PLC, VSD, motors and control systems
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
What we work on
The electrical and controls side of automated production plant, carried out by Sparktech directly.
Variable speed drives
Fault finding, interpreting fault history, parameter configuration, like-for-like replacement and commissioning of replacement drives.
Motors and motor control
Fault finding, testing, insulation resistance testing and reporting, starters, overloads, motor control circuits, reconnection and replacement.
Control circuits
Relays, contactors, control wiring and control panel modifications on existing plant.
Sensors and field devices
Installation, wiring, fault finding and replacement of field instruments, sensors, actuators and field wiring.
PLC controlled machinery
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.
Safety circuits
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
Isolating where the fault actually sits
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:
- Supply, protection and the electrical condition of the circuit
- Field wiring, terminations and connections, including the intermittent ones
- Field devices and sensors, and whether they are reporting what they should be
- Drives, including fault history rather than just the current trip
- Motors, starters, overloads and the load or process conditions a drive may be responding to
- Relays, contactors and control circuits
- Inputs and outputs at the interface with the control system
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
Drives that keep tripping
A drive that trips, gets reset and trips again is usually reporting something rather than failing on its own.
- Fault finding and interpreting drive fault history rather than just the current trip
- Checking supply, motor and field conditions associated with the fault
- Parameter configuration
- Like-for-like drive replacement
- Commissioning of replacement drives
- Motor and drive testing as part of diagnosis
- Investigating repeat trips rather than continuing to reset the drive
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
Controls, programming and automation scope
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 needs specialist automation engineering, we coordinate trusted automation partners alongside our electrical work.
Safety-circuit fault finding, repairs and installation to supplied designs, with testing and documentation for our electrical work.
Related
Related services
Breakdown & fault finding
Electrical breakdown response and fault finding on live production sites.
Projects & installations
Machinery installation and line modifications, including the control and drive scope.
Industrial electrical maintenance
Planned maintenance on drives, motors, control circuits and field devices.
Where we work
Sites we attend
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
Jobs like this
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Goodman Fielder, Burleigh Heads
Chilled water solenoid traced to a hidden output fuse
A legacy switchboard with drawings that no longer matched, and a fuse mounted out of sight behind an output module.
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Get in touch
Drive tripping, or a fault nobody can pin down?
Tell us the machine, the drive or the symptom. If it is urgent, ring instead of filling in a form.
0434 059 952