Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology has partnered with IBM to develop data driven productivity and predictive maintenance services for the mining and rock excavation industry.
Under the agreement, the two companies will develop advanced analytics solutions to improve maintenance, safety, productivity and operational services of mining and rock excavation equipment.
The rising number of onboard instrumentation and data gathering capabilities in heavy equipment have provided mining operators more opportunities for increased productivity; with the use of digital technologies estimated to create around $100bn in value to resources companies by 2035.
The collaboration will involve the use of remote monitoring, advanced analytics, and cognitive technologies, allowing mining companies to combine equipment data from a range of resources and automatically analyse the patterns to increase performance.
The first state of work will be done on loaders and trucks; connecting up to 15 units and integrating live data from multiple on and off boarding systems to run the analytic algorithms.
The combined information will allow mining companies to make better production plans and maintenance schedules for their equipment.
It is also set to generate greater yields and lower costs per tonne of ore.
Sandvik has identified between 20 and 50 per cent decreases in costs per tonne with their digital technologies, and these new analytic capabilities are set to reduce costs even more.
President of Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology, Lars Engström, said the company’s OptiMine and AutoMine solutions for data collection already provide a suitable platform for IBM analytics solutions.
“This collaboration fits well with our service portfolio, which is based on traditional life-cycle, enhanced technical, and business services, all of which are aligned to improve safety, secure competences for mine operations and increase our customers’ productivity,” he said.
Anders Fredholm, VP Industrial Products Industry, IBM Europe also welcomed the collaboration and said the company looks forward to providing smarter digital services to natural resources companies worldwide.