Spotlight Feature Articles HEAVY ENGINEERING | Page 6

HEAVY ENGINEERING
increases over conventional plate lip installation
and removes excessive heat affected zones, sharp
transitions and uncontrolled weld stresses by
eliminating them,” he said.
“Finally, the design significantly reduces risks
associated with GET changeouts and improves
maintenance practices by removing requirements
for hot work on continual repair welds.”
There could be more products such as the
RE1522 on their way to the market from CR in the
next 12-18 months, according to Nienaber.
“In 2020, we plan to expand on our DecaEdge
range to accommodate the full range of wheel
loaders on mine sites,” he said, adding that the
first of these could be available in the December
quarter of this year.
The company is also working closely with one
of its customers on developing a lip for the 800 t
excavator market, which is still in the early
development stage, he added.
“Finally, we are also expecting to see our first
SaberEdge lip for the CAT7495 electric rope
shovels later this year,” Nienaber said.
GETting the right treatment
CR is not the only company looking to reduce the
risk associated with GET changeouts in the mining
industry, with Weir Group’s ESCO division currently
working on an innovative solution that automates
the process to help improve safety on mine sites.
In its 2019 annual report, released earlier this
year, Weir said the GET Toolhead ® would reduce
the need for maintenance personnel to be in the
pit, one of the most hazardous areas of a mine,
during these changeouts.
The new automated toolhead turns a hydraulic
manipulator into a robot arm, according to Weir,
allowing it to securely grip and move GET. This
transition could allow the robot arm to replace
parts weighing up to 500 kg, according to Weir.
“The movement of the toolhead is controlled
remotely by a single operator, compared to teams
of up to three people who would normally be
required for a manual change out,” the company
said.
While details were thin on the ground, Weir said
it was continuing to work towards commercialising
this offering.
ESCO is also working on rolling out its GET
Detect ® solution, which enables customers to
better monitor their GET in the field using digital
sensors, helping prevent costly unplanned
downtime when teeth become detached and enter
downstream processing operations.
This product came out of a partnership with
Australia’s CSIRO, with the initial release being for
its Nemisys ® Mining Lip System.
In the Nemisys instance, the lip components are
equipped with sensors that are monitored in real
time by two receiving antennae on the exterior of
the machine. In the event of component loss, the
A copper mine in the Coquimbo region of Chile used
LoaderMetrics to avoid the estimated annual
production loss of $1.25 million that the mine
experienced prior to installing a missing tooth
detection system
machine operator receives an audible signal and a
visual indication on a screen at what location the
component loss occurred.
Obstructions caused by missing teeth like this
are extremely costly in downstream processing
operations, with the average incident resulting in
12-24 hours of crusher downtime, according to
Motion Metrics.
Therefore the company devised a missing tooth
detection solution to prevent this downtime and
improve safety at mine sites.
“Having worked as an Engineering Manager at
a Canadian mine in the past, I can tell you that the
best way to manage the risk of an obstructed
crusher is to avoid the situation entirely,” Derek
Cooper, VP of Sales and Operations at Motion
Metrics, said. “Failing that, mines should aim to
mitigate problems as early in the process as
possible. Motion Metrics offers missing tooth
detection solutions for shovels and loaders to
quickly alert equipment operators to broken or
missing teeth.”
These solutions, ShovelMetrics and
LoaderMetrics, have been installed at more than
60 mine sites across six continents. Using artificial
intelligence and either visible range or thermal
imaging, ShovelMetrics and LoaderMetrics work
24 hours a day to keep mine personnel safe and
minimise crusher downtime, according to the company.
Chile state-owned copper mining company
Codelco uses ShovelMetrics at its Gabriela Mistral
division to detect missing shovel teeth, according
to the company.
The system has been well received at the
operation, according to Gustavo Córdova, Mine
Manager at Gabriela Mistral.
In an English paraphrasing of a Spanish article
published by Codelco, he said: “The system takes
successive pictures and compares them to one
another. Through this process, the system
determines whether there is a missing tooth or if
any teeth have worn out and need to be changed;
using colour codes like a traffic light, the system
alerts mine personnel so that they can act before
the missing tooth enters the crushing circuit.”
For Córdova, ShovelMetrics is an essential
safety and productivity tool.
“Faced with a crusher obstruction, an operator
must enter the crusher to solve the problem – at
great risk to himself,” Córdova said. “Therefore,
we now solve two issues because we remove our
people from the line of fire and maintain
operational continuity.”
At another mine in the nearby Coquimbo region
of Chile, the installation of LoaderMetrics has
helped to prevent an estimated $1.5 million
production loss.
Like many hard-rock mines, this Chile-based
copper producer experiences significant
production loss from tooth breakage each year.
Between 2012 and 2015, the mine attributed 153
hours of crusher downtime to obstructions – an
average of 51 hours per year.
To mitigate the impact from missing loader
teeth, the site installed LoaderMetrics on two
loaders. Since installation, the mine has
experienced zero crusher downtime due to
missing loader teeth, according to Motion Metrics.
The mine’s crushers process an average of
5,000 t/h. If there is additional stockpiled material
to provide ongoing operational support, an
obstructed crusher may not immediately impact
operational continuity. But, if plant operations
must be halted, the cost to the mine is around
$25,000/h, according to Motion Metrics.
“Thus, the roughly 50 hours of yearly lost
International Mining | JUNE 2020