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Specialist electrical partner for Africa’s mining and industry Hamar with over four decades on the market continues to record remarkable growth trajectory.
Established in 1981 as a panel manufacturing specialist, increasing customer demand for its quality products and expert workmanship saw Hamar Controls expand its capabilities, adding electrical and instrumentation installation and construction to its portfolio in 2001.
“Our panels are used on most mines in South Africa,” saids Hamar Controls Managing Director, Chris Joubert.
He attributes the company’s growth and success to several factors.
“We have a highly skilled team of specialists who follow best practices and we use manufacturing materials and components of only the finest quality. Moreover, we keep in step with the latest developments within this dynamic industry. When industry standards changed, we made sure that we achieve full compliancy to the SANS 61439 standard through our strategic technology partnerships with industry leaders – Siemens, Cubic and Logstrup.”
“Furthermore, we populate our panels with leading switchgear brands from reputable companies like Schneider, Siemens, ABB, Rockwell, Mitsubishi, Hagar, Eaton and WEG with whom we have long standing relationships. Our Motor Control Centres (MCCs) and Distribution Boards are supplied in accordance with customer requirements and conform to SANS 10142, SANS 60439 and SANS 1973 accreditations.
“Our proud membership of ECA (SA) (Electrical Contractors’ Association) assures customers that all our electrical installations meet the highest standards and that we deliver tried, tested and proven electrical solutions.” Joubert adds that all in-house designs are certified by a professional engineer.
“Alongside Distribution Boards and MCCs, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), Distributed Control Systems (DCSs), a wide variety of starter and control panels, lock-out stations and high-pressure pump panels also form part of the company’s scope of supply. “We can supply basically any electrical equipment that goes into a box,” affirms Joubert.
Hamar Controls services a wide range of market segments including gold, platinum, diamond, coal and iron ore mines, aluminium and iron ore smelters, food and beverage, ports and harbours, sewerage, water purification, cement, paper & pulp, petrochemicals, process- and material handling plants.
The company also offers purpose-built and fully customised mobile solutions for remote, pilot and semi-permanent plants and fast-track projects in the form of a variety of containerised electrical substations or e-houses which can be skid mounted if required.
“We build a complete substation in a shipping container which is completely modified to meet each customer’s individual requirements,” explains Joubert.
This mobile solution delivers tremendous cost and time saving advantages for customers. Factory acceptance testing includes the joining of panels, electrical testing of the assembly in final form, software testing and even some pre-commissioning. This is done at the Hamar Controls premises by electrical and software engineers, before the completed container is delivered to site.
According to the company, once in position, only a small electrical team is required to complete the necessary cable work and connections which makes the mobile electric substation ready for operation. In addition to the elimination of expenses related to electrical contractors and engineers having to travel to site, downtime is substantially reduced, maximising productivity. This seamless plug-and-play solution also saves construction costs for customers as a brick-and-mortar structure to house the substation is not required.
Joubert adds that a containerised solution is particularly cost-effective for projects outside South Africa, solving the challenges presented by long distances and lack of infrastructure that commonly plague remote locations.
“We are currently constructing four containerised units for customers in Mozambique and Lesotho. In addition to the aforementioned savings, the customer also does not face the costs of flying engineers to site for interfacing and testing of the units.”
The expertise and capabilities of Hamar Controls has secured projects even as far afield as Malaysia and China where a team from Hamar Controls was on site to assist the respective customers with the installation and commissioning of the company’s locally manufactured substations and with application of turnkey electrical, control and instrumentation projects.
Hamar Controls in-house manufactures control cabins for a variety of materials handling equipment including shiploaders, stackers, etc. Retrofitting and refurbishment complete Hamar Controls’ extensive after-market service capabilities.
