Design & Engineering
Process, power and control designed in house, from a single panel to a complete plant. Brief to as-built, by one team
ONE PANEL TO PLANT-WIDE
No job too small, none too large
FOUR DISCIPLINES, ONE RECORD
Process/safety, automation, switchboard, install
GREENFIELD AND BROWNFIELD
New plants, and plants that cannot stop
NATIONAL
Design delivered anywhere in Australia
We work out what you need, then we design it
From a single control panel to a complete production plant, designed in house across process and safety, automation, switchboards and electrical installation, under one quality system and one set of tags.
Most projects do not arrive with a finished scope, and they are not expected to. Working out what the plant has to do is the first stage of the work. We ask the questions, you tell us about the product and the process, and the scope comes out of that.
We can deliver the design on its own, as a package you take to any contractor, or as the front end of a turnkey project we then build, program, install and commission.
How can we help?
Why design with I2R
We start before the scope exists. Defining what the plant has to do is the first stage of the work, not a prerequisite you have to meet before we will talk. You can buy that stage on its own and stop there.
Peer reviewed, then approved before anything is ordered. Every design task is reviewed by a second designer, and your project manager approves the design before the first purchase order is raised. A change found at the review costs a drawing revision, the same change found after ordering costs stock.
The package is yours. Take it to tender, to any builder or contractor, or keep the same team on it through manufacture, automation and installation. You are not tied to us by the drawing set.
Loop checks and tuning on site. When needed, we are on the plant for the cutover: point to point, sequence proving, process tuning alongside your operators, then the same people on the phone afterwards.
What we design
Design across four disciplines
Buy one of them, or all four on the same project.
01
Process and safety design
What does the plant have to do, and how does it stay safe while it does it?
- Equipment lists, tagging and area allocation
- Process descriptions, functional descriptions and P&IDs
- HAZOP and CHAZOP sessions, facilitated or attended with your team
- Safety risk assessment
- Safety zones, safety functions and required performance levels
- Instrument schedules, ranges and signal types
02
Automation design
What controls it, and how does everything talk to everything else?
- Control system architecture and controller selection
- I/O lists, panel allocation and spare capacity
- Network topology, addressing and device schedules
- Integration with packaged plant and machinery already on the floor
03
Switchboard design
What goes in the board, will it fit, will it stay cool, and can the workshop build it?
- Panel design parameters, motor schedule and supply sizing
- Enclosure heat load and heat rise calculation
- General arrangements, approved before long lead items are released
- The drawing set the workshop builds from, including containerised switchrooms
04
Electrical installation design
What goes in the board, will it fit, will it stay cool, and can the workshop build it?
- Cable calculations, sizing and voltage drop
- Cable, connection, dropper and label schedules
- Cable and conduit routes and containment
- Isolation registers, removal preparation and staged cutover design
AutoCAD
AS/NZS 3000
AS/NZS 3008
AS/NZS 61439
AS 4024
ISO 13849
Send a scope, an existing drawing set, a P&ID or a photo of the switchboard.
Where you are starting from
Greenfield or brownfield
A blank site and a running plant are not the same design job.
The stages are the same. What changes is how much has to be discovered before design can start, and how much of the work has to be planned around production that cannot stop.
GREENFIELD
- Building something new?
Often it starts with a pilot plant. We design the trial line, prove the process on it, then scale what works into the full plant, on one equipment list and one tag set.
BROWNFIELD
- Plant that cannot stop?
Most of our work. Staged around your shutdown windows, with isolation and cutover sequences designed rather than improvised, and a tested fallback before anything existing is touched.
BROWNFIELD
- Documents that no longer match the plant?
We record what is actually installed first, then reconcile the old set against it. Gaps get reported before they turn into variations.
EITHER
- Staged over several years?
Spare capacity, tagging and addressing are allocated for the whole plant up front, so stage three still fits the boards and racks bought for stage one.
A site walk is usually the fastest way to settle which of these you actually have.
Services
Pre-engineering, survey and tender documentation
Three ways to get moving without committing to a full design.
Each one is a defined, priced engagement with a document at the end of it. None of them obliges you to use us for the rest of the project.
01
Survey and verify
Switchboards, motor control centres, field devices, instruments and cable routes recorded on site. Legacy drawings checked against what is actually installed, and the gaps found before they turn into variations. You end up knowing what you own.
02
Analyse and recommend
An existing system reviewed against what the plant actually has to do. You get the constraints we found, the options open to you, and a recommendation we are prepared to defend, not a quote dressed up as advice.
03
Pre-engineer and tender
A standalone design package for a new system, taken far enough to go out to tender or be priced properly. Take it to any builder or contractor, including us for the switchboard, the automation and the installation.
Tell us what you have: drawings, no drawings, a problem, or a budget to defend.
How a design package gets delivered
Seven stages, peer reviewed on the way through and approved before anything is ordered.
The same sequence governs a single control panel and a complete plant. Each discipline works its own task list against these stages, in step with the others, and nothing is ordered until stage five is signed.
Handover and task definition
Design starts once the project information is complete enough to work coordinated across every discipline. The package is broken into discipline task lists, each scheduled against a named designer and a date. That schedule is a document you receive, not an internal note.
- The package is split into tasks, by discipline, before drafting starts
- Every task has a named designer and a date against it
- You get the design programme and the task status as it moves
Design kick off
The design manager and the designers meet before drafting starts. Scope, the interfaces between disciplines and the review method for the job are all agreed in that meeting, so nobody discovers an interface halfway through.
- Interfaces between disciplines agreed up front
- Review method chosen for the job, progressive or final
Design
Each discipline works its task list against your specification and the applicable standards. Anything the specification does not answer is raised as a formal request for information and tracked, internally and with you, until it is closed.
- Standards and your specification, not house habit
- Requests for information raised formally and tracked to closure
- One equipment list and one tag set across all four disciplines
Peer review
A second designer reviews the work, either progressively as tasks are completed or as one review of the full package. Switchboard reviews include the workshop lead, so the board is checked for buildability before it is approved, not after it is half built.
- Reviewed by a designer who did not draw it
- Switchboard reviews include the person who will build it
- Comments are recorded against the task, not passed on verbally
Approval
Your project manager approves the design. Nothing is procured before that happens, which is the point of the gate: a change found here costs a drawing revision, the same change found after ordering costs stock.
- Formal approval, recorded against the revision
- General arrangements approved first so long lead items can be released
Procurement
Ordering is aligned to the approved design and checked back against it. On switchboards the general arrangement is approved first so long lead items can be released early, with the balance ordered once the detailed design is approved.
- Bills of materials come off the approved set
- Long lead items released against the approved general arrangement
Handover to execution, and as-built
The design is handed over formally to the workshop, the automation team and the installation crews, each with the documents they need to build to it. Site changes come back into the set, and the plant finishes with a documentation pack that matches what was installed.
- Formal handover, not a shared folder
- Site changes come back into the set as as-built
- You finish with a documentation pack that matches the plant
Quality and standards
Designed to AS/NZS 3000, cable selection and sizing to AS/NZS 3008, switchboard assemblies to AS/NZS 61439, and functional safety to AS 4024 and ISO 13849. Every design task is peer reviewed by a second designer and formally approved before procurement, under the same quality system that governs manufacture, programming and installation.
Get an I2r design Quote
Send a scope, an existing drawing set, a P&ID, a photo of the switchboard, or a description of what the plant has to do. One of our design engineers will come back to you.