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A targeted upgrade by Treotham has strengthened the reliability of Southern Ports’ Esperance ship-loader.
When a ladder was left against a key component at Southern Ports’ Port of Esperance, a potentially minor oversight could have resulted in an expensive problem.
Rather than continuing to operate the energy chain, which protects cables and hoses on moving equipment, the excessive force was detected and stopped before a potential failure could occur.
The incident provided an early demonstration of why Southern Ports invested in a new system from industrial automation specialist Treotham, with its push-pull detection system [PPDS] designed to protect the ship-loader from damage.
Treotham national sales manager John Sharp played a key role in designing the solution to keep the port running smoothly.
“The push-pull detection system is a mounted sensor that measures force continually,” Sharp told Australian Mining.
“It can be configured to meet the needs of the operator when excessive force is detected, whether that be a warning or an automatic controlled stop. Ultimately, the customer was extremely pleased to not have the damage and downtime that would have ensued.”
The Port of Esperance handles a significant volume of material, including iron ore, spodumene and nickel, placing a large emphasis on efficiency.
Looking to improve this, Southern Ports first engaged Treotham to design a solution which would reduce its costs and improve worker safety.
“I had been to the site a few times and saw opportunities to improve the system that supplied power to the ship loader,” Sharp said.
“Our priority is to develop solutions that work, so we put together a new custom-designed system that would get the loader running more efficiently.”
While the PPDS provided a way to respond to excessive force, Treotham’s work with Southern Ports also addressed an underlying issue affecting the ship-loader.
A belt tripper had been incorporated onto a conveyor to distribute material at specified locations between the terminal pulleys, before discharging that material on another conveyor that feeds the ship-loader.
However, as the ship-loader moved, the energy chain also moved from where it should be, requiring the equipment to be stopped until the energy chain was returned to its trough. To solve this, Treotham incorporated a marine-grade aluminium guide trough, energy chain and cable management system with anti-lift protection. The key challenge was determining where the energy chain should be positioned.
“We decided to put it in the gallery, meaning we could simply put brackets on the existing conveyor structure, making installation quicker and more efficient than alternative locations,” Sharp said.
This approach allowed the new system to be integrated with the existing conveyor structure while making the installation more efficient.
Treotham worked with long-time partner igus to supply a 105m energy chain to provide the power required for the system. The chain was designed with water hoses, fibre optics and high-voltage igus Chainflex cables for greater flexibility.
“If you think about the market for high-voltage cables, they’re around on every street corner at a transformer, but they’re not flexible, so they’re for static installation,” Sharp said.
“Then when you look at high-voltage cables for continuous motion, not many companies actually produce this; it’s quite a feat of engineering to build such a high-voltage cable designed to continually bend.”
The energy chain’s ability to withstand extreme push and pull forces was particularly important in this bulk material handling application, where a failure could lead to extended downtime.
Treotham’s expertise delivered not only improvements to the tripper but also reduced installation costs through collaboration between company personnel and Southern Ports’ own in-house technicians.
“It was a huge benefit to be on the ground, implementing the Esperance solution in-person,” Sharp said.
“With a team of two fitters and two electricians from Southern Ports, we fitted the system in five days.
“It’s always satisfying working with a customer that can operate in-house for these kinds of solutions and bring in our team to create a group of like-minded experts to get the job done.”
This feature appeared in the October 2026 edition of Australian Mining.