George Weston Foods New Bakery Facility

In the wake of losing their main bakery destroyed by fire, George Western Foods set out to build a new bakery facility and offices on a 60,000m2 site that would be the largest in Australia, and incorporate World Leading State of the Art equipment. The facility has two production lines dedicated to the production of Tip Top sliced bread (rated at 8,750 loaves per hour) and two further lines dedicated to the production of other products such as 40,000 buns per hour and the muffin plant up to 24,000 per hour along with rolls, cakes, crumpets, muffins, continental breads such as focaccia and ciabatta, croissants, and breadcrumbs.

The facility contained many first for the industry that included; high volume bread production incorporating APV Baker mixing, forming and baking technology, APV Lanham conveyorised proof and bake system where the prepared bread dough is proofed (so that the yeast can make the bread rise) and then baked in the same oven. The continuous tunnel oven system steam can be injected to ‘soften’ the baking process if required depending upon the type of product, and then automatically de-panned, run through cooling tunnels, slicing equipment to then be wrapped, packaged, palletised ready for shipping.

Barnwell Cambridge were award the Design and Construct Contract for new Bread Production Facility where the design team worked closely with the client to develop an electrical design for the various new equipment with the limited information available. The design included sufficient electrical redundancy and standby generation to be able to clear lines when power failures occur with dedicated UPS system for all communications, control, PLC and Scada systems where any loss in supply would shut down the line and destroy the products produced. With the main production area being all open plan with a ceiling system not able to support lighting, customed lighting solutions were installed to allow maintenance from outside the production areas within the central spine.

The critical nature of the communications system within the production area required a dual redundant system with diverse pathways. The communications racks provided included integral Air Conditioning and UPS to minimise any influence from the external production environments and adjacent racks. Dual diverse incoming carriers’ services were also provided from different telephone exchanges, to ensure communications links with the greater GWF Global network was always on line.

The services provided included,
⦁ Design and Engineering Services
⦁ Private Triple Chamber 1.5MVA Substation
⦁ Standby Generator
⦁ UPS System
⦁ Main Switchboards and Main Distribution Boards
⦁ General Distribution Boards
⦁ Low Voltage Cable Reticulation
⦁ Low Voltage Busway Reticulation
⦁ Cable Management Systems for LV and Communications Services
⦁ Stainless Steel Cable Containment in Production Areas.
⦁ Specialist Cabling for production plant.
⦁ General Lighting and Power
⦁ Soft Wired System to Workstations
⦁ Emergency Escape Lighting and Exit Signage
⦁ C-Bus Lighting Control System
⦁ Data Communications Infrastructure Cabling and Horizontal Cabling
⦁ Intrusion Detection System and Access Control System
⦁ CCTV System
⦁ Security Man Traps
⦁ PA System
⦁ MATV
⦁ Scada System
⦁ Digital Power Metering System
⦁ Lightning Protection
⦁ Earthing and Bonding of Storage Silos and production plant
⦁ Infrared Thermal Scanning
⦁ Testing and Commissioning

The acclaimed project was a State Winner for the Data Communications system at the NECA industry awards and won the National BICSI award. This project also was a finalist and received a commendation for the Design and Construct of the Electrical Services at the NECA industry awards.