HOISTING TECHNOLOGY
to ensure that we meet the future demands of
customers. Commitment to R&D and understanding
our customer needs ensures that we will be here
supporting mining companies like Vale well into
the future as they continue to sustain and
expand their operations,” said Bill Clark, CEO.
Winder Controls meets regulatory
challenge in Australia
Winder Controls Australia Pty Ltd, a SIEMAG
TECBERG group company, is one of the leading
suppliers of hoisting solutions to the Australian
market, with its rigorous regulatory regime in
regard to safety. IM spoke to Krishnan Nair,
General Manager Automation & Drive
Technology, about its recent deliveries in the
Australian market, which have included two
single drum winders, one double drum and one
Koepe hoist. Two were for one underground
copper mining customer and two for another.
Nair said that the company is particularly proud
of meeting the very strict Australian regulations
on functional safety.
All of the deliveries achieved Australian AS
61508, which is the Australian edition of
International Standard IEC 61508, and is a seven
part series that covers the design of electronic
safety-related systems. The series “addresses
the growing recognition of the benefits to be
gained from the proper use of programmable
electronic systems, as well as the recognition of
the risk of failure of safety-related applications.”
Standards Australia states: “The challenge for
industry is to prevent and control the dangers
arising from random hardware failures, and
systematic failures from software or human
error through the life of the system. The AS
61508 series provides a set of practical
guidelines to help the process industry meet
this challenge.”
A SIEMAG TECBERG hoist at Kidd Creek in
Canada.
The AS 61508 design lifecycle is used to
determine the Safety Integrity Level (SIL) rating
for various safety functions of the winders. The
minimum SIL rating for these winders is SIL 2,
which is not something all OEMs are able to
achieve. Nair said: “It is difficult for any supplier