2017 marks Precision Light and Air’s (PLA) 20th anniversary.  It has been a fantastic journey made possible by our employees, suppliers, customers and distributors that supported the company along the way.

Our history starts in 1997 when Nic Waugh, Founder and Director of PLA, sets off on his own after eight years with Foxboro.  PLA was initially a distributor for Fairchild Precision Pneumatics and K-Patents Process Refractometers serving several industries e.g food and beverage, dairy, pulp and paper, chemical and minerals and mining.  Soon, PLA also became a manufacturer of rugged process analysers specifically designed for the harsh environments of the minerals processing sector.  PLA worked closely with its mineral processing customers to develop tailored solutions to satisfy their specific needs.  The first system developed was the SmartDose, an emulsion dosing station for long wall mining in underground coal mines.  In this application, PLA modified and packaged existing technology to provide its customers with means to control and monitor the dosing of water based, fire resistant hydraulic emulsion to maximise the operating life of the hydraulic components and pump systems.

Continuing with the development of solutions in response to its customer’s needs, PLA developed the AL-CARK caustic analyser and AL-DCIK conductivity sensor and soon after, its core product – SmartDiver, a level measurement and tank profiling station.  All products were initially developed for the alumina processing sector but soon they were deployed in gold and nickel processing facilities.  In fact, the first SmartDiver unit was installed at Anaconda Nickle (now Minara) in 2003 and became PLA’s first application outside alumina.

In 2008, PLA and Rhosonics, a Dutch process analysers manufacturer, partnered to improve the SmartDiver sensor’s technology.  As a result of this relationship, Rhosonic’s ultrasonic suspended solids and density sensor became the standard sensor in the SmartDiver system and PLA became the exclusive distributor of Rhosonic’s analysers in Australia.

In 2010, Fairchild Precision Pneumatics was acquired by a company with an established footprint in Australia and PLA ceased distribution of its products.

Over time, growth in SmartDiver sales resulted in the opening of our factory in Seaford, Vic, a sales office in the USA and a full-service unit in China followed by the closure of incredible partnerships to distribute our products globally. PLA has now distributors in Chile, USA, Brazil and South Africa.

Today, we are proud to manufacture high quality instrumentation and provide technical solutions to the mineral processing industry globally with the PLA Process Analysers Product Line, and to be the distributor of some of the best instrumentation manufacturer’s which allow us to serve other industries in Australia.  We look forward to another twenty years of close collaboration with our suppliers and distributors to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers.

See our history below.

 

Timeline final with no logo

For more information contact our technical team at sales@plapl.com.au or call us on +61 3 9786 1711.

Category: News & Events