Mobile Automation Completes Sugar Australia Hazardous Location Upgrades

Mobile Automation has successfully completed a major electrical infrastructure and control system upgrade at Sugar Australia's Kilsyth plant in Victoria. Our successful tender submission incorporated a new mains supply with a 1000 KVA kiosk installation, a new capacity control device and meter panel as well as a new main switchboard.

The plant upgrade consisted of the design and manufacture of new electrical control cubicles and modifications to the existing control boards on site. All Wiring to the new pieces of equipment and all apparatus throughout the plant were carefully selected to ensure that they complied with the environment that it was installed.

The time frame for the project was critical due to the plant only being able to be shut down for short periods to ensure continuity of production.  Mobile Electrics worked around this by scheduling a team of 10 electricians 2 engineers and 4 apprentices to be available as the system was shut down.  Mobile Electrics were also required to integrate with the on-site mechanical team.  This worked particularly well and enabled the time deadlines to be met.

An Allen Bradley SLC 500 PLC was specified to ensure seamless compatibility with the existing system. A risk assessment was carried out and the machineries safety system was upgraded to comply with the risk assessment outcome and monitored via a Pilz programmable safety PLC. All plant motors determined to be located in a hazardous locations were changed to comply with AS/NZS 60079-14 and with appropriate AUSEx or IECEx approvals and fitted with Danfoss variable speed drives.

The final testing and commissioning was completed and a final inspection was carried out by an independent inspection company. The documentation was finalised utilising our new in house CAD system and compiled together with the hazardous area verification dossier and forwarded to the client.

The project was challenging due to the time restraints and the vast amount of work to be completed, however due to the dedicated team at Mobile Electrics and mechanical team on site the project was completed on time and on budget