Electricity and Control November 2023

CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUTOMATION : PRODUCTS + SERVICES

Locally manufactured for the global market

With a history of delivering large engineering projects globally, Iritron has over 20 years’ experience in designing motor control centres (MCCs) built to the highest interna tional specifications, says CEO, Alwyn Rautenbach. Iritron is an engineering, integration and manufacturing company providing solutions in the fields of electrical, in strumentation and control systems and decision support systems. Rautenbach highlights that the company is driven by quality standards: it holds ISO 9001:2015 quality management system accreditation and, with respect to the wellbeing of its staff, customers and contractors and of the environment, it also holds ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational health & safety) and ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental management systems) accreditation. Iritron’s panels also carry the SABS mark. “We always engineer solutions that contribute to the ef fectiveness of operations according to the client’s specifica tions. Investment needs to be justified in terms of the return it delivers, and that is where Iritron excels,” he adds. As a member of the Electrical Switchgear Association of South Africa (ESASA), Iritron is a custom panel and MCC manufacturer with a manufacturing facility in Gauteng; and as a level 7 Engineering and Procurement (EP) company registered with the Construction Industry Development Board (cidb), provides construction installation manage ment. Rautenbach says the company is recognised for its pro fessionalism and quality compliance, and for its successful execution of multifaceted projects. Internationally, Iritron has completed a number of com plex control and automation projects that have included the design and manufacture of custom panels and MCCs.

As a specialist in electrical, instrumentation and control systems, Iritron also manufactures customised panels and MCCs. for a manganese mine in Gabon. The mine is the world’s second largest producer of high-grade manganese. Iritron has extensive experience in the manganese mining market. In Gabon, the project – designed by a global multidisci plinary EPCM consultancy – tasked Iritron with delivering a solution that encompassed several engineering disciplines with tight deadlines. Electrical MCCs, a control system, CCTV and network cabinets formed part of the delivery. Rautenbach says the project was awarded to Iritron based on its proven engineering expertise in this type of delivery. “A project of this magnitude included some unique challenges. The company was affected by worldwide semiconductor shortages and supply chain disruptions that created logistical challenges. At the time, the ongoing pandemic and port congestion compounded the problem. This required the Iritron team to turn their operations ‘up side down’, in the literal sense, to keep to timelines,” he explains. The team worked on the MCCs in reverse sequence – activities usually scheduled for the end of a build were completed first. “This meant the engineering team wasted no time in waiting for equipment to arrive. Using their technical ex pertise and proven design methodologies, they reduced overall project risks posed by the supply chain bottleneck. engineering teams modernise their systems more easily, on time and within budget, minimising errors and disruptions to production.” Organisations looking to modernise control and safety systems often start with decades-old code that has to be transitioned to current software. Manually converting and documenting this code is an arduous process that increas es the time and capital requirements for such projects sub stantially. Emerson’s REVAMP advanced software combines an extensive knowledge base from similar modernisation pro jects with Emerson’s experience library to develop con tinuously updating AI models. Each modernised control system feeds back into the REVAMP software, creating learning algorithms that perpetually get smarter and faster Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9

A multimillion rand project in Gabon Among these is a recently completed expansion project

New engineering software accelerates plant modernisation

A global leader in technology and software, Emerson, is helping cus tomers transition legacy technology to modern DeltaV™ automation archi tecture to modernise and digitise op erations more quickly and efficiently. Emerson’s REVAMP advanced soft

ware solution uses cloud computing and artificial intelli gence (AI) to automate up to 70% of system configuration, reduce errors and manual conversion work, and reduce capital costs by up to 15%. “Too often, modernisation projects surprise teams late in the process with cumbersome, unanticipated work and errors from manual conversion,” said Claudio Fayad, Vice President of Technology for Emerson’s process systems and solutions business. “Emerson’s REVAMP helps project

REVAMP simplifies and speeds transition to a modern automation architecture, reducing capital costs at the same time.

8 Electricity + Control NOVEMBER 2023