The new facility in Merrifield Estate on Melbourne's outer northern fringe will allow Dulux to step into the next generation of paint manufacturing technology and innovation. Dulux's aim was to design and construct a state-of-the-art facility, so using quality products was essential to achieve this. Stainless steel in 300 series grades was an integral part of the project design, including storage vessels and over 10,000m of food grade, quality tube complying with AS1528.
CONCEPT STAGE
In 2015, Dulux announced its decision to construct the new state-of-the-art, highly automated paint factory at an investment of $165m.
The Dulux plant, the first of its kind, is approximately 20,000m², built on 17 hectares of land and is due for completion towards the end of 2017. For a project of this large scale, it was crucial that a strong collaborative relationship was set up between Dulux and its chosen suppliers. In relation to the tubing, supply flexibility, reliability and quality was a key requirement and ASSDA Sponsor Prochem Pipeline Products stepped up to the mark and was the successful tenderer. At the outset the total amount of tube was unclear and would only become apparent as the building process unfolded.
Working together with the client, Prochem executed a strategy to provide more than 10,000 metres of stainless steel tube over a nine-month period to complete the project.
Whilst the original engineering design specified pharmaceutical standard ASME BPE, Prochem worked with the client and design team to have this changed to AS1528 due to its suitability for the application and also due to availability of this stainless steel standard compliant product in the Australian market.
THE DESIGN
The design included a number of large and small storage vessels which were fabricated locally and supplied by ASSDA Members and Accredited Fabricators A&G Engineering and J Furphy & Sons.
A major part of the design involved the supply and fabrication of the AS1528 tubing and included stainless steel fitting and flanges. The fabrication work was contracted to ASSDA member John Beever Australia who worked closely with Prochem to ensure a continuous supply of materials was made available as required.
The project consumed over 10,000 metres of AS1528 tubular products in a size range from ½” to 8” in outside diameter with the bulk being 2”, 3” and 4”. The fittings used in the project included BSM fittings, tri-clover ferrules and clamps and also a significant amount of ANSI flanges which were all supplied by Prochem and fabricated by John Beever. The overall project quantities were significant and as such a large degree of co-ordination and co-operation was required with numerous manufacturers to meet the project schedule.
An innovative technique was designed to match the tri-clover ferrules and clamps to the tube and machinery to enable a correct fit-out at site.
With good co-operation and education, the project also allowed the flexibility to use both stainless steel grades 304 and 316 if availability became an issue.
With an innovative and co-operative approach involving many ASSDA members, this project was completed on time and within budget, and will support the Dulux paints business for decades to come.
This article is featured in Australian Stainless Magazine Issue 60 (Summer 2017/18).