Good as Gold outdoor isolation transformers

Agnew Gold Mine in Western Australia was established in 2019, and produces over 250,000 ounces of gold every year from their underground operations. Mining specialists Master Drilling Australia recently contacted Southern Electronic Services to supply them with a 3-phase outdoor isolation transformer (IP65) 1000v / 415v @ 15kVA Dyn11 to be used in day-to-day work at the gold mine.

If you don’t know where Agnew is, you’re not alone. It is, until recently, a desolate town based in the Australian desert of the Goldfields-Esperance region. Temperatures can climb to over 45°C in the Summer, with not much relief in the Winter months. So anything (or person for that matter) that goes there needs to be built tough. The transformer we designed and built for the mine is to be portable, being moved above and below ground, and being subjected to incredibly harsh conditions, both environmental and electrical, with nasty harmonics from the supply needing to be caught and isolated by the transformer before reaching the sensitive equipment downstream.

Our IP65 outdoor enclosures are designed to handle high solar loading through smart passive-cooling design. Light oyster grey powdercoat on the outside reflects the external heat, while the matte black internal space of the enclosure draws the heat from the transformer out. Paired with the subtle ripple design of the enclosure walls, this effectively dissipates the heat that comes from the transformer at full load. The transformer itself is designed ultra conservatively, to allow for minimal heat loss within the fully encased enclosure.

To avoid personnel having to open the enclosure and potentially compromise the integrity of the IP65 rating, we fitted the input and output terminals, along with the earth stud, into a side wiring chamber on the side of the enclosure. With a fully sealed lockable swing door for access, and gland plate in the base, the chamber makes for an ideal solution, and makes easy work of hard-wiring the transformer into a system.

If you have any outdoor isolation transformer needs, such as Master Drilling did, contact us today. As all of our transformers are built in our Melbourne-based factory, we ensure great service, fast turnaround times, and excellent products.

Click here to check out our 3-phase isolation transformer solutions.