Mobile Automation delivered the electrical and controls installation and commissioning for a new water-treatment plant at a Victorian manufacturing site — from schematics and switchboard manufacture to a commissioned control system.
Schematics, panel layout and MCC manufacture
Design came first.
- Panel layouts, terminal schedules and schematics revised as the plant developed
- Two enclosures joined into a single MCC with earth bar, door interlock and circuit breakers
- Protective steel barrier fitted, with door cut-outs for the fan, vents and HMI
- Remote I/O enclosure laid out, wired and tested
Power, cable routes and drives on site
Power came in from the main outside distribution board.
- MCC set on its plinth and fed with four 95 mm mains and a 35 mm earth
- Cable tray joined to existing runs on cantilever brackets and strut dynabolted down
- 2.5 mm, 6 mm and 10 mm sub-circuits to ten variable speed drives, then shielded cable to each motor
- 11-core and Dekoron instrument cable run to the compressor
- Data cabling in separate conduit
- Two motors reconnected to star and tested
Level, temperature and valve instrumentation
Instrument cabling ran clear of the pipework.
- Tray extended from the main run to the cold-water storage tank
- Shielded twisted-pair cable to the tank and pump sensors, numbered and terminated against the instrument tag list
- Temperature controllers wired and configured, sensors fitted off at the hot and cold ends
- Power and control to the solenoid valves under the tanks and the boiler burner control
Commissioning the PLC and verifying every input
Communications came first.
- Patch leads run and terminated, the processor addressed over USB and Ethernet brought online
- I/O racks and the remote rack configured and checked
- As-installed wiring walked down against the schematics, to a written commissioning plan
- Eight level senders at the MCC and two at the remote rack moved from digital to analogue input cards
- Spare cores identified and 24 V sensor supplies extended
- Feedback verified in the Allen-Bradley software
The results
- Plant handed over commissioned, from schematics to running control system
- Ten variable speed drives fed and proved from a single MCC
- Every instrument terminated and verified against the tag list and schematics