AC drives power huge shiploader
A
Control Techniques product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Apr 2, 2008
Control Techniques Australia was awarded the contract for the control of all variable speed AC motors on the Dalrymple Bay coal terminal's new shiploader.
A new shiploader has been installed at the Dalrymple Bay coal terminal in the port of Hay Point, as part of BBI (DBCT) Management expansion plans 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 5500 tonnes per hour, for export to Japan, China and India, amongst others.
The recent Stage 6 Expansion added a new berth and the ship loader increasing capacity to 56 million tonnes per annum.
The coal loader, weighing 1030 tonnes and measuring 49m high, was built on the Brisbane River and moved by a heavy lift ship to the Dalrymple Bay Berth Number 3.
The operation was synchronised to coincide with a low tide to give a mast clearance of just 2.5m 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 used a scheme in which 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.
"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 7200 tonne per hour shiploader travels alongside a berthed ship on rails on a 200m wharf (one of three) fed by a 3.8km 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 degrees around the hold to make sure the hatch is fully and evenly loaded.
The telescopic chute winch system features two 55kW Unidrives, one for position control, one in regenerative mode, to feed power back to the supply during braking.
The boom luffing winch is a 500kW regenerative system, with three Unidrives power sharing and a further three in regenerative mode.
The 55kW boom shuttle winch system is also regenerative with a position control Unidrive and one in regen mode.
The travel of about 200m along the berth is provided by 28 motors controlled by four 160kW Unidrives with a further four units giving power regeneration.
Using feedback from the drives' software to the controlling PLC via DeviceNet, the PLC controls the reeling of the cable and hose reels to maintain a constant feed angle on the cable and hose, whether reeling in or paying out.
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