When automated plant stops, the expensive question is where the fault actually sits. Electrical supply, wiring, a field device, a drive, or the control system. Answering that properly is the work we do.
Manufacturing, food production and processing sites across South East Queensland and Northern NSW.
Direct capability
The electrical and controls side of automated production plant, carried out by Sparktech directly.
Fault finding, interpreting fault history, parameter configuration, like-for-like replacement and commissioning of replacement drives.
Fault finding, testing, insulation resistance testing and reporting, starters, overloads, motor control circuits, reconnection and replacement.
Relays, contactors, control wiring and control panel modifications on existing plant.
Installation, wiring, fault finding and replacement of field instruments, sensors, actuators and field wiring.
Fault finding on automated plant to establish whether a problem is electrical, in a field device, in a drive, or control related, including going online to diagnose.
Fault finding and repair on e-stops, guard switches, light curtains and safety relays, and installation to a supplied design.
Equipment we work across regularly:
The diagnostic question
When a PLC controlled machine faults, the alarm on the screen tells you what the control system noticed. It does not usually tell you the cause.
A sensor reading outside its range, an intermittent connection, a drive responding to a load or process condition, a failing contactor and an actual control problem can all present the same way at the HMI. Establishing which one it is, before anything is replaced or anyone else is called in, is the part that saves the money.
In practice that means working through:
Many faults reported as control system problems turn out to be electrical, in the field wiring or in a device. Knowing that before a programmer is engaged is worth having.
Variable speed drives
A drive that trips, gets reset and trips again is usually reporting something rather than failing on its own.
Where a drive has been logging and clearing faults over time, the fault history can be some of the most useful information available when diagnosing a repeat trip.
Controls and programming
Sparktech provides the electrical fault finding and controls work directly, including drives, motors, control circuits, sensors, field devices and fault finding on PLC-controlled machinery.
On Rockwell platforms we work directly with Logix controllers, PanelView HMIs, and PowerFlex and Kinetix drives. That includes going online to diagnose faults, modifications to existing control programs, HMI changes, firmware upgrades and downgrades, and recovering and reloading programs when a drive or controller is replaced.
Changes to a live control program are backed up before any work begins, so there is a way back if it is needed.
Where a project calls for automation engineering beyond what we deliver in-house, we engage trusted automation partners and coordinate that work as part of the overall project. We would rather bring in a specialist who is stronger in a particular area than stretch our own scope to cover it.
Sparktech does not position itself as a systems integrator or automation engineering consultancy. Machine safety systems remain outside our scope, as set out below.
We fault find and repair safety circuits, and install safety systems to a design supplied by you or your engineer. We do not design machine safety systems, perform safety validation, or issue safety system certification. We sign off our own electrical wiring.
Related
Electrical breakdown response and fault finding on live production sites.
Machinery installation and line modifications, including the control and drive scope.
Planned maintenance on drives, motors, control circuits and field devices.
Where we work
South East Queensland and Northern NSW, from Tweed Heads through the Gold Coast, Yatala, Beenleigh and Logan to Brisbane. Licensed in both states, so sites either side of the border are equally in scope.
Related work
A failed comms port left the HMI with no control. Firmware brought up to revision and the project reconfigured before the program would load.
Goodman Fielder, Burleigh Heads
A legacy switchboard with drawings that no longer matched, and a fuse mounted out of sight behind an output module.
Goodman Fielder, Burleigh Heads
Get in touch
Tell us the machine, the drive or the symptom. If it is urgent, ring instead of filling in a form.
0434 059 952Commercial and industrial sites only. We do not do domestic or residential work.