Client
Fortescue Metals Group
Location
Pilbara, Western Australia
Industry
Mining
Overview
The Iron Bridge site is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 145km south of Port Hedland, and encompasses the North Star, Eastern Limb, Glacier Valley and West Star magnetite iron ore deposits.
Iron Bridge includes the construction of a process plant, non-process infrastructure, slurry and return water pipelines, a raw water pipeline and port infrastructure to support the production of 22 wmtpa of high-grade 67% Fe magnetite concentrate product.
Scope
Intellect Systems was engaged to manufacture:
- Field Communication Panels
- Field Marshalling Panels
- Junction Boxes
- Switchroom PLC Panels
- Switchroom Communication Panels
- PLC Equipment Supply
In total, Intellect provided more than 550 of the above panels to the Iron Bridge Process Plant.
Intelligent Solutions
The ability to deliver a project of this immense scale on time and within budget while maintaining the highest level of Quality Assurance could only be achieved with intelligent solutions to optimise the manufacturing process.
Engineering Led Manufacturing
Intellect Systems’ in-house engineering and manufacturing teams collaborated with the client to custom-design and prototype panels, ensuring the assets achieved all compliance and type test requirements and guaranteeing they would suit the desired application.
The asset’s internal equipment was modelled in the virtual world using digital twin technology and engineering shop detailing, which ensured seamless and efficient assembly during production.
Just In Time Manufacturing
Supply chain bottlenecks and logistics constraints are significant pressures in the current manufacturing environment. Intellect’s management of the process along with strong vendor partnerships helped mitigate the impact of these pressures and kept the receipt of components on schedule.
Efficiency was also built into the project timeline by scheduling concurrent production processes in parallel. While awaiting the fabrication and delivery of the enclosures, the asset’s internals were expertly assembled and wired on equipment trays then installed into the enclosure after undergoing testing and QA.
Intellect batched the manufacture of the panels to synchronise with the client’s complex site installation schedule, which included deliveries to not only Iron Bridge Operations in the Pilbara but also further afield to South Australia and China.
Advanced Manufacturing and Production Processing
At Intellect, we use an established lean manufacturing philosophy, which delivers cost and time-saving benefits to clients without compromising the quality of our products. We’ve invested in autonomous processing to minimise waste and improve efficiency, using tools such as automated wire cutting and stripping to ensure precision while maximising output.
The Iron Bridge Field project is just another example of how Intellect integrates technology and optimises every step of our processes to deliver tangible benefits such as cost, productivity, and efficiency to our clients.
