Spotlight Feature Articles HIGH PROFILE - CUMMINS | Page 4

HIGH PROFILE
Digital developments in Colombia
ummins says it has been supporting mines
across the globe for decades, with its service
and support team coordinating efforts both
on site and remotely to ensure miners maximise
production levels at the lowest possible costs in
any environment.
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“Utilising the latest in engine monitoring
technology, these experts can view the
performance of various pieces of equipment from
an online dashboard, and make recommendations
to local teams on how to improve the performance
and uptime of Cummins engines,” the company
says.
The power of this expertise and service was
recently employed at one of Colombia’s largest
open-pit mines, Cerrejon. changes were needed because of the site’s history
of variable fuel quality.
A baseline understanding of the situation in
Colombia was critical to be able to make
recommendations, according to Cummins. The
company installed its remote engine monitoring
system, Data Enabled Mining Solution (DEMS), on
some of the equipment to better understand the
current state of engine operation, as well as the
performance of the on-equipment filtration
systems. Looking closely at the data being logged
by DEMS, Cummins agents noticed oil quality was
consistently below specs and air restriction was
higher than normal. In addition, constant fuel filter Service technicians from the Colombia
distributor installed Cummins’ remote oil
centrifuge system to remove oil contaminants
during the operation of the equipment, ensuring oil
quality remained in line with specifications through
the expected oil change intervals.
“The team converted the target equipment to
NanoForce ® Air Filters, which are ideal for mining
environments where tiny dust particles are known
to plug aftermarket filters and wreak havoc on
pistons, rings, liners and many other engine
parts,” the company said.
It also installed NanoNet™ Fuel Filters, which
can be important in remote areas where fuel
quality can be an issue. Trapping 98.7% of all
particles as small as four microns, NanoNet filter
media is 10 times more effective at hard particle
removal than other competitive products,
according to Cummins.
Cummins said: “Given that the mine plays such
an important factor in the Colombian economy, it
was critical to ensure the mine optimised the
availability of the equipment for production and
minimised maintenance costs. After onsite
adjustments were made to filtration media and
hardware, the mine site was able to extend change
intervals on fuel filters to 1,000 hours and air filters
to 2,000 hours.”
Cummins will soon introduce this Colombia
mine to its latest innovation in remote monitoring
and connected equipment, PrevenTech, which has
since replaced DEMS. PrevenTech will be added to
seven other trucks at the site, with the new system
providing the on-site team advanced detection of
critical engine and filter issues, while identifying
performance improvements customised to the site.
Cummins installed its remote engine monitoring system, DEMS, on some of the equipment at the
Colombia mine site to better understand the current state of engine operation, as well as the
performance of the on-equipment filtration systems
International Mining | AUGUST 2019
Cummins concluded: “Cummins continues to
provide customers with the best support and tools
for stellar results and this story is one of many ways
we keep our mining customers ‘Always On’.” IM