At Terminals Pty Ltd’s facility in Geelong, bitumen is unloaded from ships through a pipeline 900 m long and 200 mm in diameter. Wireless temperature monitoring helps keep the bitumen heated so it doesn't solidify in the pipe.

Part 1 of this article introduced the standards efforts in relation to best practices in securing SCADA systems and introduced some key practices in protecting remote control systems. In Part 2, we discuss physical protection of remote RTU systems and highlight best practices for dealing with system failure.

Sensor technology is constantly evolving, giving OEM packaging machine designers new ways to reduce the cost of their machine designs while decreasing planned downtime during machine changeovers.

At Power Plastics in Sydney, Australia, hand-packing 3000 polyethylene condiment bottles an hour was taking a high toll in labour costs and operator health and safety — in a highly competitive market.

Australian expertise has been showcased in the development of the Phu Kham Copper-Gold Operation in Laos. PanAust Limited, which has a 90% stake in the operation, appointed Brisbane-based Ausenco Limited to design and engineer the project on an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) basis.

When designing a combustible gas safety monitoring system for oil and gas, petrochemical or other applications, how do you decide whether to use infrared or catalytic gas detector technology?

Amcor, one of the world’s leading packaging companies, offers a broad range of plastic, fibre, metal and glass packaging products, along with packaging-related services. The company has annual sales of AU$10.9 billion and employs 22,000 people worldwide. In Australia, Amcor has four beverage can manufacturing plants — Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth — and an end-making facility in Ballarat, Victoria, as well as a can and end manufacturing plant in Auckland, New Zealand.

In Part 1 of this article we explained the initial system-wide settings that are required for DCOM to operate correctly on a PC that is to run an OPC server. In Part 2 we will discuss the server-specific settings which will need to be configured for your specific OPC application.

With global markets influencing Australian industry more each day, bulk materials handling systems need to be set up so as to be reinvented as required, much like the business itself.

Industrial users have historically been a bit cautious about taking advantage of wireless technology. This caution is generally due to concerns related to critical infrastructure security and reliability. However, if the right wireless solution is chosen, adopters of industrial wireless technology can have the best of both worlds.

For engineers who design motion control systems that operate in hostile environments, the biggest headache is finding hardware that will give them accurate position data on moving machine elements. Many new sensing devices simply cannot function reliably under rugged conditions. In this situation, the engineer’s best option is a tried-and-true feedback sensor that has been available since the 1940s — the resolver.

The SCADA system of the early 21st century is vastly different from the system it was in its earliest beginnings, just 50 or so years ago.

The most famous attack on a SCADA system took place in Australia in 2001. As reported by news.com.au and other sources, Vitek Boden, a disgruntled former employee of the contractor who installed a computer system for the Maroochy Shire Council, near Brisbane, later hacked into the system.

The world’s largest ‘smart’ pulping mill has been built by Celulosa Arauco at Nueva Aldea in central Chile. Digital automation by Emerson Process Management allows mill personnel to readily access more data, allowing for easier calibration and greater mill-wide visibility, efficiency and management.

A recent multi-stage upgrade of the chicken processing facility at Adelaide Poultry, with the assistance of Champion Compressors, was able to reduce the power consumption of the plant’s compressors by 15%, while increasing throughput by 375%.