OPA ECO = Reliable and Innovative Solutions

The Roy Hill Iron Ore Mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara Region would have to be one of the harshest environments in Australia. On top of the frequent ambient of 50 degrees Celsius, any equipment used there would also have to be able to withstand the highly destructive, fine iron ore particles that are constantly in the air. Temperzone’s ability to custom engineer innovative options for their clients as well as their incredibly robust and reliable OPA ECO units made them the perfect solution.

As the units were recently being commissioned, Adam Percy, GeneralManager of Climat Commercial in Adelaide summed it up perfectly, “Everything is working absolutely beautifully, we got it right!”

The units being installed were 80 Temperzone OPA – ECO Range between 55kW and 96kW and 150 Temperzone DiGital Under Ceiling units 16kW.

Mayfield Industries is a specialist engineering company that designs, manufactures, installs and commissions transportable switchrooms and switchboard solutions. Their job was to build a number of switchrooms in South Australia and have them shipped to the mine site in WA.

Climat Commercial was engaged to design and construct the air conditioning component in a number of switch rooms destined for the Roy Hill Iron Ore Mine. Climat approached Temperzone because of Temperzone’s expertise in situations like this, the reliability of their units and previous experience with mines.

There were 2 key criteria that presented a bit of a challenge;

1.The units had work continuously at 50 0C ambient. Backup systems would need to be included in the system to ensure the continuous operation of the switchrooms.

2. Being an iron ore mine, the units must be capable of operating in a harsh environment where there are particles of iron ore in the air. Because of this, the electrical compartment would need to be fully sealed.

While the first criteria wasn’t an issue for Temperzone units, the second one did present a major challenge. While sealing the electrical compartment is necessary to prevent the iron ore from getting in and causing issues with the electrical components of the unit, it would also stop any air flow or ventilation critical to the unit’s own electrical systems that also assists in the cooling process.

Temperzone and Adam worked together and investigated a number of options to overcome the issue.

According to Temperzone’s South Australian Branch Manager Ryan Wijayasekera, “We decided the Temperzone ECO units would be ideal for this application as they are fitted as standard with EC plug fans, Electronic Expansion Valves, variable DiGital Scroll Compressor and so on.

"The EC plug fan pressurizes the supply air chamber therefore forcing the air to the supply air outlet. We decided to run a pipe from the supply air chamber directly into the electrical compartment to build positive pressure within it. This method would prevent any dust particles from entering the Electrical Compartment. And the added benefit being using the cold supply air, will keep the switch gear much cooler, improving reliability in this harsh environment.

“Our engineering department agreed that it could be done and built a prototype unit to prove the design.

"The variation in the heatloads in these switchrooms is enormous. The load within the room can increase / decrease rapidly in a very short time depending on demand on the electrical equipment and the ambient conditions. The Temperzone ECO packaged units with the Digital Scroll compressor was the perfect solution. The infinitely variable capacity of the system is able to adjust to maintain an even temperature in the conditioned space.

“The Electronic Expansion Valves, EEV’s is a ‘must’ inclusion to maintain a good balance in the refrigeration system in an application such as this. The ability of the EEV to adjust rapidly ensures the refrigeration pressures remain stable while the loads on the indoor and outdoor coils experience rapid change. The result being a stable reliable machine with good longevity.

“So essentially, by using the Temperzone ECO units the only customization required was modifications to the electrical compartment and the addition of the pressurization pipe to the electrical compartment to protect it from iron ore dust.”

Also supplied for this project were 150 under ceiling units or ISU’s. Temperzone’s ISU’s are the only under ceiling unit on the market that can run at at 50 0C ambient. These units were pre-installed in the switchrooms built in Adelaide and trucked from SA to the mine in WA. The OPA’s were customized in the Sydney factory before the client trucked them from Sydney to WA.

The switchrooms control the conveyor belts and massive infrastructure in the mine. The failure of a switchroom has the potential to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a day in lost production.

The Roy Hill Project

The Roy Hill Project is a 55 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) iron ore mining, rail and port project being developed in West Australia’s Pilbara region.

Situated approximately 115 kilometres north of Newman, Roy Hill is a world-class, low phosphorus, Marra Mamba iron ore deposit located in the Pilbara – one of the world’s premier iron ore provinces – and the only independent iron ore project with West Australian majority ownership.

The Project will consist of a:

• Conventional open pit, bulk mining operation from multiple production benches
• 55Mtpa wet processing plant
• 344 kilometre single line, heavy haul railway
• Purpose built, dedicated two berth iron ore port facility at Port Hedland, capable of receiving, stockpiling, screening and exporting 55Mtpa (wet) of direct shipped iron ore as lump and fines.

Mayfield’s manufacturing business has been operating continuously and successfully since it was established in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1936 and is proud to be 100% Australian owned and operated. Our modern manufacturing facility occupies 26,500m2 with a total under cover factory space of 8,00m2.