WA primes itself for Primex 2004 expo
Dedicated resource, industrial, mining and engineering expo, Primex 2004, will showcase over 700 companies servicing the resources sector in Australia and is expected to attract more than 20,000 visitors from around the world.
To be held at the Burswood Dome in Perth on 18-20 February 2004, the event is divided into from various focuses. These include:
Maintenance & Manufacturing (MainMan): On display will be the latest in plant and equipment, failure analysis and shutdown management, tool control and condition monitoring, etc.
Occupational Health & Safety (MineSafe): The latest protective clothing, breathing apparatus, harnesses, warning systems and much more will be exhibited.
Tools, Equipment & Machinery (ToolQuip): This section will feature drill rigs, earthmoving gear, rail-bound and rubber-tyred vehicles as well as specialist equipment.
Communications & Technology (ComTek): Exhibitors will feature satellite phones, cable and wireless technologies as well as Internet-based options.
Environmental & Recycling (EnviRec): Featured will be recycling technologies, hazardous waste management, and water and air treatment.
Power Generation & Supply (PowerGen): For the latest industrial power products including batteries, switchgear, circuit boards and breakers as well as cabling.
Materials Handling & Conveying (MatCon): Hardware and software solutions will be presented for storage monitoring, stock control security management among many other areas.
Pumping & Processing (PumpPro): Showcased will be agitators, attrition machines, air and wet classifiers, crushers, scrubbers, etc.
Lubrication Technology (LubeTek): The world’s finest oil sampling, condition monitoring and waste disposal technology will be on displayed.
Civil Engineering & Construction (CivCon): On display will be dewatering technologies, steel reinforcing, earthmoving gear, etc.
Primex chair John Webb, who brought the successful Minex exhibition to Perth from 1996 to 2000, says the event is what Western Australia has been missing in the past few years. Webb predicts that Primex will be the largest mining, engineering and industrial event in the Southern Hemisphere.
Seminars
In addition to the expo, Primex will also present a series of seminars relating to the focuses of the event.
Included will be John Jessop from Karjeni will use two case studies to illustrate the benefits of automated data flow between technical data systems.
Blackwoods Atkins will present a seminar on e-business and integrated supply.
David Slater from Apex Process Systems will discuss and offer a holistic approach to the minimisation of hydrocarbon solids and scale and heavy metals in efficient discharges.
Entertainment
Of course mining expos are not all hard work and Primex offers a series of attractions that serve as light entertainment, informative education, a means to relax, or an opportunity to socially network in a less-formal environment.
Of note will be a two-up school situated in the Centre Isle at the Burswood Dome. Participation is by a gold coin donation and all proceeds go to Ruggies Recycling, a mineral industry fundraising initiative for Princess Margaret Hospital for Children Foundation, helping the environment and sick and injured children.
Exhibitor highlights
Pilz Australia
Pilz is official MineSafe focus sponsor at Primex 2004.
Pilz MD Frank Schrever told Australian Mining that he is keen to talk about designing plant for safety because people in the mining industry do not understands this as well as people in manufacturing.
“This comes into play where people are interacting with fixed machinery - plant that is conveying product, crushing product, processing product,” Schrever says.
“When people can get tangled up in the moving parts of a machine that’s when they need to design safety control systems and that incorporate our stuff and that incorporates the risk assessment.”
Pilz will divide it display into three segments. It will feature safety by electro-mechanical means: Safety relays; programmable safety systems. Safe PLCs and safety through networking of safety: the safety bus, like a fieldbus driven by a safe PLC and all the considerations that flow from that. Plus all the input devices and output devices that need to be controlled safely.
“It’s all about stopping machinery, stopping the hazards before people can get to it and making sure it can’t start again if there are any faults in the system. All this is what is required by the Australian Standard for safety of machinery,” Schrever says.
KSB Ajax Pumps
KSB Ajax Pumps is the official PumpPro focus sponsor at Primex 2004.
KSB Ajax sales engineer John Robson told Australian Mining that the company has a product range for pretty much every type of pumping application.
The KSB display will be broken into two segments: mining and wastewater industry pumps for building services.
On the mining side it fill feature its newly acquired Georgia Iron Works (GIW) pumps as well as its Mega range of heavy industrial centrifugal pumps. In addition to that range is the lighter Elite version and the IS range, which is based on the ISO standard.
Also on display will be its vertical multi-stage pumps for high boiler feed work, and the European multiple range of pumping applications including arduous, dangerous chemical, abrasion resistance and corrosion resistance.
On the wastewater site KSB will promote its submersible pumps. The company is bringing to Australia its Emerex range of KSB pumps out of Germany.
“We were very fortunate recently winning a major tender to supply the Telfer mine in WA with some cyclone feed pumps,” Robson says.
“These have traditionally been supplied by Warman. This is a major win for KSBGIW and we will be displaying photos of these pumps. They are enormously big pumps, probably some of the biggest pumps that have come into Australia in terms of the job that they do.
“What has to be appreciated is that they are very high wearing pumps; they are a white iron, 28G material, which is abrasion resistant. We’re expecting big results from these pumps and this application; and the customer Newcrest will be expecting big results.”
Hella Australia
Hella Australia business development manager for mining Urbain du Plessis told Australian Mining that the company had last year created the Hella Centre of Excellence Mining in Melbourne to drive a global program that focuses on the special lighting requirement of mining.
The mining lighting products are developed and tested in Australia for export globally. Many of these will be on display at Primex 2004.
“What we have strived to do is create a selection of products that fulfil all the lighting needs found on a mine in one place,” du Plessis says.
“We created a catalogue of specific products for this; 400 products that are separated into mobile plant lighting equipment, fixed plant lighting equipment, accessories and globes. It is presented with the focus on the needs of a plant engineer or consulting engineer. Normally catalogues are just lists with part numbers. Ours is very information-rich catalogue.”
“The main benefits that we deliver at the end of the day is that each one of the products delivers end-user value and productivity increases through greater safety, lower operating costs and predictable service. These are all things that are common in the mechanical side of mining, the drives systems etc, but it is not the norm in the lighting equipment that they use.
“The product is not our starting point. We have analysed the result of what the mines need, how they need to run their businesses and the sort of support they need for the product and what are the physical performance requirements for the products added to that,” du Plessis says.
19-Nov-2003