Our Unanderra team recently completed another successful overhaul and upgrade of the Carborough Downs Coal Mine pump station. This unit was originally built in 2009, with Longwall Hydraulics completing a full retrofit of Kamat Pumps and upgrading the system in 2015. This latest overhaul will now see this system complete 5-year production through to mine life end. This overhaul had to be very carefully scoped as the customer wanted to maximise value by incorporating upgrades to build efficiencies and improved safety in production, whilst operating within a very tight budget, due to the tough economic conditions in 2020.
The overhaul included a full rewire and electrical upgrade, addition of flow monitoring which was designed into existing pipework, operator platform and filtration was upgraded on the emulsion tank, pumps and track system was overhauled, hose and fitting circuits replaced with new for safety compliance, and the station underwent factory acceptance testing on 3300v power.
To support the customers budget needs our factory acceptance testing process was changed, and we partnered with the team at Dynelec to perform the power testing at their facility. This enabled us to use their existing HV installation and transformer which is capable of running each individual pump and motor assembly. Whilst the complete station could not be on power, each set was fully tested along with the field I/O devices. This provided our customer with a great testing outcome at a much lower cost, and ensured the system was returned to site fully commissioned and ready for immediate production.
A great end to an interesting year, a big thanks to all our hard working staff and suppliers that have supported us during 2020. See you all next year for a bigger and better 2021...