric 1300 369 233 www.schneider-electric.com.au

Air/Gas flow meter is remote mountable The ST100 Series Thermal Mass Air/Gas Flow Meter from Fluid Components International (FCI) is now available in a remote mountable configuration, suitable for applications in hazardous areas or hard-to-reach locations. Remote mount flow meters are suitable for equipment crowded plants or hazardous factory areas where combustible or toxic gases may be present near the transmitter’s electronics. The ST100’s remote mount transmitter, with optional digital display, can be mounted up to 300m away from the flow sensor using interconnecting cable. The ST100 Flow Meter continuously measures, displays and transmits the industry’s most extensive array of parameters. It is available with 4-20 mA analogue, frequency/pulse, alarm relays or digital bus communications such as HART, Fieldbus, Profibus or Modbus.

AMS Instrumentation & Calibration 03 9017 8225 www.ams-ic.com.au 10 www.pacetoday.com.au MAY 2012

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OPINION

SAFETY

Create a safe workplace

The duties relating to the person involved in safety have been widened, writes Scott Moffatt.

T

HE national harmonisation of the OHS laws, especially for larger national corporates, promised to reduce administrative costs and create economies of scale. Streamlining the different state OHS compliance requirements and creating nationally consistent safety standards should lead to greater certainty and understanding of OHS laws and ultimately better safety outcomes for all businesses.

The harmonisation deadline set by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in 2008 was 1 January 2012, but that deadline has well and truly passed with us seemingly no closer to the desired end state. With Queensland,

NSW, the two territories (ACT and NT) as well as the Commonwealth passing the laws, we have four states yet to enact the changes. Both South Australia and Tasmania may introduce the legislation in the near future as the bills go back and forth within state parliament. However Victoria and Western Australia have absolutely no urgency. The legislation seems to be a fair way off whilst both governments talk about the significant time needed to further assess its impact on their states.

There are many complexities involved in creating a safe workplace – the technicalities of machine and plant safety, enacting behavioural safety and culture change programs, stimulating

Under the new Harmonised WHS Act it will not be just the machine manufacturers’ responsibility to ensure machine safety in the workplace. workforce ownership and safety leadership, as well as all the OHS compliance requirements. At such a time, the last thing businesses need is a confusing

legislative framework and a national harmonisation program in limbo.

However, there is no doubt harmonisation will occur. It is just a matter of how long and what concessions the Federal Government will provide to ensure the states enact the changes.

Under the new legislation, the requirements and duties relating to the person involved in machine safety have been significantly widened. A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) still has the primary duty, under the Act, to ensure and provide a safe work place as far as reasonably practical. However, there is now more onus on other persons involved with the total life cycle of the plant to ensure >

May 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 11

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the spirit of safety

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PACE.MAY12.PG013.pdf

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OPINION

compliance with the legislation. purport to create an environment The designer plays a critical role in where a seller can find a buyer and try designing, redesigning or altering plant to remove themselves of any obligation and needs to be able to demonstrate with regards to ensuring the equipment that the plant is designed without being sold is safe. The code is quite clear risks to health and safety for the entire in that second hand plant suppliers, so life of the plant. A large proportion far as reasonably practicable, identify of machine injuries (42 percent of all faults and must advise the designer, fatalities) are a result of poor design manufacturer and installer if the plant and hence the increased focus from an requires any alteration as a result of OHS perspective in ensuring machines hazard identification or testing. and plant are designed properly from a There is also more emphasis on safety view point. inspection and testing as well mainteThe manufacturer, importer/ nance of the safety system of the plant. supplier and installer all have similar Regular inspection of the physical plant, obligations in areas over which they have formal testing of safety functions, such control. They are obliged to manage the as stop time measurement as well as risks associated with health and safety ensuring the machine is still operating and need to take all measures so far as within the design limits all have stronger reasonably practical. emphasis in the new legislation.

The recent increase in online retailers As is often the case, a sole business of second hand plant and equipment or company may have more than one has opened an interesting area of debate duty, especially when a lot of these as aAnumber ofCthe D_ PA E sites R O sell C 2equipment M A Y _ 1 2 . tasks p d fare conducted P a g e in 1 house 1 3 or / by 0 4 / 1 2 , “as is” or “buyer beware” or simply the same business or person. What is >

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Global Support. Local Address.

Peace of Mind. And We Mean It. By leveraging our global infrastructure of support centres and subject matter experts, we’re here to help you protect your automation investment. Beyond providing you peace of mind, as we help you keep your plant running, we’ll assess your entire operation and recommend the right mix of services to help maximise productivity, optimise plant assets and improve your overall financial performance.

Visit: www.RockwellAutomation.com.au

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OPINION

thought initially to be a simple onsite modification to the safety system means the person changing the system will be required to adhere to the duties of a designer, manufacturer, installer and maintainer.

This is something that cannot be taken lightly and the ramifications of unintended consequences can be severe if it cannot be demonstrated that they changes have been properly designed, risk assessed and validated.

The new act regularly refers to a Competent Person and defines them as a person who has acquired through training, qualification and experience, the knowledge and skills to carry out the respective work. However in the case of design and inspection of plant, a competent person has a more specific meaning and the person must also have educational or vocational qualifications in an engineering discipline relevant to the plant inspected.

A D _being P A designed C E P L or AM AR_ 1 2 .

TUV Certified Machine Safety Expert

14 www.pacetoday.com.au May 2012

(CMSE) is one such example of a generally accepted industry qualification with regards to machine safety.

The new legislation does not specifically mandate the required standards which would constitute compliance.

However Safe Work Australia have issued an approved code of practice for managing risks of plant in the workplace (and have proposed further codes of safe plant design, manufacture, import and supply) which in most cases would demonstrate compliance with WHS Act and Regulation.

This code then references a number of standards of which the predominant standard is AS4024.1:2006 when it comes to safeguarding of machinery.

A number of prior OHS judgements have seen this standard given the same relevance as an expert opinion but a breach of this standard will not necestional standards and more specifically sarily mean a prima facie breach of the those related to the European machinery pobligation df P under a g ethe 1Act. 1 5 / 0 2 / 1 2 , directive 1 1 :(2006/42/EC) 2 9 : 5 2 and A Mthe new AEDT There are also a number of internaISO13849-1:2006 (Safety of Machinery) standard. A common misconception is that if a machine has been imported and “CE Marked” then it is fit for use in Australia. This is certainly not the case and the importer/ supplier still has an obligation ensure all risks have been eliminated so far as reasonably practicable on the imported equipment.

There is also a trend towards applying functional safety concepts outlined IEC61508 (functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems) combined with IEC61511 (process) or IEC 62061 (manufacturing) on more complex machinery safety installations especially where larger programmable safety systems are implemented.

These stem from use in the oil and gas, petrochemical and rail industries but are certainly being applied in mining as well as manufacturing. The line is certainly grey from where it moves from machine safety to functional safety with respects to the different standards.

There are many arguments for and against the various standards and how they are applied and implemented, whether one uses Categories, Performance Levels (PLs) or Safety Integrity Levels (SILs) to quantify the required safety systems performance to adequately address the identified level of risk from a design perspective. Common to all is the basic framework of risk

assessment and hazard identification, risk elimination/ reduction and validation.

Hopefully the remainder of states will not take too long to enact the new legislation. Regardless of the eventual outcome, there are a number of simple measures one can take in the lead up to harmonisation. Firstly, invest in training for your people. A good starting point is a short one- or two-day course covering an overview of machine safety and the obligations associated with the individual’s role. Understand the meaning of a competent person and how this relates to your business. If you conduct design or modification activities in-house, ensure your people are appropriately qualified. If machine design or modification is outsourced, ensure your integrator can demonstrate their competency in this area.

Treat the safety system with the respect it deserves and have proper processes around changes and testing.

There should also be regular inspection and testing schedules and differentiate this from your machine or process control systems.

Too often safety system changes are an afterthought of machine or process changes and upgrades. In a perfect world one would hope not to have to operate the safety system, but when you do, you need to absolutely sure it is going to operate as designed, 100 per cent of the time. People’s lives depend on it.

[Scott Moffat is Managing Director, Pilz Safe Automation.] www.pilz.com.au

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OPINION

PROTOCOLS

Embedded OPC UA

Today’s users need to connect plant devices up to the enterprise level, writes Craig Resnick.

T

HE OPC Foundation has tions, and systems up to the enterprise helping eliminate islands of information. been working to help solve level. Many OPC users have also The questions are: Is OPC UA real? communication and connecexpressed concerns about the security Have suppliers begun to incorporate tivity problems between features of OPC communications, which it within their solutions? And, if so, plant and factory floor devices and host previously were limited with the early how are users taking advantage of these systems and applications since 1995. versions of OPC classic communications. solutions? This article, based on the Virtually every end user, OEM, and The OPC Foundation recognised the session, “Transforming Manufacturing automation supplier employs OPC opportunity to enhance interoperability with OPC UA: From Embedded to the standards such as OPC Data Access and provide platform interoperability by Enterprise,” at the recent ARC World (OPC DA), OPC Alarms and Events, developing new specifications through Industry Forum in Orlando, Florida (OPC A&E), and OPC Historical participation by a new category of enteraddresses these questions.

Data Access (OPC HDA), to establish prise and embedded suppliers in OPC The OPC UA specifications, initially communications and connectivity Foundation activities. The new specireleased in 2006, integrates functionality between disparate devices. fication — OPC Unified Architecture from the existing OPC specifications However, no longer is connecting (OPC UA) — has been demonstrated to (OPC DA, OPC A&E, OPC HDA) devices at the field, control, and operaimprove secure interoperability between into a comprehensive service-oriented tions levels users AD _ Psufficient; A C E B today’s EL DE C _also 1 1 . p all d fplantPequipment a g e 1and 1systems 4 / 1 and 1 / 1 1 , architecture.

1 1 : 3 2OPC A UA M adds essential need to connect plant devices, applicabetween the plant and enterprise, new properties, including platform inde-

pendence, scalability, high availability, new security mechanisms, and web services. OPC UA has two dimensions: 1) to provide secure interoperability at the automation level by embedding the technology within plant-level devices and applications, and 2) to extend OPC communications from the device and automation levels up to enterprise applications and systems.

Embedded OPC UA is based on an attractive lightweight architecture, with the minimal embedded OPC UA implementation using an efficient binary communication protocol. As a result, embedded OPC UA can be ported to many embedded operating systems, including proprietary real-time

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operating systems.

UA client is already integrated with Liam Power, Technical Director at IEC61131-3 programming software Embedded Labs, a software company function blocks. based in Waterford, Ireland, presented Embedded controllers acting as an “OPC UA on a Chip, Redefining OPC UA client can initiate communicaAutomation Architecture.” Liam cited tions to other OPC UA server-enabled examples of OPC UA applications field devices and, in the near future, embedded on a chip being used to to HMI/MES software acting as an provide connectivity for scheduling, OPC UA server. control, visualisation, logging, reporting, Mitch Vaughn, Chief Technologist, and productivity applications.

HMI Center of Competence, Siemens In his presentation, Christian Industry, presented how the company Schulze, Business Development Manager integrates its solutions using embedded for Beckhoff Automation, discussed how OPC UA. According to Mitch, Siemens his company has incorporated embedded introduced its first OPC UA-based OPC UA into the architecture of its product in 2008. products. According to Christian, Today, one of its products has been OPC UA has been embedded into its certified as OPC UA-compliant, with Automation Controller series, which ten more products in the immediate includes PLC, motion control, and pipeline. Mitch presented how Siemens graphical user interface functionality. uses or plans to use embedded OPC UA The embedded OPC UA server solutions at all automation levels. Future is integrated with DA (data access), products will include numeric and HDA A D(historical _ P A C data E S access), C H M Aand Y _A&E 1 2 . p motion df Pcontrol, a g e drive 1 management 2 9 / 0 3 and / 1 2 , (alarm & events). The em-bedded OPC diagnostics, industrial network manage-

AM

ment and analytical devices.

From Mitch’s perspective, the benefits of OPC UA include standard interfaces across all automation levels, operating system independency, and a higher degree of security compared to “classic” OPC. He also believes that OPC certification for OPC UA products will help ensure better interoperability and higher customer satisfaction and that industrial extensions will improve robustness.

In his presentation, John Krajewski, Senior Product Manager HMI/ Supervisory for Invensys Operations Management, discussed how embedded OPC UA will serve as a key enabler and one of the primary real-time system connectivity tools within the company’s InFusion enterprise control system, including the ArchestrA System Platform, ArchestrA Workflow, Trident safety instrumented systems, and SimSci-Esscor ROMeo plant optimisation2 software. : 0 7 PM According to John, these encourage

control excellence, people excellence, safety excellence, and asset excellence, respectively.

Katherine Voss, Executive Director of ODVA, presented a vision shared with the OPC Foundation for machinery integration in the manufacturing sector. ODVA, a vendor member organization founded in 1995, has approximately 275 global vendor members.

As a standards development organization and certification body, it manages and promotes EtherNet/IP, DeviceNet, and other ODVA technologies. In March 2011, ODVA announced a machinery initiative in partnership with OPC Foundation and Sercos International to foster cross-collaboration on topics of mutual interest for machinery applications.

[Craig Resnick (CResnick@arcweb.com) is Vice President of Consulting, ARC Advisory Group.] www.ARCweb.com

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CONVERSATION

SOFTWARE

Service responsiveness is key We would like to show users we can do a better job, says John Weber. By Kevin Gomez.

Software Toolbox’s managing partner and president, John Weber spoke with PACE on his recent visit to Australia. Set up in 1996, the company’s founders recognised that in the software segment of the manufacturing automation industry, customers were demanding greater interoperability in the packages they licensed. Software Toolbox partners with Wonderware in Australia.

How do your products fit into Australian industry?

It is true that Australia has a wealth of resources. But speaking with clients, I realise you’ve got cost challenges, skills challenges and not enough skilled people. But the goals are often the same with all the businesses I work with around the world. With miners, it’s about maximising the yields — yield per ton of ore.

How do you do that when you have a harsh, remote environment. You can’t get enough skills, quickly enough. When you do get them, they’re expensive. The good news is we’re able to help them do that. Our products typically help people get connected to the control systems, work with things remotely, get data from the right sources so the appropriate people can make better decisions.

That’s a common problem worldwide, regardless of the industry. The only variable around the world is the magnitude of the pain and what causes it.

Which specific products are you currently promoting in Australia?

We’ve been working with clients in Australia since our founding in 1996.

Ironically, some of our first clients were mining companies or engineering firms doing work for mining companies down here, as well as in the whole Pacific region.

The biggest interest comes from device connectivity — OPC Servers.

Users need data in real time to make good decisions. Everybody can connect to Rockwell, Siemens or Schneider 18 www.pacetoday.com.au May 2012

to it, there’s a lot to consider in terms of how you move the data and move it remotely. Also, you may need to take data from two different sources, combine them into an aggregate and then share it.

I’m seeing a lot of interest in DataHub for these types of applications.

hardware. But there’s often a lot of other hardware and systems from which you need critical data. Our TOP Server product does just that and provides the user with a single platform for all their device communications.

Once an engineer has used TOP Server with one PLC or control system, the incremental knowledge required to use it with another type is tiny. This is important when you’re in the market where there is not enough skills.

Let’s say you’ve got a remote mine up in The Pilbara and you’re in Perth trying to manage it. You must have a tool that can give you all the information for troubleshooting and diagnostics as if you were on site.

The miners here are finding they can benefit from our experience in oil and gas back in the US, where they have the same problem: remotely located assets; critical need for data; and not enough skilled resources.

What other products have generated interest in Australia?

One of them is our FactoryWidgets product. Think of gadgets on your computer desktop — weather, clock, stock and news information. Well imagine being able to put process data there, particularly key indicators that will be of interest to those at a management level. The data could come from

the production areas, say tons per hour, or percentage yield today.

We just visited a local gas power generator in Western Australia and they have a fairly big screen displaying a lot of data. But the manager is only interested in a few key data points, like megawatts of production or power factor.

Our FactoryWidgets product allows the placement of such data on a manager’s desktop in a simple intuitive format. If they require more information, they can just click on the relevant FactoryWidget to bring up web-based reports. These are then delivered by Wonderware HMI Reports, Wonderware Intelligence, Wonderware Performance or any other web-based application that has been implemented in their business.

The second product doing well here is OmniServer which is used to connect to a lot of obscure devices. We can get a lot of things done with TOP Server and the TOP Server User Configurable Driver, and if we can’t, we’ll get it connected with OmniServer.

How well positioned are you to tackle remote mining?

Our Cogent DataHub product is going to help with this whole move to remote access. When doing complex automation and control systems, things may look simple on paper. When you get down

Do you see Software Toolbox as an internet company?

We do position ourselves as an internetbased company because we choose to use technology to reach clients we couldn’t reach back when I started in this industry 23 years ago, and we have trained, qualified local partners around the globe that help bridge the time zone and distance divide.

But if you are going to be a company that supports their customers by phone and email, you must incorporate a philosophy of ‘design for supportability’.

If you design your software properly and build in all the troubleshooting tools, there’s so much you can do at the end of a wire and a cable to troubleshoot and to help the customer. If you’re responsive, you can actually get things done more quickly for the customer who may be 10,000 miles away.

In our case, Wonderware Australia has the offices in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney so if somebody needs to go on site, we have local people who know the product well.

Although we position ourselves as an internet company, we’ve proven over 16 years and 10,000 customers in every time zone, that this does not mean inferior support or inferior responsiveness.

If you structure properly and have the right philosophy, you can deliver superior support.

We commit to our customers a twohour response time during our business hours, and our local partners bridge the time zones with their front line responsiveness. We track this and it averages anywhere from 32 minutes to an hour.

When you email some vendors, often you get a reply saying they’ll get back to you in 24 to 48 hours. To me, that’s an eternity. When you have a big mining

ey

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operation, you can’t afford that kind of shut down. They need an answer now.

We get that and our structure delivers it.

how and why things work in OPC in customers in the Middle East and the an Independently Lab Certified OPC North Sea and in the US, drilling for oil Compliant implementation, is opening in remote areas. a lot of eyes.

Oil, iron, coal — what’s the differWhat unique challenges do you face I recognise it’s tough when you’re ence? With all due respect to the miners in Australia? in a remote location. You don’t get who may read this story, I recognise We face the same situation in Australia complete information, and you can there’s unique things to their space. as in other markets where there are only make decisions on the information We’re very familiar with that because of established and well known suppliers available. Engineers are always open to our work with all the major players in that can be perceived as being dominant more data and are interested to study the South African mining market. . Newer players coming into the market it and hear it. Our technical focus as adopt a different approach to solve the a company makes those conversations Are you able to demonstrate a cost same problems. We’d like to come and natural for us. benefit analysis with your systems? show users that we can do a better job That said, it takes time and it’s Absolutely. We can demonstrate this in — our partners at Wonderware can do almost evangelistic. You have to be the time it takes to configure, load up a better job. willing to invest and spend the time to our software and get it going. It’s someOne thing we have seen in our visits show folks why it’s worth their trouble times half to a third of the time taken by to this market is that users have had to take the risk and making a change. competitive solutions. some bad experiences poor implemenWhy making a change to another I’m not Rockwell, Siemens, tations or application of technologies vendor can help them move the needle Schneider or Wonderware selling big like OPC and that’s given your users in their business. products. When you consider the investa bad taste about OPC. I’ve found Otherwise, I don’t see any unique ment needed to use my products and though in my visits here, through our challenges to the Australian market. the time it takes to deploy and maintain technical willingness A D _ transparency P A C E R Oand CM A Y _ 1 2 . p Yes, d f youPare a gremote; e 1 your 1 customers 3 / 0 4 / 1 2 , these 1 0is :when 1 1 a true A Mbenefit analysis is to show them the technical details of are mining in remote areas. But I have evident . So it’s not hard to demonstrate

cost-benefit when I hear that A$200 an hour is the billing rate for a system integrator for certain types of work.

On the other hand and based on your local awards the costs of hiring control systems junior engineers over here, it doesn’t take much in terms of time saved in configuration, field start up and troubleshooting, for them to get a return on investment.

I was with a client this week showing him the concept of FactoryWidgets.

He wanted to know how long it would take a systems integrator to configure it.

I was sitting in Western Australia with my 3G wireless modem.

Right there in front of him, I configured a data point linked to a live data source back in the US. I dropped a FactoryWidget, configured two fields and there was live data streaming over the internet to his desktop. It took us two or three minutes. As you say down here, that’s fair dinkum. www.wonderware.com.au

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PACE.MAY12.PG020.pdf

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Technology for soil remediation Adelaide teams dig deep to design and build a sophisticated control platform for a soil remediation machine, writes Hartley Henderson.

T

HERE are various reasons why soil may be affected by contaminants such as chemicals and heavy metals.

This can include the reclamation of former industrial land for housing projects, as well as mining projects where there is a need for effective soil remediation. ECO-WARRIOR is a soil remediation machine built by Adelaide company Broons Engineering for UK company SoilXchange.

The machine accepts waste soil and mixes it with a range of additives such as lime, cement, water or biological reactants to produce a product at the other end which has certain geotechnical or other improved properties. Designed to be mobile, the machine is fitted entirely on a custom built semi-trailer platform.

It can operate on site or in a depot with soil brought to it for processing.

ECO-WARRIOR consists of an infeed conveyor, inline belt weigher, additive hopper on load cells with rotary vane feeder, water sprays, mixing chamber and discharge conveyor.

Power is provided by a 300hp turbo charged diesel engine which drives a hydraulic system as well as providing electrical power.

Electrical systems were designed and built by Adelaide company APC Integration (APCI), and hydraulics were designed and built by Adelaide company Staker Hydraulic Specialists.

APCI managing director, Anthony Dally, says the main challenge was the selection and design of a control platform that met all of the customer’s requirements. “To meet these requirements, only a Beckhoff PLC platform satisfied the versatility, performance and price criteria,” he said.

“The control system is based upon a main Beckhoff CX9000 series PLC which also serves as the HMI platform, EtherCat remote I/O controller, CANBUS master and Ethernet IP camera interface. The PLC performs all sequencing on the machine to start, stop and pause operations, as well as monitor the machines health and control the 20 www.pacetoday.com.au May 2012

WIRED: Internal view of the control panel.

A significant challenge encountered during the project was filtering the load cell signals distorted by operating induced vibrations.

addition of water and additives to the required ratios.

“Setpoints to operate the machine are entered via the HMI interface. As soil is loaded onto the infeed conveyor the infeed conveyor moves the soil forward over an inline weigh cell which measures the tonnes/hour and volume/hour of material entering the machine.

“Water dosing is PID controlled with a modulating valve and fixed speed

pumps fed from a tank to achieve the correct flow rates. Additive dosing is done by the hopper which is fitted with a speed controlled hydraulically powered rotary vane feeder, load cells to measure the weight of material in the hopper, air fluidisers to keep the material flowing and air hammers to break additive bridges. The control system operates this process with feedforward control, continuously trimmed by a PID loop working on loss of weight in the additive hopper. The system automatically recognises when the hopper is being refilled and pauses the PID component during this process. Control algorithms on the machine can work on a weight or volume basis so that the machine can continue to operate with the loss of any of the load cell systems.

“A significant challenge encountered during the project was filtering the load cell signals distorted by operating induced vibrations. The infeed

conveyors inline belt weigher was successfully processed by the Beckhoff PLC using digital filtering techniques.

However, the complexity of the filtering on the additive hopper required a dedicated load cell conditioner from Metler Toledo which communicated the filtered hopper weight signal via an Ethernet connection using Modbus TCP,” said Dally.

He says the operator interacts with the machine through the use of the control panel buttons and the HMI software which was custom written by APCI. “The HMI is used to communicate with the Beckhoff controller to collect information, accept touch screen inputs from the operator, enter operating setpoints, and select operation by volume or mass for some of the control loops,” he explained.

“It also provides the operator with feedback while they use the control panel buttons to increase or decrease setpoints or adjust the speed of various machine components in manual or automatic modes. In addition, the HMI is used to view the images from the two Ethernet IP cameras attached to the system, record production information, view machine alarms and status information, and connect to the 3G router for remote access. No off-the-shelf package could easily integrate all these features seamlessly enough, so we used our years of custom software development experience to write a custom HMI application for the machine.”

Staker Hydraulic Specialists (SHS) was responsible for the design, installation and commissioning of the hydraulic system that powers all primary rotary drives and linear actuators on the ECO-WARRIOR. According to SHS director, David Rogers, one of the main design directives was to deliver power for the primary drives with the highest possible efficiency in order to keep fuel consumption to a minimum.

“The upper and lower mixing chamber drives, which are the main power consumers, are powered by > hydraulic closed loop transmission

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BEHIND THE SCENES

systems, and the speed of these drives is controlled by 4 to 20 mA analogue signals from the machine’s primary PLC to the pumps servo control valve,” he said. Feedback of current rotor speed and drive load is displayed on the operator’s console. These speed and load feedback signals are delivered by high frequency proximity switches in the motors and pressure transducers at the pumps. The machine’s primary PLC sends required speed drive commands via the CAN to a Sauer Danfoss Plus1 programmable controller that then sends analogue command signals to the proportional valves.

“The infeed conveyor and product delivery drives utilise electronic closed loop speed control, which is a feature provided by the Plus1 controller.

“These two drive motors include high frequency proximity switches that deliver drive speed feedback to the Plus1 controller which constantly updates the command signal to the proportional valves.

A DThis _ P ensures A C E Ithat D Ethese C Mdrives AY_ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 2 0 / 0 4 / 1 2 , 5 : 3 4 PERSPECTIVE: Front view of the control panel. operate at consistent speed irrespective

of oil viscosity and load variations.”

Rogers points out that one of the hydraulic design requirements was to build a system capable of operating within a wide range of ambient temperatures (-10 degrees to +35 degrees C).

“The ECO-WARRIOR hydraulic system is equipped with additional valves and thermostatic controls which deliver an oil heating process while the engine is running at low speed.

Once the oil heating process has been completed the machine can be put into full operation irrespective of the current ambient temperature.”

APC Integration 08 8366 2300 www.apci.com.au Broons Engineering 08 8268 1988 www.broons.com SoilXchange (UK) www.soilxchange.co.uk

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Mining, Minerals and Exploration NOMINATIONS

Aurecon Hatch

iOmniscient

NCIG Coal Export Terminal The NCIG Coal Export Terminal is a Greenfield coal export terminal. The plant is rated at 66 Mtpa 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 shiploading. Aurecon Hatch was engaged to provide total engineering design, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services to NCIG for all stages of the project. 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. 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. This required a high level of automation, extensive diagnostics and condition monitoring, first up alarm system and integration of data between the controls and corporate systems.

BP (British Petroleum) The objective of this project was to protect the exposed portion of the BP pipeline in Azerbaijan, against intrusion by thieves who may damage the pipeline and steal the oil. The system needed to be operational 24x7 every day of the year. 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. This project consisted implementing an Advanced Video Analytic System covering several hundred cameras. Each camera covered the pipeline for approximately 100-120 meters. The system differentiates between human intruders and small wildlife.

Xstrata Zinc - Xstrata Mount Isa Mines Bonfiglioli Transmission Boom Drives Efficiently Assist Iron Ore Expansion Heavy duty fully coupled drive combinations engineered by Bonfiglioli for optimum ease of installation are being incorporated in new stacker reclaimers being installed by FMG at its Christmas Creek mine in the Pilbara. The Australian-designed and built Power Pack boom conveyor drives were delivered by Bonfiglioli to ThyssenKrupp for the stacker reclaimers for Fortescue Metals Group, which is spending more than $8 billion expanding its iron ore production to 155 Mtpa including expansion of Christmas Creek to 55 Mtpa.

HD drive power packs incorporate Australian assembled new generation HD helical drives fixed to a base plate and fully coupled and laser aligned with fluid couplings, disc brakes, pony drives and rigid output couplings. The low speed shaft arrangement and guards provide workers with increased safety by limiting access to moving components and the power packs feature delayed filling fluid, HS disc brake, LS rigid output and HD drive power packs.

Black Star Open Cut Voids Management Procedure (BSOC) In 2003 a drilling program commenced to study the feasibility of an open cut copper mine just south of where the BSOC pit is now located. During execution of the drilling program, the study focus shifted north to the surface extents of the lead, zinc and silver deposits the Isa Lead Mine had been exploited through underground operations since 1929. The principal challenge to the BSOC operation was to develop a safe and efficient method of recovering the remaining resource left by the underground Isa Lead Mine via open cut mining methods.

A program of probe drilling is in place to prove the reliability of 3D modelling of the Isa Lead Mine’s underground workings developed through study of old mining records. The combination of adequate and comprehensive mine records, capabilities of technical modelling and problem-solving formulas along with the ongoing development of technological tools such as down-hole cameras, CALS and high precision GPS methods have allowed the surface mining operation to progress safely and efficiently.

Bonfiglioli Transmission Columbus Group MiT Mill Seals The Columbus Group supplies seals to stop mounting bolt leakage particularly with worn shell holes. The MiT Mill seals also add electronics to cost effectively, quickly and remotely, audit the torque on 1000 plus bolt assemblies and also examine ongoing torque audit data to achieve SAG Mill improved ops for extended life. The MiT Mill Seal System is a true process and control engineering package from start to end as the options allow scalability to meet individual SAG Mill installations. It also provides an outcome where manufacturers no longer need to fly in/ fly out to remote locations.

Australian Engineering Wins World Class Customers for Ontrak Bonfiglioli has supplied Ontrak Engineering with conveyor, crusher and travel drives for three feeder breakers working in underground conditions at BHP Billiton’s Appin mine. The pic role crusher uses a heavy duty bevel helical HDO gear box in an alignment free configuration with a built in slip for coal crushing.

A smaller A90 helical bevel gearbox modified with a hydraulic motor provides conveying to bring the coal to the crusher. Lastly, the whole feeder breaker is made mobile by track drives running 711 hubs with a releasable brake system to allow for towing. Applications include conveyor drives, shuttle drives, bucket elevators, inching drives and other materials handling equipment. The HDP Parallel Shaft and HDO Bevel Helical units suit numerous mounting options.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 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.

PACE.MAY12.PG029.pdf

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Food and Beverage NOMINATIONS

Lenssen Dairy

Unilever

One-man milking operation The project began when Joe Lenssen from Lenssen Dairy approached Global Dairies with the view of maximising the milking process of his herd. He wanted to build a new rotary dairy facility – with a difference. He wanted to install milking cups in every second bale (stall) and utilise them across two bales – swapped between cows on alternate rotations of the platform. Each cow would therefore remain on the platform for two rotations (being milked on the first rotation and having time to complete feeding on the second time round). Each cow has an RFID tag which stores the cow’s ID. Additional information from each cow, such as milk yield, temperature and conductivity for monitoring milk flow is recorded by the bale PLC and conveyed via a wireless link to the main herd management system. All data is captured and logged. The control system has been designed from inception to maintain an operational state even in the event of equipment and/or component failure.

Streets Ice Cream upgrade After 12 years, a Streets system for manufacturing ice-cream machinery needed updating. A decision was made to replace the obsolete control system with a new generation one. Streets embarked on a meticulous evaluation process over many months to identify its plant’s requirements and expectations for the control system platform. Siemens SIMATIC PCS 7 process control system and its recipe management system SIMATIC Batch was eventually selected, being identified as the system most capable of meeting the stringent demands of the mix plant.

The Streets plant must produce a wide variety of ice-cream blends to meet the requirements of the company’s portfolio so a flexible recipe system was critical.

Record high temperatures were experienced in many states and Streets had to increase its output tonnage by nearly 60 percent to cope with the increased demand, something that would have been impossible with the old system.

Process Partners

Rescue Foods

five:am After securing a contract to supply a leading Australian supermarket with its yet to be produced organic yoghurt, five:am had a tight timeframe to make its product concept a reality. 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. The sophistication of the automation technologies installed in five:am’s plant is not typical for plants of this size. It contains advanced technologies such as automated cleaning so it can be routinely cleaned when needed with minimal operator involvement. The automation technologies helped 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 machinery. In March 2011, five:am’s first products were sold throughout a leading supermarket.

Bircher Bars The objective of Rescue Foods was to create nutritionally complete super-foods for crisis and emergencies. Rescue Foods is now in trials for a nutritionally complete crisis bar. It is lightweight, low allergen, has a long shelf life, is friendly to vegetarians, vegans, coeliacs, diabetics, as well as meeting halal and kosher requirements. The convenience and practicality of such a product can impact the shortening of the crisis cycle. For example when a flood hits this food can be airdropped in and requires no tents, queues or bowls, and aid workers can focus on securing clean water to avert the outbreak of cholera. Having a nutritious food source has been shown to help manage the stress and energy that is required to rebuild. It is recognised in aid agencies now that people in crisis don’t just need calories, they need nutrition, and to just give them calories creates a malnourishment problem further down the line.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 29

AD_PACEDAAMAY_12.pdf

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PACE.MAY12.PG031.pdf

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Machine Builder NOMINATIONS

CKAS Mechatronics

Platinum Machinery

CKAS “Cranky” Full Motion Wharf Crane Simulator The CKAS “Cranky” Full Motion Wharf Crane Simulator hardware was developed in house with the resources available to a small engineering innovation company. For the first time in Australia, trainees can experience a simulator for training Crane Operators on a full motion high fidelity device. Some key features include full scale replication of a typical cabin, accurate software physics model including four types in one machine as well as full six degree of freedom motion system supplying all the correct cues to properly train crane drivers on the wharf.

CNC Flat Table Router Platinum Machinery produces routings for shop fittings and kitchen cabinets, signage, solid timber stairs, caravans and flat plate aluminium routing. In order to be diverse, it has produced the CNC Flat Table Router machine on a standard frame and gantry, where it then applies options to the table type, spindle type and other cutting and drilling attachments. With a few minor changes the machinery could be adapted to the signage industry for cutting thin vinyl through to 300 mm thick composite panels. The aluminium tables manufactured also allowed it to produce works using 40 mm aluminium plate.

Fibre King

Konecranes

Laminator Tray Erector The Tray Erector with Lamination for the Meat Industry is Fibre King’s first range of tray forming equipment for meat. Traditionally, these trays have a double wall, which is folded and glued at the board manufacturer’s factory, involving extra cost and reduced production speeds. The Fibre King Laminator Tray Erector uses a two-stage process to first fold and glue the double wall, then form the tray base, all at the customer’s site. This increases the production speed at the corrugating plant and reduces the cost of the tray.

Lifting Solution for Large Ship Sections Under Construction Austal has partnered with Konecranes to achieve a lifting solution for very large ship sections under construction. Austal typically uses 16 overhead hoists working simultaneously to lift and move each assembled ship section before positioning into the main structure. Previously each hoist required its own operator, so 16 operators were needed. CXT cranes with individual hoist capacities up to 80 tons – and complementary CXT wire rope hoists – deliver effective load handling and optimum dimensions for space saving solutions.

Impresstik Systems

Precision Mechatronics

Multi-Pack Rotary Applicator Impresstik Systems manufacture pressure sensitive label applicator machines and its new multi packs are made in 3 or 6 pack configuration from the Tetra Pak collator have to have a unique barcode label applied to the trailing edge of the multi-pack to cover the existing pre-printed code on the individual packs that reflect the multi-pack ID. A series of servo driven “Side Belts” were developed to space and time each multi-pack into the Infeed Starwheel. An error of more than several millimetres would cause the packs to be damaged and perforated causing the contents to leak.

Second Generation Calibration and Print Test Machine Precision Mechatronics has developed a modular high throughput per unit area production machine for priming, print testing and dead nozzle mapping of a very high nozzle count inkjet print cartridge. The second generation calibration and print test machine (CPT Gen2) has been designed in a modular way to improve manufacturability, reduce downtime and increase machine resilience.

On the back of the machine, a single 5-channel ink preparation system is used to provide clean degassed ink to the processing modules. The machine has an average throughput of 80 parts per hour or approximately 600,000 per annum.

Konecranes

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au. They will also be individually notified.]

Intelligent Crane Solution for the Steel Industry The Intelligent Crane solution is a high performance modular system built to maximise safety while minimising downtime and has been introduced by BlueScope Steel. The purpose was to safeguard deliveries to customers during equipment changeover while optimising ongoing efficiencies. The modular and energy saving Konecranes SMARTON crane system operates in the coil storage area, loading the coil into processing. Dispatches total approximately 100,000 tonnes per year, with equipment working 38 hours per week in two shifts.

Service takes place during normal production hours.

MAY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 31

AD_PACEIFMMAY_11.pdf

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Your solution focussed partner for sensors and controls for automation

1300 365 088 sales.au@ifm.com www.ifm.com www.ifmefector.com.au/eshop

PACE.MAY12.PG033.pdf

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Automotive and Manufacturing NOMINATIONS

Robotic Automation and Amcor Cartons

ABB Australia

Robotic end-of-line solution At Amcor Cartons, high-speed printing, folding, gluing and packing machines were suddenly “bottle-necked” by manual staff handling the boxed product in a labour-intensive process. Amcor sought a solution that would address these concerns as well as filling in the gaps between the “islands” of high-speed production and boost overall productivity. Production was averaging 170 pallet-loads of product per day. Amcor Cartons chose to partner with Robotic Automation to develop this more holistic end-of-line solution which saw an increase to over 400 pallets a day. The Robotic End-of-Line Solution consists of three main component technologies: Robotic Palletising, Automatic Guided Vehicles 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. The outcome has meant more ongoing savings, productivity gains, reduced damage to product and a fast return on investment which meant the cost did not need to be passed on to customers.

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.

SynRM Synchronous reluctance motor ABB designed new motors based on an innovative rotor design, offering high efficiency and high power output. It uses synchronous reluctance technology and comes in a complete package together with a frequency converter and dedicated software. The rotor design makes it possible to make motors that are much more efficient and smaller than conventional induction motors. Designed without windings the new rotor has basically no losses at all, which keeps it uniquely cool. This temperature advantage has been converted into super premium efficiency or high power density and extended bearing lifetime. The motor and drive package is available in two configurations, one that maximises efficiency, the other maximising output. Because the motor and drive package is designed specifically for variable-speed drive operation it leads to further energy savings. These savings create a pay-back time which in many cases can be less than two years. Typical applications for the motor drive packages are fans, pumps, compressors, conveyors, hydraulics, cranes, extruders for industries like pulp and paper, metals, ventilation, power plants, water and wastewater, food and beverage, mining and OEMs.

Zilic Engineering

Konecranes

In-mould label insertion robot The project involves the construction of a robot which places a product label into the mould during the injection moulding process. The robot picks up the label, inserts and positions it inside the injection mould (tool) and retracts prior to closure of the tool and injection of plastic. Zilic Engineering managed all aspects of the design, build and integration of the robot with the injection moulding machine both mechanically and electronically. A key part of this project was the use of B&R automation control. The customer had not previously used B&R control systems and Zilic was instrumental in tailoring a solution using B&R and introducing the customer to the system. After commissioning, the robot ran continuously 24 hours a day, seven days a week over two months without a single reject as far as robot was concerned. The major challenge of this project was the precision and short cycle time required due to the integration with a stand-alone injection moulding machine. The final cycle time of the robot far exceeded the customer requirements.

Air Warfare Destroyer Project Crane supplier Konecranes has installed 23 overhead cranes at BAE Systems over the past two years, helping the company fulfil its contract to build Air Warfare Destroyers for the Royal Australian Navy. The project has strategic importance, with the three versatile destroyers involved not only dedicated to the defence of naval forces and assets ashore from aircraft and missile attack, but also able to operate in anti-surface, anti-submarine and naval gunfire support roles. The project involves many variants of overhead cranes, including double girder types as well as chain hoists, some with special safety and efficiency features such as magnet systems and sway control. The latest of the ongoing series of Konecranes was installed near the end of 2011. The Double Girder cranes also employ fast and accurate load positioning with True Lift as standard. The large rope drum diameter and short drum length of the cranes means that horizontal travel of the hook is minimal, with the hook moving only 5mm during a one-metre lift.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 33

AD_PACEAMSMAY_12.pdf

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The impossible made possible: combining advanced functionality with ease-of-use Beamex MC6 Advanced Field Calibrator and Communicator

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Oil and Gas NOMINATIONS

BOC

Qenos

BOC South Pacific GMA and TIG Arc Projectors BOC in conjunction with the Linde group has introduced to Australia the GMA and TIG Arc Projector – a state of the art training and demonstration tool which displays the difference BOC shielding gases can make to various welds, helping manufacturers optimise results and cut costs.

The projectors project the welding arc on to a screen enabling larger scale training and demonstrations to larger audiences.

The projector can be used to highlight the effect on the welding arc when different gases are used. It also provides an interactive display, which allows the customer/trainee to control the shielding gas used and see the impact on the arc type (GMA), travel speed and surface appearance, therefore helping them determine the welding gas to use.

The arc projector has been specially designed to work with an optical projection system, as it was found that even today’s video cameras could not cope with the extreme contrast and brightness of a welding arc.

Extensive research and development delivered an optical projection system which offered the best possible image quality.

To show the welding parameters, the arc projector uses a rugged and selfcontained PC measuring system, combined with a standard beamer.

The software used is custom-made and proprietary, and is therefore adapted to the BOC shielding gas range.

Plantwide Feed Maximiser using Multivariable Control The project objective was to provide 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 is critical to the ongoing profitability of the site.

The ethylene production facility uses ethane from Bass Straight as the primary feed to the dual train, ethylene manufacturing plant. The APC includes all major unit operations at the Olefins site (ethane cracking furnaces, compression, fractionation and refrigeration systems).

The site is controlled from four control consoles which consist of three process plants and one utility. The majority of the routine plant control is performed by a single panel operator at each of these changing setpoints and modes.

The three process plant consoles were included in this project. The APC replaces around 90 traditional advanced control schemes and simplifies the overall running of the site.

Shell Geelong Refinery Intelligent Vessel Gauging System The Intelligent Vessel Gauging System is a high-tech radar-based system for level gauging in a LPG ‘bullet’ vessel at Shell’s Geelong refinery and is one of the first to be installed in Australia.

The refinery, which occupies 120 hectares of land on the shores of Corio Bay, produces vehicle and aviation fuels, solvents, bitumen and other products. With up to 500 employees and some 150 contractors, the Shell Geelong refinery is one of the largest in Australia, with a replacement cost of around $1.5 billion.

The LPG (liquid petroleum gas) vessel only comes out of service every ten to fifteen years, which presents the only opportunity to do maintenance on the monitoring equipment.

Therefore critical requirements of the new technology include high reliability and low maintenance.

High pressure is required to keep the gas liquefied, so opening the vessel for inspection can be complicated and expensive.

With a radar gauge there are no components inside the vessel to measure the liquid level that may require servicing, and measurement verification can be carried out with the tank in operation.

The old system was electro-mechanical whereas the new Rosemount Rex RTG 3960 gauge operates by sending a radar signal, so there are no moving parts.

As well as measuring the LPG level, the system can also measure temperature and provide an alarm function.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 35

AD_PACESCH3MAY_12.pdf

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PACE.MAY12.PG037.pdf

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Power and Energy Management NOMINATIONS

Electronic Power Solutions

Fluke Australia

Epic Pool Pump Energy Saver Swimming pool pumps represent one of the highest energy consumers on the domestic grid. The mismatch of pump sizes to system requirements means energy wastage. Being able to adjust the flow rate means a large reduction in energy consumption is possible. Tests have shown that savings of over 65% are typical on the average pool pump. EPS have adapted industrial motor control products and technology to produce a commercially viable domestic solution offering fast payback which is enhanced by rising energy costs. EPS embarked on a comprehensive testing phase using knowledge of motor control to ensure risk free operation of motors, compliance to Australian Safety Standards and independent energy saving verification. A single setup button on the face of the unit and a simple plug and play approach means this solution is easily implemented by the general public. There is a possibility of large cumulative energy savings if the units are retrofitted to existing pool pumps.

Rio Tinto: Earth ground testing for mine sites with Fluke 1625 Regular earth testing is a very important practice for mining companies such as Rio Tinto. The purpose of a ground, besides the protection of people and equipment, is to provide a safe path for the dissipation of fault currents, lightning strikes, transient over-voltages, static discharges, EMI and RFI signals and interference. A ground is a conducting connection, whether intentional or accidental between an electrical circuit or equipment and the earth, or to some conducting body that serves in place of the earth. It helps by stabilising the voltage to earth during normal operation, and limits the voltage rise created by lightning, line surges or unintentional contact with higher-voltage lines. In the event of an electrical fault or lightning strike anywhere in the vicinity of the mining area, a low impedance ground electrode will help carry the energy into the earth. By keeping the potential gradient low, damage is minimised. Over time, corrosive soils with high moisture content, high salt content, and high temperatures can degrade ground rods and their connections. Special instruments make it simple and easy for maintenance and safety teams to measure earth resistance and troubleshoot problems. For Rio Tinto, the Fluke 1625 is used to measure the capability of the earth ground system at the substations.

Earth resistance measurements are often corrupted by the existence of ground currents and their harmonics. To prevent this from occurring, the Fluke 1625 uses an Automatic Frequency Control (AFC) system. This automatically selects the testing frequency with the least amount of noise.

PTronik PTronik pMC Master Controller Dust generated by many industrial processes is a global OH&S issue with hazards ranging from Pneumoconiosis to spontaneous combustion this lead to the development of the PTronik pMC, a technology (software solution and 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 needed to measure key indicators including header pressure, differential pressures, hopper temperature, humidity levels, and dust particles concentrations to determine the state of the air filtration unit’s collection bag. The most important element 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.

Thor Technologies Smart Rack Guard 11 2006 saw the launch of the Smart Series range. The latest release from this generation was in February 2011 and featured the Smart Protect 4 and Smart Rack Guard 11. When racks are involved space is generally a premium. The Smart Rack Guard 11 is only 1RU and is neat and compact without the bulk.

Both audio visual and computer racks can benefit from the high end protection and filtering offered. The filtering cleans audio and visual components to ensure crystal clear picture and a “blacker” sound. Protection from interference typically caused by fluorescent lights, refrigerators and air-conditioners can rob a system of its performance. In addition to protection, the Smart Rack Guard 11’s filtration provides solutions which assist in the reducing of system hangs, file corruption, software glitches and system lockups. All research, development and engineering is undertaken in Australia. Thor Technologies is 100% Australian.

NEP Solar Biosol3Gen The Biosol3Gen project was designed to allow optimising of the performance of the trigeneration process (ORC turbine, absorption chillers, residual heat) through the addition of mini-solar concentrated sources. This would allow buildings to incorporate solar roof top mounted solar sources to boost the overall efficiency of such processes. The scope of the project for NEP Solar and Yokogawa was the supply of an autonomously controlled solar concentrating collector field suitable for mounting on commercial and industrial buildings, that can easily be integrated to the existing building or plant control system.

The reporting capability built into the system allows the operator to understand quickly and easily the efficiency improvement and calculate the ROI for the solar implementation. Biosol3Gen incorporated a synergy of skills from both NEP Solar and Yokogawa. NEP Solar’s technology provides a solution which offers a transportable and easy to install roof mounted solution that can be expanded to any size field required. Yokogawa’s core control capability solar tracking solution provides the solution with precision industrial control for highest tracking efficiency and thus efficiency in solar collection and delivery of that energy to the required source. The project outlines the suitability of a mix of technologies providing a renewable solution for commercial buildings that allows them to be retrofitted with high efficiency renewable technology.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au. They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 37

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Lifetime Achievement NOMINATIONS

John Keys Schneider Electric John Keys is one of 10 national trainers at Schneider Electric. He is responsible for conducting training courses and contributing to the continuous improvement of its national training offer. His specific skills also relate the modernisation and migration of the product offer, given his long history (40 years) with the company. Keys was originally employed by Square D Automation in 1972 as a Field Engineer for industrial switchgear. After three months at the head office on the switchgear assembly lines and workshops learning the products, he became a field engineer. Then in January 1977, he became the first Australian employee of Square D Automation (acquired by Schneider Electric in 1991) representing the Programmable Controller system and has represented the Automation offer in Australia ever since. Keys has actively demonstrated his strong commitment to local issues which resulted in feedback for future offer development where he continues to play an active role today.

Dr Pengfu Tan Xstrata Copper Dr Pengfu Tan is responsible for managing and developing a team of technical staff, overseeing day-to-day process control as well as monitoring the metallurgical performance of the copper smelter. By improving the ISASMELT temperature, slag chemistry, draft and burner fire rate controls and by establishing an optimised smelting temperature target, Dr Tan was able to decrease the brick wear rate of the copper smelter furnace to 5 mm for the entire 2011 campaign. This is a significant improvement in comparison to the previous 10 ISASMELT campaigns (from 1992 to 2010), which resulted in brick wear of at least 115 mm over a 12 month period. Dr Tan designed and initiated several projects to minimise copper loss in rotary holding furnace slag and has developed a set of operational key performance indicators for copper loss control. This improvement is worth more than $12 million in additional profit per year.

Bob Day K.E. Brown Electrical Switchboards Ken Brown is the Founding Managing Director of K.E. Brown who, at the age of 91, still comes in to work regularly to guide the company he founded after he returned from World War Two. When Brown returned from service in the Royal Australian Navy, the boiler making trade skills he’d learned in the Eveleigh railway workshops before going overseas were in keen demand and he began working with a company making ice chests. Brown was given the chance to take the company over in 1948, and fix the engineering problems. The company then diversified and began making anything for households from gates and fences to switchboards. KEB today provides custom-engineered low-voltage switchboards to companies as diverse as BHP Billiton and IBM, ABN Amro and Bovis Lend Lease, CSR and AMP, Sydney Water and Woolworths, Telstra and EDS, Leighton Contractors and Coles, McDonalds and Optus Vision, and some of the country’s leading hospitals, hotels, telecoms and banks.

Ian Gibson Worley Parsons Worley Parsons is a membership body that provides support for the instrumentation, control and automation industry providing training, seminars and exhibitions.

Gibson currently works in a volunteer position which entails liaising with other committee members to review applications from IICA members wishing to be considered for upgrade to Fellow Member and also reviewing nominations fo the IICA Testimonial Award. Gibson is currently also vice chairperson of the Victorian Branch committee of the IICA. Gibson has been a very well respected member of the IICA for many years and has served on various state and federal committees in a variety of functions. Gibson has added value to the IICA through his various roles including as Federal President. He was instrumental in the IICA gaining a government grant to support the IICA’s regional Table Top Exhibitions.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au. They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 39

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Transport, Power and Infrastructure NOMINATIONS

Aurecon Hatch

Enerpac

NCIG Coal Export Terminal The NCIG Coal Export Terminal is a greenfield coal export terminal. The plant is 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 shiploading. Aurecon Hatch was engaged to provide total engineering design, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services to NCIG for all stages of the project. 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. As part of the EPCM services, Aurecon Hatch project managed 11 different supply contracts, including HV switchgear, transformers, 415V MCCs, HV cables and PFC equipment.

Lifting Up Christchurch - Enerpac brings tons of good news for earthquake affected three-storey building Underpinning and re-levelling large commercial buildings has been proven viable with the successful re-levelling of a large three-storey building damaged in February 2011’s earthquake in Christchurch. New Zealand. The project was a collaborative effort between Piletech and Enerpac and responded to the needs of the owners of the building which resulted in the structure being safely jacked back into position with millimetre precision using the Enerpac Synchronised Hydraulic Lifting System and a battery of Enerpac 50 and 100t jacks with a combined lifting capacity of 800t. PLC controlled lift provideed minute control but also accounted for variation in load over the floor or keel of the structure.

ICM Airport Technics Australia iOmniscient KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) The challenge at KLIA was to provide an automated video analytics capability to each stakeholder. This was so that their particular needs were met using a single integrated system while at the same time ensuring that information that was sensitive to each stakeholder was isolated from all the others. This was a large scale project which required advanced surveillance systems to ensure highly automated security and operations management. With many hundreds of cameras and each camera being used for multiple purposes by different departments the objective was to provide accurate information but only to the user who was authorized to use it. On every camera, the user can select up to ten areas of interest and up to 20 different applications can operate in each are. Each application is armed with Nuisance Alarm Minimization System (NAMS) to eliminate false alarms caused by environmental factors, shadows and light changes.

Qantas Next Generation Check In Qantas wanted to offer its passengers a new bag drop system with a tight deadline of three months for when the first prototype was required. The end goal was to provide “more leisure time before the flight” and to achieve this goal Qantas introduced a plan to automate the check-in using RFID technologies. The fully automated check-in had to enhance user experience, be safe to use and ensure the customers’ luggage was handled with care. Today’s heightened security requirements were to be met and an added constraint was that the project would see the introduction of the RFID Q-Tag. The outcome of the project is highly publicised and the success of this engineered solution responds to global trends.

Enerpac Newcastle Stadium Project Compact high-pressure Enerpac hydraulic cylinders driven by advanced electric pumps were used to safely position the roof of the new $81 million Western Grandstand at Ausgrid Stadium. This hydraulic technology is applicable to a range of construction, infrastructure, resources and industrial projects. It was employed at Ausgrid Stadium to lower the 1500t grandstand roof incrementally until its cable supports took up the load. Twelve temporary roof props or supports had been placed into position while the roof structure was assembled.

The 12,500-seat Western Grandstand features a cable-stayed cantilever steel roof about 150m long and 25m deep. Prior to final positioning, the main weight of this flexible roof rested on the rear structure of the stadium, with the balance of the weight projecting forward onto 12 tubular steel temporary props.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 41

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Water and Wastewater NOMINATIONS

Tyco Flow Control

Bluetongue Brewery

Nepean River Weirs Environmental Flow Release and Fish Passage Control System The Nepean-Hawkesbury upgrade was initiated to allow for new environmental flows in the river system and improve fish passage in the water. Critical to the success of this upgrade was the design and implementation of a flow control system by Tyco Flow Control to monitor and record flow parameters associated with water flows through the weirs. The scope of the Nepean Hawkesbury project posed significant challenges for the team because the waterway was comprised of eight individual weirs — each with its own individual set of fluctuating process variables that displayed no clearly defined limits. Since this was an environmental project Tyco was, in effect, attempting to automate a ‘live’ river. Many standard equations that would have been useful in automating a ‘controlled environment’ were considered inappropriate or just simply didn’t work under these conditions. The control system continuously monitors the total environmental flow and adjusts the position of the valve to reach the set point EFS (MLD) taking into account flow through the fish passage and spill over the weir crest. Valve position adjustments are carried out in a single movement. When the set point is reached, the valve movement will cease and hold for 15 minutes before the next adjustment if the set point has deviated.

Recycled Water Treatment Plant/Green Energy Plant for $120 million Bluetongue Brewery Pacific Beverages’ new Bluetongue Brewery in NSW features a waste water treatment plant which produces green energy in the form of biogas from the first anaerobic digestion. In addition, about 50% of the effluent water is recycled following further treatment and polishing treatment steps. This achieves world’s best-practice water reuse standards while providing renewable green energy recovery. Bluetongue is able to target a reduction in water usage to 2.2 litres of water for every litre of beer produced against a global average of 4-5 litres. The anaerobic pretreatment is followed by treatment processes involving an aerobic membrane bio reactor and reverse osmosis. The process has demonstrated its suitability for application in the food and beverage industry in Australia which consists of for some 20,000 companies producing more than $80 billion worth of local and export products in markets increasingly focused on producers’ clean, green production credentials. The plant - engineered jointly by Australia’s CST Wastewater Solutions in partnership with Global Water Engineering – has achieved all performance targets set.

CST Wastewater Solutions Yarra Valley Water Yarra Valley Water Host SCADA Upgrade Project After a strategic review of their SCADA domain, Yarra Valley Water (YVW) determined that upgrading their software applications, including replacing their legacy text-based SCADA system, was a critical factor to achieving their future business goals. This $3 million project will align YVW with industry best practice and standards for SCADA system software and help to deliver a more efficient and effective service to customers. One of the critical objectives of the project was to develop a SCADA system that provided high level security for today’s environment, while also ensuring the crucial business objective of no vendor lock-in for service delivery. By utilising the extensive templating feature set of ClearSCADA, Schneider Electric were able to deliver a system that any of the approved System Integrators working for YVW can work on without fear of compromising the integrity of the Host SCADA system. To help achieve this, the Schneider Electric project team provided tools such as ClearSCADA Configuration Management System, implemented a Test and Development Server regime and a Mobile data application.

These tools are an integral part of the overall SCADA solution and provide YVW with a world class SCADA system. While ClearSCADA is an “out of the box” SCADA application that has a multitude of inherent features, this project built on the “base” system with these added features that go beyond the traditional solution offering. These additional features make sure the on-going maintenance and expansion of the system is managed correctly with a high level of security and auditing.

DAF Treatment to Achieve Tough Wastewater Targets A dairy product company is achieving high efficiency discharge targets from a new $1.5 million wastewater treatment facility for treating of effluent from its Southern NSW manufacturing site. The company chose a high-performance high-efficiency DAF (Dissolved Air Flotation) system, designed and installed

by CST Wastewater Solutions. The wastewater treatment plant is capable of treating 300,000 litres of effluent daily, meeting the local council’s demanding discharge standards as well as reducing the discharge fees paid to the council.

The DAF system at the plant was regarded as preferable to costly microbial treatment because the dissolved air flotation process (DAF) was straightforward with a favourable return on investment (ROI). DAF treatment reduces the high levels of Suspended Solids (SS) and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) in the wastewater sufficiently to allow discharge into the local authority’s sewerage system. The DAF treatment process at the dairy company includes a 94,000 L buffer tank, with the floated sludge being collected in a smaller 30,000 L tank.

The DAF process introduces micro bubbles into the wastewater and with the aid of chemicals removes suspended matter, reducing the pollutant levels in the wastewater. The bubbles released by the DAF process carry the suspended matter to the surface of the flotation cell, where the matter is removed by a rotating scoop or surface skimmer.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au. They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 43

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2012 ENTRIES

Young Achiever NOMINATIONS

David Michel Automotion Control Systems David Michel, as Engineering Manager is responsible for the design of hardware, firmware programming and management of a team of employees and contractors. David has played and will continue to play an important part in the FM1 Telemetry Projects with Nacco Materials Handling Group (NMHG) – a forklift design and manufacturing company producing Yale and Hyster brands of lift trucks marketed and sold worldwide. David engages with NMHG heads of design centres from all over the world – Masate Italy, Nijmegen Netherlands, North Carolina and Oregan USA. He produces strict requirements and project timing plans and is responsible for ensuring that the technology is developed correct in lock step with a ACS time to market objectives. David began as a graduate engineer in 2006 and quickly demonstrated skill in engineering design principles and a very strong work ethic. Throughout his career at ACS, David always remained well versed in upcoming areas of engineering technology and worked tirelessly to ensure engineering designs were always of a standard fit for commercial sale. David deals with the pressures of business daily, as his role encompasses not just design schematic and firmware programming but also management of staff, contractors, and interfacing with production and QA systems. Importantly, as ACS spreads into international markets, David has been instrumental in ensuring the design methodology employed at ACS. Having to coordinate client engineering staff in multiple world wide locations, David has been effective at managing his work and the engagement process. David has added important engineering design procedures within ACS, such as ensuring that designs consider compliance at the very start, as well as how intellectual property and version control and the engineering change process.

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. Xstrata Copper North Queensland’s Mount Isa ISASMELT furnance 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 Slow-Cooling project, which formed the basis of an academic paper presented to the Mine, Mineral and Metallurgical Society. 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. To clearly define and better understand the consumption costs as well as identify areas to reduce costs within the primary smelting operation, Lucya proposed and developed a cost tracking tool which was presented and implemented in February 2012. This tool has helped indentify critical areas for cost saving, including costs associated with the smelter’s oxygen, coal and diesel consumption. The implementation of Lucya’s cost tracking tool in the primary smelting operations has helped Xstrata gain a better understanding of oxygen wastages and has resulted in several cost saving initiatives including setting the minimum ISASMELT feed rate of 125 tonnes per hour to maximise oxygen efficiency and the adoption of a new, modified oxygen supply distribution logic to reduce wastage and save approximately $80,000 per month. Lucya’s cost tracking tool is now being further developed for application in the secondary copper smelting operations.

Sven Huber Kyle Dix REDARC REDARC develops and manufactures a range of electronic voltage converters, battery chargers and associated electronics products. Kyle Dix is Surface Mount Technology (SMT) Supervisor at REDARC which involves him ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the assembly line. Dix has ten operators and technicians working under him as well as fulfilling a range of roles in the areas of innovation, customer satisfaction and teamwork as well as maintaining the integrity, quality and protection of the environment in line with REDARC’s policies. Kyle’s most significant achievement to date has been the designing and then implementation of a cleaning program to facilitate quality improvements in PCB cleanliness following the SMT process. The PCB washing project was implemented to realise an improvement in product quality. This in itself was a significant gain to REDARC and it occurred ahead of schedule, within budget and achieved the required cleanliness result as defined at the outset of the project. As further evidence of the confidence that REDARC Management has in Kyle’s current and developing abilities as a graduate engineer, he was appointed the position of Surface Mount Technology Supervisor effective from September 2011. His responsibility includes ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the new SMT assembly line, development of a preventative maintenance program, ensuring continuous high product quality, and is responsible for approximately 10 operators and technicians.

Tyco Flow Control Sven Huber is an Automation Projects and Service Technician and started with Tyco as a third year apprentice. His duties include in-field product services such as commissioning troubleshooting and repair for electric actuators, smart valve positioners as well and workshop repairs. He also handles Profibus trouble shooting and automation systems integration up to SCADA level application levels. Integrated into the Nepean waterways upgrade was a series of new fish-ways adjoining each weir, which allows fish to migrate upstream and return according to their natural breeding cycles. These expertly designed fish-ways were constructed especially for the project and serve to reclaim the natural habitat that has been lost over the years due to the presence of the weirs. The technology to monitor fish migration was proprietary and through intensive cooperation with the technology providers, Sven obtained the necessary subject matter expertise allowing him to seamlessly integrate the innovative fish monitoring system with the higher level PLC and SCADA systems. According to his manager, Sven consistently performs at a maturity level well beyond his age.

A Tyco Flow Control customer noted Sven’s consistent compliance with safety regulations and insistence of getting the job done safely as a priority.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press. Once the judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au. They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2012 www.pacetoday.com.au 45

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COMMUNITY

TOP TWEETS

WHAT’S ON

National Manufacturing Week 2012 8-11 May 2012, Sydney www.nationalmanufacturingweek.com.au AUSTECH 2012 8-11 May 2012, Sydney www.austechexpo.com.au Rockwell Automation on the Move 22-23 May 2012, Brisbane au.rockwellautomation.com Layer of Protection Analysis 28-29 May 2012, Melbourne www.icheme.org/LOPaMelb PLC and Automation short course 3 30 May 2012, Melbourne shortcourses.rmit.edu.au

Here’s what you may have missed this February if you weren’t following @pacetoday on Twitter: o Fully-automated production cell increases manufacturing efficiency http://t.co/mSD5J4Q4

o New IEC Technical Report is good news for automation end users http://dlvr.it/1NC7gq

o Invensys expands presence in WA http://dlvr.it/1QRhgP

o Australian Synchrotron secures funding for the next four years http://dlvr.it/1N0W4c

o Emerson acquires Marine Controls Business from Johnson Controls http://dlvr.it/1QNDBG

o Carbon capture technology moves a step closer to implementation http://dlvr.it/1N0Cbg

o GR Engineering wins Sandfire contract http://dlvr.it/1PCKNJ

o Slower growth in Asia-Pacific’s machine-vision market http://dlvr.it/1N069B

o Invisible nanominerals uncovered http://dlvr.it/1NmM1k

o NT university signs oil and gas training deal with WA’s Challenger Institute http://dlvr.it/1MpslD

o Boeing and CSIRO use science to drive innovation http://dlvr.it/1NmBRm o Pentair and Tyco International’s Flow Control business to combine http://dlvr.it/1NDHZW

Yokogawa User Meeting 13-15 June 2012, Broadbeach ron.hartman@au.yokogawa.com

For daily updates visit www.pacetoday.com.au

o Humes to manufacture Jellyfish membrane technology in Australia http://dlvr.it/1MpZcY o New boiler to feed steam to largest milk powder dryer in the world http://dlvr.it/1MLxlL

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

IICA CORNER

Bridge the education gap Australia needs graduates equipped with leading-edge skills, says Brett Simpson.

LAST month, I focussed on the Networking pillar of the IICA vision statement’s three key planks.

Here, I take a closer look at the Education pillar. To some, it might seem to be a pretty obvious activity.

After all, the core business activity of most professional not-for-profit organisations is centred on professional development education. So why devote an article to such a topic?

In today’s accelerating rate of technological change, it is simply career suicide for anyone not to invest in their continuing professional development.

The IICA does offer a wide range of educational opportunities. I want to focus on just two of them here.

The first is the IICA’s sole licence in Australia, to offer the International 46 www.pacetoday.com.au May 2012

Society of Automation’s (ISA) suite of professional development courses which are very highly regarded. Each is taught

by ISA accredited local presenters and the courses have also been tailored to ensure that Australian Standards are cited parallel to the American ones. The courses are offered across the major cities in Australia.

The second area is somewhat different from the traditional offering of courses. The IICA believes it is more than just anecdotal that areas of technology experiencing the most rapid change are mining, oil & gas and other such industries. The rapid evolution in these sectors has a lot to do with advances in automation, instrumentation and control systems. We also believe that such changes will only

accelerate and industries will need personnel who are able to manage and thrive in such environments.

Our concern is that a vast majority of Universities and TAFEs have not been as far-sighted as they ought to in recognising, and more importantly, addressing this phenomenon. The concern is that Australia will not produce enough graduates of the type that will be keenly sought after by industry because of their leading-edge knowledge. Worse still, companies will increasingly hire professionals from other countries which provide exactly the level of education that industry seeks.

Our Institute sees this as a major issue and is working on a number of fronts to attract attention. Firstly, we are working hard to publicise and draw

attention in as many avenues as we can, about the lack of sufficient focus on instrumentation and control systems within the tertiary sectors.

Secondly, we are endeavouring to gain access to the various TAFE curriculum content decision-making committees. The aim is to have voices on those committees that will provide a balance to the heavily electrical bias of the content of most of the current TAFE courses in our areas of interest.

Clearly this is an enormous challenge for a body like ours, and yes, it can be quite daunting. But then again, our commitment is strong and I am convinced that in the end our concerns will be seen and addressed.

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

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS

MELBOURNE 14 JUNE 2012 The PACE Zenith Awards recognise and reward companies that have demonstrated technological excellence and innovation.

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