Press Release
COAL LOADER DOWN UNDER DEPENDS ON CONTROL TECHNIQUES
DRIVES
In Australia, as part of BBI (DBCT) Management Pty Ltd
expansion plans, a new shiploader has been installed at the
Dalrymple Bay coal terminal in the port of Hay Point.
Serving a total of 14 mines in Central Queensland including
Blair Athol, this massive shiploader features AC drives from
Control Techniques, Emerson Industrial Automation for the control
of each of its main movements.
The coal terminal at Dalrymple Bay unloads about 15 - 18 trains
a day at the nominal rate of 5,500 tonnes per hour, for export to
Japan, China and India, amongst others. The recent Stage 6
Expansion, added a new berth and the installation of the new ship
loader to the existing 2 berths/2 shiploader combination,
increasing capacity to 56 million tonnes pa.
The coal loader, weighing 1030 tonnes and 49 metres high, was
built on the Brisbane River and moved by a heavy lift ship to the
Dalrymple Bay Berth No 3. The operation was synchronised to
coincide with a low tide to give a mast clearance of just 2.5
metres under the Brisbane Gateway Bridge!
Control Techniques Australia was awarded the contract for the
control of all variable speed AC motors on the machine by
contractors Clough Downer JV. Control Techniques solution was
for a scheme whereby all drives communicated between themselves and
the controlling PLC via DeviceNet, with encoder feedback giving
closed loop motor control and all drives featured additional
on-board processing.
“Despite the size of the coal loader, space for drives cubicles
was limited,” says Ananda Sebastian, managing director of Control
Techniques Australia Pty, based in Sydney.
“The client was pleased with our solution based on Unidrive AC
drives and drives and switchgear were mounted back-to-back in
specially designed compact cubicles. We had to commission the
drives for the boom before it left the dock in the Brisbane River
so that the boom could be lowered to pass under the Gateway
bridge. Once installed at Dalrymple Bay, we completed the
final commissioning, which was completed very quickly to the
client’s full satisfaction.”
The 7,200 tonne per hour shiploader travels alongside a berthed
ship on rails on a 200 metre wharf (1 of 3) fed by a 3.8
kilometre long jetty, the longest bulk coal jetty in
Australia. Reach across the width of the holds is provided by
a shuttling head on the boom to ensure even loading and a
telescoping loading chute minimises the generation of dust.
This chute can direct coal through 360° around the hold to make
sure the hatch is fully and evenly loaded.
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