The port of Barcelona was being developed to provide a ship lifting service, primarily for superyachts up to 4800 tonnes, allowing the vessels to be removed from the water and transported from the dry dock around the yard for refit and refurbishment.
AutomationXL were contracted by Power Jacks to provide power and control units for the jacks being integrated. The system comprised of 48 individual jacks, located in pairs along the hull of a vessel in the shipyard. Each jack required its own local control panel in addition to a master control unit for the system.
The operating environment required a number of considerations to ensure that the equipment installed was mechanically robust enough to withstand the shipyard and saliferous environment. The system had to be easily deployable, so that panels could be disconnected and deployed at different parts of the shipyards, all whilst mechanically and electrically protected. There were also limitations on the number of cores available to each control panel, and the size/weight of the cables.
AutomationXL designed, built and supplied control panels constructed of 316L stainless steel with “disconnector” plugs and sockets which enabled the plugs to be disconnected under full current and rated to IP66.
A local programmable logic controller (PLC) offers local control for each control panel and provides flexibility at the later stages of the system when the client wanted different modifications to the operation. High quality cables suitable for flexible use and resistant to oils, acids and water were used, these were terminated with IP66 connectors.
The shipyard is now fully operational providing services to many impressive vessels as can be seen in the following youtube video