Steel and metal processing plants
Coil processing and slitting lines, roll-forming mills, coating and painting lines, structural fabrication, and cable and extrusion. These are heavy, continuous, hard-running plants where the machinery is often older than the control system bolted onto it.
We work across all of it — the electrical infrastructure, the PLC and drive control, the guarding and safety systems, and the mechanical installation. One team under one electrical licence, which matters on a line where the electrical and mechanical scopes are impossible to separate cleanly.
What steel plants actually worry about
- The cost of a stopped line, per hour — this is the number that governs every maintenance decision on the site. It is usually large enough that preventative work pays for itself several times over, and it is why a standing maintenance arrangement tends to make sense here before it does anywhere else.
- Dust, scale and heat — enclosures, glanding and cable specification that survive a mill environment rather than an office one. Equipment specified for a clean plant fails early here.
- Mill networking and production data — getting throughput, downtime and quality data off the line and into something a production manager can use.
- Guarding and interlocks on older machinery — decades-old presses, shears, slitters and mills that were compliant when installed and have been modified since. Machine safety work on legacy plant is a different job to guarding a new machine.
- Work that has to fit inside a shutdown — the window is fixed, it was negotiated months ago, and it does not move. Shutdown works are planned backwards from handback.
- Hazardous area classification where coating, painting and solvent processes are involved — see hazardous area works.
Relevant support
- Switchboard upgrades — mains capacity that stopped being adequate three machines ago
- VSDs and motor control — drive replacement, retrofits and motor control changes across mill and line drives
- PLC programming and SCADA systems — line control, recipe handling and production reporting
- Machine installations and machinery installation and relocation
- Thermal imaging — finding the loose connection on a mill switchboard before it takes the line down
- Electrical breakdown support — for the night a line stops mid-coil
- Robotic welding and palletising for fabrication and packing ends
Service area
Mobile Automation services steel and metals sites across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria from Montrose, with a fleet of service vehicles and electrical breakdown support available. See service areas.
Frequently asked questions
Do you work on coil processing and slitting lines?
Yes. Coil processing, slitting, shear and packing line work including HMI, controls, drives, machine vision and safety systems.
Can you work inside a planned shutdown window?
Yes. Shutdown works are planned backwards from the handback date, with the scope, isolation and resourcing agreed in advance.
Do you handle guarding compliance on older mill machinery?
Yes. Machine safety work on legacy plant includes risk assessment, guarding and interlock design, installation and safety validation. The applicable standard and edition are confirmed per site.
Can you get production data off our mill?
Yes. Mill networking, PLC and SCADA work to capture throughput, downtime and quality data and present it usefully.
Do you cover hazardous areas on coating and painting lines?
Yes. Hazardous area electrical work with the inspection records and verification dossiers to match.
Are you able to hold the electrical licence as well as the automation scope?
Yes. Mobile Automation holds the electrical licence (REC 8904) and delivers the automation, robotics and mechanical scopes with the same team, so there is no gap between the integrator's scope and the electrician's.
Have more questions? Get in touch with our team.
