Edge computing Archives - International Mining

Orica’s suite of rock movement, blast fragmentation and digital blast optimisation solutions have been gaining traction of late, with miners across the globe employing or trialling the products as they look to improve mine site performance.

Ahead of the annual Explosives and Blasting feature (to be published in the International Mining July/August 2020 issue), IM spoke with Rajkumar Mathiravedu, Vice President of Digital Solutions at Orica, to get an update on progress with the company’s digital solutions.

Back in Orica’s 2019 full-year results, Orica mentioned it had secured its first customers in Latin America for its ORETrack™ solution, which provides RFID-based tracking of rock movement from blasting operations.

Mathiravedu said these first adopters were recognising the value delivered by the technology, with ORETrack working well in the initial applications.

“We are also continuing to co-develop and expand our ORETrack technology in collaboration with customers in Latin America, with additional customers adopting the ore tracking capability,” he said.

“Further trials are also planned for the near future, including locations in Australia and North America.”

The number of customers taking up Orica’s FRAGTrack™ solution, which provides blast fragmentation data with auto-analysis capability, meanwhile, has been growing in the face of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Orica carried out its first fully remote installation of FRAGTrack during lockdown in Australia, with a second in Finland and a third one completed in North America recently.

Mathiravedu said a key focus in developing the solution, which captures real-time fragmentation measurement data for downstream unit productivity improvement and tracking of operational performance, was ensuring it was “a plug and play solution” that could be installed and supported remotely.

“We developed rigorous training material and installation instructions and married these with real-time augmented reality capability to remotely guide and support our customers through the implementation,” he said.

“We have found this particularly advantageous during the COVID-19 restrictions, but also this allows our customers to manage the implementation timing to suit their operations.”

An example of this could be the desire for a customer to install FRAGTrack when the shovels are down for maintenance, without having to wait for an Orica specialist to come to the site and install the system.

Reflecting on the recent remote installation achievements, Mathiravedu said: “This proves we have a successful remote release model that customers are valuing during these unprecedented times.”

BlastIQ workflow integration

Fifteen months after the release of its next generation BlastIQ, Orica has now surpassed the 60-site implementation mark of its digital blast optimisation platform.

Mathiravedu said BlastIQ and the company’s ever-growing digital capabilities are designed to improve blast outcomes by integrating insights from digitally connected technologies at every stage of the drill and blast process to drive continuous improvements for its customers.

“Focusing on the needs of our surface mining customers, we have been able to deliver the benefits of cloud-based technology, providing convenience and flexibility for customers to access their blasting data online anywhere, anytime from any device,” he said.

“Customers are also benefitting significantly from digitising their blasting workflows, delivering efficiencies and improved quality control across their blasting operations, resulting in greater visibility of blast inputs and outputs in real time while benefiting from better blast outcomes.”

As an open, secure, and connected digital platform, BlastIQ’s blast-related data is being integrated directly into customers’ mining value chain and remote operation centres via secure cloud-based APIs, Mathiravedu said.

“This is enabling customers to drive better mine-level decisions based on data integrations between our platform and theirs, creating a stronger bond between planning, drilling, blasting, load and haul and processing operations at the site,” he said.

BlastIQ is an inter-operable platform and is being delivered as a Software as a Service product to customers, meaning they receive new functionality, value and features as soon as they are developed, according to Mathiravedu.

“Enhancements are scheduled and developed based on direct feedback and submissions from our customers all around the world to ensure the product evolves to meet the discrete needs of their operations,” he said.

Outside of BlastIQ specifically, Orica has started to deliver digital optimisation services to its customers, according to Mathiravedu.

“State-of-the-art” digital products and advanced data science and analytics, combined with blasting technical know-how and market-leading blasting technologies, enables customers to cover whole of value chain solutions, enabled by blasting, Mathiravedu said.

“Also, using a series of industry 4.0 smart Internet of Things sensors and Edge computing to replace inefficient manual processes, measurement data can be used in real time to improve future mining outcomes based on data science, analytics and machine-learning algorithms to drive continuous improvement of the entire mining value chain.”

Tenova TAKRAF says the company’s high pressure grinding roll (HPGR) technology, among other developments, will be highlighted at the upcoming Bauma fair in Munich, Germany, on April 8-14.

The company said, for the first time, show visitors will be able to have a complete overview of the company’s entire service portfolio, which ranges from project development services to technical studies on comminution and minerals processing, innovative fabrication solutions, various technical services and comprehensive after-sales support.

“With a view to further developing their capabilities within the market of the comminution industry, TAKRAF continues to develop their range of roller presses, with a scale model of a HPGR on display at the booth (pictured),” the company said.

Two of these machines are being manufactured at the company’s specialised fabrication facility in Lauchhammer, Germany. These machines can each handle more than 907 t/h of cement clinker, with each machine incorporating rolls with a diameter of 1,800 mm and a weight of more than 450 t per roller.

“In order to meet the challenging longevity requirements of such a machine, each roll surface is protected from wear by weld hardfacing for cement applications, and with tungsten carbide inserts for ore processing,” TAKRAF said.

The company continued: “With the integration of the well-known DELKOR and Tenova Advanced Technologies (formerly Bateman Advanced Technologies) brand of products into TAKRAF as specialised product lines, the company’s portfolio for the minerals processing and beneficiation sectors has been considerably enhanced.”

At Bauma, visitors will be able to focus upon the company’s capabilities in minerals processing, including solvent extraction and lithium recovery; as well as flotation, thickening, filtration and dry stack tailings, according to TAKRAF.

The company will also use the event to highlight its Mining Technology Centre, TAKRAF said.

“Technical studies, which compare the techno-economic aspects of different system or equipment layouts are an intrinsic part of every investment process. The quality of the study strongly depends on the experience of the study team and the level of customer involvement,” the company said.

“Based upon a common understanding of the weighting of all such decision criteria, the transfer of technical and operational experience and expertise, even beyond their own portfolio, is a key driver in enabling the customer to make a competent decision regarding the optimal solution for the specific conditions of their particular mine.

“More and more customers appreciate the added value provided by the studies as part of the engineering service portfolio, and for this reason, the company has decided to restructure and tailor their services even better in order to best meet customer requirements.

“TAKRAF’s Mining Technology Centre will be present and on hand to present the myriad of possibilities and benefits of innovative study approaches to demonstrate they are pursuing this strategy together with their customers.”

TAKRAF said, in order to provide additional benefits and services to the company’s customers based on new digital technologies, several R&D projects in the field of the industrial internet of things have also been advanced.

“In an attempt to find the most suitable technology, which results in the greatest possible benefit for the customer, first pilot machines were equipped with remote data collection and evaluation systems.

“Utilising a combination of edge computing and a proprietary azure-based platform established by Tenova, TAKRAF is able to develop applications that provide valuable insights of the company’s machines through modern and intuitive interfaces across any remote location.

“First results evince that this information can greatly assist in reducing downtime by identifying problems before they escalate into major issues and optimizing machine design, operation and performance.”

Implementation of more advanced analytics and machine learning strategies are currently on the company’s R&D agenda, TAKRAF said. “In addition, remote support solutions can also be offered.”

The company said: “This enables a remote experts-team to provide on-site assistance to the local commissioning or maintenance personnel using smart glasses and an appropriate software tool.

This is a great solution for reducing reaction times and as a side effect for reducing or even avoiding costs for expensive and time-consuming trips to the destination area.”

The company’s stand will be located in hall C2, stand 349 at Messe München in Munich, Germany, during the event.