Mining3, a global leader in mining research and technology, and the Ava Group, a market leader in the provision of risk management services and technologies, have established a new partnership to deliver a predictive conveyor monitoring system for the mining industry to be launched in Q1, 2019.
Paul Lever, the CEO of Mining3, said, “Our mandate is to provide solutions to our mining industry members’ identified challenges and fast-track the development and delivery for the benefit of the global mining industry. This new technology is an example of how Mining3 has effectively delivered on its mandate with it being a major game-changer for the industry. It delivers significant cost savings, productivity gains and safety by reducing the need to physically “walk the belt” to audibly detect faults.”
Mining3 developed the conveyor monitoring system, in collaboration with its members and through funding by the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP), with the capability to effectively pinpoint roller failure in advance from an offsite control centre. The sensing element is a fibre optic cable run along the length of a conveyor structure. Identified acoustic signals from the fibre are transported back to a sophisticated software program, developed by Mining3 over three years, which provides a clear visual representation of the state of all the bearings simultaneously. Maintenance crews can be dispatched against a predetermined maintenance program which eradicates the problem of early or late change out of rollers. In addition, the data collected can be used to optimise maintenance strategies.
While Mining3 researches and develops technology to a specified readiness level, it then works with a commercial partner to finalise the product and effectively deliver it to the global marketplace. The Ava Group was identified as an ideal final-stage technical development and marketing partner due to their expertise in fibre optic interrogator hardware and global networks within and outside the mining industry.
Andrew Hames, Group Head of Extractives and Energy for the Ava Group: “We have been working with Mining3 for some time developing the interrogator units which form part of the conveyor monitoring system. When we were provided with an opportunity to take this innovative new technology to market, we were excited by the potential prospects it presented as well as the ability to develop the technology for further applications.”
Mining3 will be working with the Ava Group to rapidly bring the technology to market, with an initial focus on the Australian mining industry. The technology will then be rolled out across international markets towards the second half of 2019.
Ava Group says it “is at the forefront of a digital revolution within the mining industry. Mining companies are striving to realise the full benefits of evolving digital capabilities to sustain and enhance improvements in productivity, including looking at ways of using data more effectively to enhance asset management, improve reliability and introduce predictive capability. Ava Group’s products provide insights that can help mining companies reduce cost, streamline equipment maintenance and prevent safety incidents.”
The first application of Ava Group’s fibre optic technology is this conveyor condition monitoring, providing wear detection to pre-empt roller failure. Conveyor maintenance is a significant daily problem for the mining industry. Conventional methods of detecting bearing failure in conveyor rollers are unreliable, time-consuming and labour intensive.
Overland conveyors of 5 km are commonplace and 20 km conveyors from a local mine truck dump pocket to the processing plant are becoming increasingly common. A typical conveyor can have up to 7,000 bearings per kilometre, which means 7,000 potential points of failure. There have been several attempts to speed up and reduce the cost of monitoring all the bearings along a conveyor, and yet the original method of “walking the belt”, observing and listening to the sound is still the most commonly used approach.
Ava Group’s solution, that combines Ava Group’s fibre optic interrogator hardware and Mining3’s signal processing algorithms, can detect a broken ball or a cracked cage in a ball race using a single fibre optic cable, running along the length of the belt. By observing idler bearings as they progressively wear and tracking the development of potential bearing seizure, imminent issues can be detected and maintenance crews can be alerted. The conveyor can be monitored from an operation centre anywhere, saving operating costs and increasing safety of personnel by reducing manual involvement. Taking a formalized approach to asset management also means data can be used to optimize maintenance strategies and reduces reliance on costly manual inspections by demonstrating ongoing compliance with operational standards.