Boral Quarry Invests in Intelligent Motor Control Solution

Boral is a leading provider of construction materials and building products in Australia. Products include cement, aggregates, concrete, asphalt, bricks, roofing, masonry products and timber.

With an extensive network of concrete, asphalt and manufacturing sites across Australia, Boral's leading position is underpinned by around one billion tonnes of quarry reserves strategically located close to key markets.

Boral’s Charlton quarry is located in Victoria, almost half way between Melbourne and Mildura. It is one of the few hard rock quarries in the region with the capability to produce notable volumes. The quarry produces a range of quarry products and supplies product to infrastructure projects in the region.

With a commitment to delivering high-quality building and construction solutions, Boral Quarries holds Quality Management System Certification to ISO 9001:2015 for its operations.

Boral works to maintain an engaged and reliable workforce and minimise environmental impact. In keeping with this mission, Boral recently invested in an industry leading motor control solution for their Charlton quarry to improve uptime and leverage the longevity and compliance provided by the latest motor control technology.

Productivity and Reliability

Boral engaged SS Electrics, a progressive electrical contracting business based in Ballarat, Victoria, to implement a solution to modernise the electric equipment at the quarry.  

“We have worked with Boral on projects at their other quarries previously and therefore understood the importance of minimising downtime onsite during commissioning. The Rockwell Automation MCC was the most appropriate choice for this application because it is a fully designed and integrated system that is essentially 75 percent commissioned upon arrival. This really helped reduce engineering time and helped meet the tight commissioning timeline for this project,” explained Chris Nunn, Director, SS Electrics.

The Allen-Bradley® CENTERLINE® 2500 Motor Control Centers (MCCs) offer optimal safety, performance and reliability to help quarries meet their production requirements. Modern motor control solutions need to be able to integrate with existing systems and provide advanced diagnostics capabilities. The CENTERLINE 2500 meets these requirements with premier integration and reduced engineering time.

“The quarry required a MCC solution that would meet the highest standards and also one that would be cost effective as well as adopting some of the integration benefits,” explained Matthew Treeby, account manager, Rockwell Automation.

SS Electrics worked with Rockwell Automation and their distributor NHP Electrical Engineering Products to select the smart components which are at the heart of the 12 column MCC including the E300™ Electronic Overloads, SMC™ Flex soft starters, POINT I/O™ modules, Guardmaster® safety relays, Stratix® switches, ControlLogix® control system and PowerFlex® 525 variable speed drives for the crushers, conveyors and processing equipment.

“The MCC provides a reliable solution for motor control in Boral’s Charlton quarry. The MCC is a ‘best of both worlds’ solution because it is not only high quality, fully tested and compliant, as would be expected from a global supplier, but the customer was also able to customize the solution to meet their unique requirements because the design and project management is done locally,” explained Treeby.

The MCC was pre-built in a portable room prior at SS Electric’s facility prior to being shipped to site.

Improved Uptime and Compliance

Boral’s Charlton quarry is now benefitting from the new smart motor control solution which provides key diagnostic information that optimises performance with real time access to operation and performance trends. As the quarry moves towards a more Connected Enterprise, this increased visibility into the system and real time diagnostic data can be transformed into actionable and insightful information.