AUTOMATION SERVICES

BRE Services have been a leader in the industrial automation space for over 10 years and offer a variety of automation project and service solutions. Our team of over 25 includes automation technicians, automation engineers, instrumentation technicians and electrical design engineers. We have all of the tools and experience necessary to provide turnkey solutions to all of your industrial automation needs.

BATCHING FACILITY CONTROL SYSTEM

One of our largest automation-led projects to date, a full batching plant upgrade for a well-known Victorian dairy facility, which included the manufacture of a new MCC and design of a full control system to handle, tanker unloading, storage silos for milk, cream & sugar, product transfer lines & valve paths, batch tanks & batching recipe controls, homogeniser integration, pasteuriser control systems, product transfer to and integration with existing filling lines and CIP sequence’s including line cleanliness status monitoring and interlocking.

BRE’s involvement in this project was extensive, from initial design, hardware procurement, panel construction, site installation, programming and commissioning of a 1500 IO count control system consisting of an MCC, 7 remote IO cabinets, VSD and DOL motor control, including functional safety system, PID controls for flow rate & heating profiles, PLC control system design in accordance with ISA-88 standards, Ignition SCADA control system, including customised recipe database and recipe editor functionality, batch, CIP and production reporting systems and plant commissioning.

PALLET CONVEYING AND AGV SYSTEM UPGRADE

BRE recently provided to support to one of Melbourne’s leading glass manufacturing plants, who were upgrading and automating their logistics systems for improved productivity and OEE. Our involvement was to retrofit control gear onto existing manual pallet loading systems and turn them into a fully automated turnkey operation that communicated with AGV control system and provide a web interface for the warehouse staff that was accessible from their office computers. Including wireless network connectivity, motor control, position sensing and communication gateways, the system integrated seamlessly into their existing procedures and they are now autonomously filling orders throughout Melbourne.

An upgrade to the manufacturing line product transfer systems was happening simultaneously and as automating old systems often has its challenges, BRE were again requested to offer support on advanced conveyor controls and pallet data tracking throughout the entire manufacturing process. This included upgrading older parts of the control system and integrating the new equipment with the entire product distribution system while the plant was in full operation, to avoid any disruptions to production and sites supply chain obligations. These works included advanced HMI works, using site templates and programming standards to incorporate new functions and equipment, PLC and VSD upgrades, recipe and database editing, all without the need for any downtime to the production plant.

KILN CONTROL SYSTEM UPGRADE

BRE recently completed a large conversion from an obsolete Siemens S5 controller to a new and Improved S7-1500 controlled system with multiple remote IO racks and other peripheral controls for a kiln in a large brick manufacturing plant. This coupled with new wireless communications to the exiting delivery and take-away systems and a new Ignition SCADA user interface, meant that we were able to add in some innovative new technology to an old plant and process.

A challenging project, this called for us to reverse engineer the indirectly addressed heating and extraction system controls, as well as creating a new Ignition project, in an off-site development phase, before attending site to carry out the cutover and commissioning in a very tight shutdown window.  Long days and commissioning on a live operational system, meant our team of 4 senior engineers were working tirelessly to get the plant up and running in the desired timeframe. The finished product, a more reliable and user-friendly control system with Ignitions capacity to view the kilns operational status from anywhere in the plant, resulted in a satisfied customer that now has a cutting edge platform that they are excited to build on.