TECHNOLOGY
The constant data streams through the analytics tools also allow the monitoring team to identify trends and make assessments based on those trends. For example, monitoring of a continuous miner could show that the cutter head is sagging over time( more than 15cm in an hour), allowing this to be addressed before it becomes a safety risk and also before the production rate deteriorates. Such
Komatsu Mining
Komatsu Mining’ s mobile application has three core areas: reports, messages, and contacts. events generate a‘ first snapshot notification’( FSN), which Wilsch and his team can then send through to the mine, together with a brief description of the problem and how it should be addressed. These FSNs can also be set for automatic sending through to the customer, as well as the Komatsu Mining technician on site, depending on their preferences, although the monitoring team will still follow up with the customer to ensure that it has been received.
The real-time monitoring also allows the team to pick up on potential risks in operation, such as short snaking in longwall mining, for example, and contact the customer to address those potential issues before they result in costly downtime.
Wilsch explains that certain events, such as methane detection, can be set to trip or stop the machine, requiring the operator to restart it manually after checking the event that caused the trip. While the machines themselves have production timing and condition indication lights, the in-depth data is not directly accessible by the operator, although depending on the customer’ s operation and tier, it may be accessible in their on-site control room or similar. Komatsu Mining also has on-site technicians and monitoring specialists for some of its clients, who are there to deal directly with the customer regarding the issues raised by the monitored data and analytics tools.
Mobile application
The company has a mobile app for iOS and Android smartphones that is available for use in certain applications in the region.
“ The application features a sliding menu so it’ s easy to get into,” says Alex Nienaber, JoySmart Services IT engineer.“ We identified three core areas for the first version of the app, namely reports, messages, and contacts. The messages section uses push notifications, and we have created a small database on your smartphone that stores the top 10 rolling notifications sent via the app. This was done to counteract the problem that you often get with push notifications, which is that you can get too many coming in too quickly and once you have clicked on them they are no longer available. With our system, you can go back and look at the messages again.”
The app uses the notification hubs technology that forms part of Microsoft Azure cloud computing, allowing messages to be sent to iOS, Android, and Windows systems,
Komatsu Mining
The reports for Komatsu Mining’ s mobile application are customisable and display information such as production section, status, and machine health, at levels ranging from managerial to field reports.
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JULY 2017