Machinery and equipment scanning is providing a whole new aspect on mine site maintenance.
3D laser scanning has been slow to make an appearance in the mining industry.
While it has seen some use in surveying stockpiles autonomously, there had been little uptake.
However, over recent years the use of this technology at mine sites and plants has increased due to the distinct advantages it offers compared with traditional survey methods.
Point cloud data uses a 3D set of vertices represented by X, Y and Z coordinates that is gathered via 3D laser scanners.
Vast numbers of points are collated from a given surface to produce a high point density representation of an area or object.
This becomes particularly relevant to the mining industry in its ability to tackle vast, complex and even underground sites with far greater simplicity and convenience than conventional surveying.
Accuracy, time, and cost efficiency are just some of the benefits laser scanning has to offer.
From a detail design perspective
Point cloud technology, from a detail design point of view, not only makes the job in hand that much easier, but minimises the potential for human error to almost zero.
The captured data provides an ‘as built’ status, giving a real-time snapshot of the site as it currently is and the subsequent data processing that follows has a fast turnaround.
This negates the risk of changes at site affecting plans, drawings and tenders.
The accuracy and coverage of the gathered data eliminates incorrect measurements or the need to make estimations.
In conjunction with CAD technology, specific measurements can be extrapolated to provide exact calculations.
For quality assurance purposes, using the point cloud data against prepared drawings is an excellent tool to clearly identify incompatibilities.
The data also has a multitude of other uses, such as clash detection of existing infrastructure and determining what aspects need to be removed, modified and in which order.
New designs can be reviewed internally and externally with client and maintenance teams, prior to fabrication and installation to identify potential problems and amend accordingly.
Additionally, the 3D point cloud data can be scanned to suit the plant coordinates or even a real-time satellite position.
This allows the new area being modelled to be positioned into Google Earth or any other real-time satellite imagery, allowing site a true aerial preview of the new construction.
Simplicity and convenience
The generation of a 3D replica of a physical object, regardless of size, layout or density can generally be performed while the plant is in production.
Site personnel can continue with site activities as their presence does not interfere with data collection.
This presents huge opportunities as the majority of the site can be surveyed during production without the need to schedule downtime and reduce productivity.
Where interior survey of, for example, a grinding mill is concerned, a short amount of downtime is necessary.
However, by using a laser scanning service such as MillMapper (Scanalyse, now part of Outotec), it’s possible to scan mills in as little as 15 minutes and this can be scheduled to coincide with a planned inspection shutdown.
Both MillMapper and CrusherMapper (used for gyratory crusher analysis) use patented, proprietary software to process laser scanning data, providing 3D files and reports on liner thickness wear and cross-sectional / longitudinal profiles.
Service life projections are given at the average and fastest wearing points.
Localised critical areas of breakage, cracks and uneven wear are highlighted, resulting in significantly improved liner assessment being provided as the total surface is mapped, not just accessible areas.
In terms of safety, both internal and external scanning reduce the need to work at heights or in confined spaces as laser scanners can be placed strategically in vantage points for remote scanning.
While a miner may potentially expect higher up-front costs due to production and manipulation of the data, the net results from minimised downtime alone will offset this cost.
This, coupled with the convenience of the survey, quick procedure and turn-around, along with clear, highly accurate and informative imagery, more than compensate over the course of the entire project.
The fabrication stage also benefits from the inherent precision in plans and drawings which will potentially reduce commissioning time.
A complete plant can be scanned within a day and the data files compiled into one or several 3D models and available to the design team within a short time frame.
High density imaging
The data produced from the millions of points captured in a 3D environment is generally processed via a CAD program.
These high density CAD images offer numerous advantages including versatility.
Sections of an image can be isolated or cut and viewed from any angle in the same way as a 3D CAD model.
The extensive data also provides the same detailed information of surrounding areas.
Exact calculations of space and measurement allow construction, access and craneage around existing infrastructure to be planned well in advance, without the need to revisit the site.
When processed, point cloud data images provide the basis for digital manipulation, giving an accurate, impressive and true representation of the project.
Whether rendered, false or true-coloured, the images are highly detailed.
Every fine point is captured which by any other method may have been missed, including non-documented assets such as cable trays, service piping and on-site modifications.
With so much information readily available in the digital files, time spent sorting through and analysing multiple drawings and site sketches is greatly reduced.
Microsoft is preparing to combine its business-focused Lync video conferencing and instant messaging app with Skype to create a new package called Skype for Business.
The package, set to be released in the first half of 2015, will see the creation of a new Skype-like client app, an upgrade of the Lync server software and updates to the service in Office 365.
While Lync already offers instant messaging and audio calling with Skype users, Skype for Business users will also be able to make video calls to Skype users, as well as access to its user directory.
The Skype for Business app will add a number of key interface elements from Skype, including the icons it uses for calling, adding video and ending a call.
At the same time, Skype for Business will retain the Lync content sharing features many businesses rely on but are not present in Skype.
Businesses running Lync Server 2013 will be able to upgrade to Skype for Business Server without needing any new hardware, while the upgrades will be automatic for businesses subscribing to Lync through Office 365.
In the future, people will look back at the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st as being the genesis of ‘big data’. With the birth of the Internet, wireless networking, and the ever-decreasing cost of digital storage, capturing and storing huge amounts of data has become the rule rather than the exception. Along with the development of the Internet, IP networking has made even more data possible as devices never even dreamt of years ago can now be easily connected.
Who would have thought 20 years ago there would be a time where we could go for a run and instantly know how far we’ve gone, where we’ve gone on a map, the calories burnt and altitude gained, all read from a crystal clear screen on a mobile phone not much bigger than your average wallet.
There has been a similar explosion of ‘big data’ in mining, albeit slightly behind that of the Internet revolution, but nonetheless, the amount of data now available from mining equipment is staggering. In fact, there is so much data available people often don’t know which way to turn.
Information overload is not a new term, but its use in the past decade has increased dramatically as the amount of data that fills digital storage grows. Collecting data is one thing; displaying it meaningfully is another. Several large mining companies have attempted to quell the information overload problem through the use of remote operationscentres (ROC) where relevant information from operations thousands of kilometres away is displayed for management review. For other companies where an ROC is not on the agenda, the challenge of disseminating and displaying vital information remains.
In order to show the challenge of ‘big data’, let’s take a specific example and break it down. In open pit mining, seconds are paramount. Whilst seconds may not play a large part in drill and blast (its generally all about metres), in the load and haul cycle a matter of seconds can make or break a production target.
Before my current role I was more familiar with underground mining where metres were king. ‘Metres advanced’ is the metric used in underground development. I never really gave much thought to how much emphasis is given to seconds above the ground but it soon becomes obvious when you break it down. Haul cycles are made up of simple segments: travelling, spotting, loading and hauling (there are other segments like waiting and tipping that can be added but we’ll keep it simple for now).
One haul cycle is the total of these activities in minutes and seconds. Each of these activities can be timed individually using a variety of methods. For most operations, a fleet management system that can detect when each of these activities ends and the next starts can provide this information. For example, when a haul truck is moving along a haul road without a load, it is travelling. When full on the same road, it is hauling. The system knows this based on the GPS position of the truck and if it has a load or not. For spotting, the GPS position is used but it also correlates this with the proximity of a load unit and the selection of reverse gear. If all these are true, then the truck must be spotting. Now that we have a way of breaking the activities down, we also have a way of determining the total cycle time. Likewise, as the activities can be captured individually, we can now also display these individually in a variety of formats such as static reports or dynamic dashboards.
So where do the seconds count? Let’s say a haul cycle is 20 minutes in total and consists of the following breakdown:
Travelling – 5 mins
Spotting – 30 seconds
Loading – 2 minutes
Hauling – 12.5 minutes
Now we have a baseline that we can compare all other data in order to answer questions such as:
Is 20 minutes good?
Can it be improved?
How does this operator compare to the others?
What happens if the haul route changes?
There are many answers to these questions, but they all have one thing in common: only data can provide objective answers. Let’s tackle the first and third questions – by measuring all operators it will soon become apparent whether 20 minutes is good and where the operator sits in the scale of things. Once you have the answer to those questions you can then answer question number two. If the average is in fact 18 minutes, this operator is well below. Why? Again data can provide the answer, or at least point you in the right direction.
And this is where data can also lead you on a wild goose chase.
Having only one source of data may not tell you the full story. What if the reason this haul was 20 minutes was because a shower of rain caused a portion of the haul road to become slippery.
This would only be apparent on one or two hauls as the road would soon drain and dry out, creating a temporary increase in the overall total time. The moral of this example is don’t get too wrapped up in the data you fail to see the ‘truth’.
Let’s go back to question two, as this is where we can really show the power of data. Once the data has been verified, we can focus on the cost savings to be had from reducing the cycle time.
This is where engineering and technology can come together to show the potential benefits of ‘big data’. Let’s target a one minute improvement on the cycle time to keep things simple. As the current cycle time is 20 minutes, three cycles are possible in one hour, therefore there is a three minute saving every hour. In a 12-hour shift there is usually 10 effective hours on average, so therefore with one truck across one shift there is 30 minutes extra – more than enough time for an extra load. Now lets extrapolate that across a fleet of 50 trucks for the year – 1 extra load x 50 trucks x 2 shifts x 365 days = 36,500 extra loads for the year.
Now let’s work out the potential value of these extra loads. We’ll use best case, round figures to make it easy, but you’ll soon see what a one minute saving each load can add up to.
We’ll use a CAT 793F haul truck with a gold grade of 1 gramtonne. A CAT 793F averages 220 tonnes per load, therefore there is potentially 220 grams of gold in each load. 220 x 36,500 = 8.03 million grams which is just over 258,000 troy ounces. At a gold price of Aus$1350ounce that equals Aus$348.3 million. At Aus$200 per ounce profit, that’s a tidy Aus$51.6 million extra profit, all from reducing cycle times by one minute
I did say this was best case – this certainly wouldn’t be the case in the real world as each load isn’t always a premium grade load as there is waste that needs to be moved. There’s a whole host of other factors that would affect the above equation, but it shows the potential of what can be achieved by using ‘big data’.
Now that we’ve seen what ‘big data’ can do for us, the challenge is sharing this information with those decision makers that value the data.
For a production engineer, giving him an extra load per hour is like having another truck in the fleet – something that can’t be physically achieved with spending many millions of dollars. But give it to him for free and he’ll be your next best friend.
And this precisely is the future challenge facing many – how to capture, interpret and display big data in this age of information overload. That sounds like a great topic for another article.
Jason Nitz is a fleet management and dispatch superintendent at Newmont Mining.
This article originally appeared in full at Austmine.
The Australian dollar went under US 80 cents this morning for the first time in five-and-a-half years.
