Capital Equipment News September 2019

DIGITALISATION IN MINING

through complex computer models,” says Zeelie. Conservative industry? Mining has traditionally been slow to adopt new technologies due to the scale and complexity of its operations. Nellessen agrees, saying that mining is a rather conservative industry, but the status quo is changing, with technologies that have great influence on plant availability, cost reduction, process reliability and transparency, like digitalisation, being the main trends in the industry. “The advantage is that the implementation costs are not as big as for some of the historical purchases, for example, buying new equipment. You can also retrofit existing equipment, making it a lot smarter and start enjoying the benefits with lesser investments. I think all mining companies understand that this will be the game changer in the future,” says Nellessen. “thyssenkrupp supports its many customers on the path of digitisation to optimise the mining operation while reducing operational costs, combining our market-leading machine know-how through progressive integration with digitalised expertise.” Responding to the industry’s conservative nature, Umar says that the economic environment presently forces business to “adapt or die”. The rate at which changes need to happen in a business is faster than it has ever been. Thankfully though technology is not only available but affordable to enable digital transformation, he says. “Understanding asset condition is the cornerstone of condition monitoring and predictive maintenance and key to improving plant reliability and availability. At SKF, online condition monitoring equipment, such as the IMx8 system is not only compact, it’s robust and affordable. Technology allows for engineering and operations to view real time data of equipment performance and optimise production processes through Cloud computing and smart devices,” adds Umar. Zeelie says although the costs to change are perceived high sometimes, especially given the state of the industry, digital transformation for every mining operation is worth the investment. Most mines are quite old and therefore use old technology. When investing in new technology, the energy saving alone is significant. “However, proper asset management and condition monitoring may eliminate the need for change. Ensuring an asset is running at its optimum point for the given situation

“Digitalisation can come at a lower cost than replacing old equipment. Through continuous monitoring and expert analysis, machine faults can be detected and corrected before having a negative impact on the mine.”

Lourens Zeelie, online condition monitoring specialist at SKF Group

“Digitalisation enables communication between fixed and mobile equipment by collecting, analysing data and triggering necessary actions. In other words, digitalisation bridges the gap between data islands and allows for a holistic view and management of the complete system in real time, for example, to mitigate bottlenecks.”

Philipp Nellessen, CEO thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions – sub-Sahara Africa

“Digitalisation enables different data streams, which would have traditionally been compartmentalised, to be collated and analysed from a macro perspective for smarter decisions, quicker reaction times and better planning of operations.”

Zulfikar Umar, Remote Diagnostic Centre Manager at SKF South Africa

“Data analytics is essentially a process of analysing sets of data with the objective of gaining insights that will enable decision making. From a productivity perspective, and because of its timely nature – daily, weekly and monthly – KPIs can be based upon this data and thus guide or drive plant personnel behaviour to achieve the required result or output.”

Charles Ntsele, Metso’s Africa Market Area, GM Mining Sales

TALKING POINTS

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