ABB is launching a new digital suite of applications for hoist monitoring and optimisation, now rebranded to ABB Ability™ Smart Hoisting.

This new suite, ABB says, potentially offers further integration to other cloud solutions and extended offerings that significantly increase the operational performance and reliability of mine hoists.

The new digital suite is an important milestone in the company’s ambition to transform predictive maintenance for mine hoists. With new features such as ABB Drive System Monitoring and new key performance indicators (KPIs), ABB is opening the door to an entirely new level of mine hoist optimisation services for customers.

The traditional predictive maintenance approach relies on manual data collection and analysis over a short period of time. Intermittent issues can stay hidden or only be identified later, giving subject matter experts (SMEs) little time to program interventions exactly when needed. Additionally, manual collection and data analysis consume a significant amount of time for SMEs, preventing them from focusing on strategic performance management tasks.

ABB Ability Smart Hoisting is designed to significantly improve the uptime, availability, reliability, performance and productivity of hoists. By incorporating advanced monitoring features, the system provides actionable information on critical KPIs, ensuring better decision making and optimisation of hoisting operations. The automatic collection, monitoring and analysis of data will enable mining companies to increase production performance, identify potential functional safety hazards and optimise maintenance scheduling, ABB says.

The combination of innovative features and improved cyber security makes this solution a unique and valuable tool in the underground mining industry, the company claims.

Its predictive maintenance capabilities help increase standards and drive innovation, leading to more sustainable and profitable mining operations.

“The new and enhanced Smart Hoisting solution offers a step change in the operational performance of mine hoists,” Charles Bennett, Global Service Manager, Hoisting at ABB, said. “From improved uptime, reduced environmental footprint and increased monitoring services, this new solution brings enormous benefits to the industry at an important time.

“Through the integration of predictive maintenance and advanced monitoring, the evolved ABB Ability Smart Hoisting solution marks a pivotal milestone in redefining the performance benchmarks for mine hoists. This transformative solution addresses industry challenges comprehensively, fostering heightened uptime, sustainability and operational resilience.”

ABB says it has been a leader in developing world-class hoisting solutions for over 130 years. Powered by electricity with the possibility to run off renewable energy sources, hoists are very much a future forward solution for enabling the sustainable transformation.

To date, ABB has delivered over 1,000 hoisting solutions globally. As a supplier of complete mine hoist systems, customers can benefit from low life cycle cost, high reliability and system availability, short project execution time, and a single source of supply for complete systems, including service and spare parts.