Category: 新技术新产品

A fully functional, 3D-printed excavator will make its debut on the world stage next year, with another to be printed live at the same time.
The 3D-printed excavator, which is said to be a “world first”, is a joint collaboration between several US organisations.

After receiving a US National Science Foundation grant for the project, the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) engaged the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s manufacturing demonstration facility to lead the printing of the machine. The National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) and the US Association of Equipment Manufacturers are providing industry engagement, communications and promotional support.

As part of the project, two simultaneous research efforts are currently underway at two US universities. Graduate engineering students from the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing a boom and bucket with integrated hydraulics. It was said their goal was to decrease the machine’s weight, cost of materials and maintenance.

Meanwhile, students at the University of Minnesota are designing a hydraulic oil reservoir/heat exchanger and cooling system to reduce the excavator’s size and weight while increasing its efficiency.

The CCEFP is also hosting a competition that encourages teams of US undergraduate engineering students to design and print a “futuristic” cab and human-machine interface for the excavator that is “aesthetic and functional”. In addition to receiving a cash prize, the winning team will have the opportunity to see their design printed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“Technology and innovation will drive change for the future of the construction industry, and we’re excited that students are playing a vital role in bringing the newly designed machine to life,” NFPA CEO Eric Lanke commented.

The 3D-printed excavator will be on display in Las Vegas in March 2017 as part of the co-located CONEXPO-CON/AGG and IFPE construction trade shows. A second excavator will also be printed live on the show floor, which – according to a joint event media statement – will be “the first large-scale use of steel in 3D printing”.

“We’re thrilled to bring such a significant technological and first of its kind achievement like the 3D-printed excavator to the show,” IFPE show director John Rozum said. “It will be a platform to demonstrate how the latest innovations and applied technologies are changing the future of [the] construction industry.”

This kind of technology also has the potential to assist the Australian quarrying industry in the future. Local facilities that are capable of 3D-printing machinery parts and attachments are already in operation within Australia, and it has been suggested that the ability to produce product prototypes at reduced cost through 3D printing will likely accelerate innovation in the quarry equipment manufacturing sector.

More reading
New 3D printing centre offers competitive edge
How 3D printing can offer a new edge in equipment manufacturing
3D printing facility could drive quarry innovation
R&D sped up by 3D technology

The Terex Finlay T-Link telematics system helps fleet operators stay connected and keep track of their equipment.
T-Link combines Terex Finlay machines’ in-built CANbus control system with satellite positioning and telematics software.

The system enables the remote monitoring and management of Terex Finlay mobile crusher fleets, providing information such as the hours and location of a machine as well as allowing operators to send machine-specific alerts.

T-Link can also be used to monitor work progress and track production, manage logistics, analyse and optimise machine performance, and perform remote operator support.

Terex Finlay is now fitting T-Link hardware to every crusher model in its range as standard and there are plans to introduce the system to its screening plant later this year.

What is manufactured as well as how it’s manufactured are both changing – and fast – and the race is on to adopt smart innovation.

These and other challenges are met by digitalising a manufacturing company’s operations. The “digital thread” can be maintained through idea to production and post-production through the right product lifecycle management.

By connecting the thread from supplier, through production, product and aftermarket, the enterprise can operate more flexibly, efficiently and quickly, better able to respond to the customer’s need for smarter products.

Nine of the world’s 16 leading heavy industrial businesses (including JCB, Sandvik and Hitachi) choose to run their operations with Siemens PLM. It is also the PLM of choice for the US Navy and its suppliers. To find out why, and what can be gained by advanced engineering and manufacturing software platforms, book a spot at the Siemens PLM Industrial Insights 2016 breakfast event, held during National Manufacturing Week.

Places are limited for this free May 12 breakfast event, starting 7 am and running until 9:30 am, with network opportunities following this.

The Trimble Loadrite H2250 haul truck monitor helps improve productivity across the quarry haul fleet.

The H2250 is an in-cab display and sensor system that is used in combination with an optional InsightHQ web-based management portal.

Using InsightHQ cloud reporting and data analysis, the H2250 provides quarry managers and supervisors with near real time process monitoring, driving increased production and limiting costs.

The haul truck monitor provides automated product totals in easy to understand, formatted reports, eliminating the need for tally sheets, which can be difficult to comprehend. Haul truck load counting and payload measurement is said to be accurate to within +/-3 per cent.

The H2250 also offers near real time production reporting, truck speed monitoring, cycle time analysis and location-based material tracking. These features can help prevent unplanned haul truck downtime, under- and overloading, queuing, excessive tyre wear, and slow or inconsistent cycle times.

CONTACT TRIMBLE LOADRITE:
1/120 Wickham Street
Fortitude Valley
QLD, Australia, 4006
Phone: 02 8213 4181
Email: info@loadritescales.com
Web: www.loadritescales.com

With the rise of production costs in mining reaching almost 30 per cent over the past few years, the translation of constantly changing fleet data into understandable information in real time is essential for efficiency and productivity.

Fleet management provides vehicle tracking, diagnostics, and the assessment of driver behaviour to ensure the effective running of operations. It also decreases overall production costs by lowering downtime through scheduled maintenance, and preventing the wastage of fuel by enforcing fuel management, as well as identifying discrepancy problems of specific trucks and the workers responsible.

The use of next level technology in the areas of safety, maintenance, and productivity is expected to rise in this area, with a survey by Timetric Mining Intelligence indicating that 85 per cent of respondents have invested in fleet management technology as well as predictive maintenance.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) expands into the mining industry, efficiency has increased, enabling all equipment data and tracking information gathered to provide predictive (or preventative) measures for maintenance. The collation of these immense resources of information – referred to as Big Data – means traditional database management systems (often just excel spreadsheets) are unable to compete. These require more innovative systems for fleet management; this has seen companies such as Rio Tinto open a ‘Big Data’ Analytics Excellence Centre in 2015 to predict and prevent equipment failures, lower maintenance costs, and heighten productivity.

In an effort to improve fleet productivity, decrease operational costs, and reduce administration time for data capturing and management, Whitehaven Coal implemented the MiPlan MiFleet solution at one of their Gunnedah Basin operations in north west New South Wales.

MiFleet, one of MiPlan’s range of apps for monitoring fleet management, uses tablets to gather performance and productivity data of truck fleets. The apps are part of the MiApps suite, which includes MiDrill, MiBlast, MiDig, MiFleet and MiTime, that collectively offer monitoring of an operation’s excavation, material logistics, drilling and blasting, human resources, and maintenance.

am may 16 truck miplan2MiFleet features time allocation capabilities which track the state and activity of equipment during each shift in order to calculate utilisation and availability KPIs. Vertical and horizontal distances are able to be measured in real time dollars per kilometre, enabling planning and tracking of any variations. Truck activity is improved by the system’s complete cycle time, which can track their load and haul cycle times. The system features a GPS map to determine the current location, status and activity of a fleet in one view. It also enables offline capability for as long as necessary, automatically syncing all data collected once it comes within range of an internet connection.

The system was trialled in October 2015 at Whitehaven’s Tarrawonga mine in Boggabri, approximately 30km west of Gunnedah.

After two months of successful operation alongside their normal paper management approach, the system was ready to ‘go live’. It began with the installation of a single tablet for the workers to understand how it worked.

Over the following two weeks, they purchased Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablets – their tablet of choice – and installed brackets into all their fleets. Engineers, supervisors, and operators were provided with onsite training on how to use the system, after which a trial run parallel to their normal paper system. At the end of each month, MiPlan went back onsite to assist with the increased data streams and aid better data reporting and management processes.

Tarrawonga mine manager Anthony Margetts said, “After conducting a proof of concept of MiPlan’s MiFleet, we decided the application was a good match. It was simple and readily accepted by all.”

“MiPlan was onsite to engage with equipment operators and helped us through the transition to a paperless system. The use of conventional consumer products like Samsung tablets represents a low cost technology solution for managing the equipment fleet.”

Since implementing the system, Whitehaven reaped several benefits such as achieving more production and performance data, enabling them to analyse and action that data in almost real time. This also allowed faster communication about production decisions with operators.

The trial discovered significant discrepancies between the paper-based and real time data, highlighting another advantage of the app. Additionally, it limited lengthy data entry processes, saving time and costs incurred when supervisors and site clerks are required to manually process paperwork. This led to the saving of paper, printing, and administration time and costs.

The system allowed for the consolidation of the operation’s wider production data into a single source, improving the flexibility of reporting.

Supervisors found that they were able to make in-field decisions on the way their fleet is used with the system’s real time data feeds.

After the first year, return on investment is expected due in a large part to the low product purchase and implementation costs.

This is the first collaboration between Whitehaven and MiPlan, with Tarrawonga now looking to implement the MiDrill and MiBlast (MiD&B) applications offered. This will ensure their whole operation is managed in real time and render their operation paperless.

In this month’s Spotlight article, Paul Moore reviews new machines and best practice across hydraulic excavators, rope shovels, wheel loaders and surface drills. There have been a number of new excavator launches, from Hitachi, Liebherr, Komatsu and others, while autonomous drilling is really advancing and moving from trials of single drills to full fleets managed from remote control rooms and the article includes the latest from Joy Global, Atlas Copco and FLANDERS. Also the latest news on the application of bucketwheel mining solutions…(JOYGLOBAL全文）

Mining is one of the toughest industrial sectors in Australia: It’s tough on the people, and it’s tough on the gear.

There’s been a lot of progress made in protecting people over the past ten years, but what about protecting the machinery that’s responsible for making every dollar faster?

Whether you’re talking about a mobile or stationary plant, there’s a range of machinery parts that need protection from wear and tear caused by minerals and ores.

Hardox Wearparts produce and supply a wide range of custom manufactured wear parts for a range of machinery utilised across the mining and quarrying industries including; wear strips, cutting edges and skins for excavator buckets, blades for dozers and graders, and liners for dump truck trays through to liners, bars, screens and skirts for chutes, feeders and crushers.

The key to the quality of Hardox Wearparts is the selection and use of the most appropriate grades from SSAB’s wide range of Hardox steels, combined with leading knowledge of wear part manufacturing methods optimised to retain the desired properties of the steel in the end products.

Ian Cornfoot, Wear Service Manager for Hardox Wearparts in Oceania knows all too well the problems associated with machinery wear and how to prevent them.

“It’s about the balancing of materials that can cope with both impact and abrasive wear,” he says.

“You can get very hard products that are good at combatting abrasive wear, but are generally quite brittle and can crack under impact. With expensive production losses resulting from unplanned downtime, this is something that needs to be avoided.

“It’s the same the other way, you can get softer materials that are very good at handling impact but abrasives cause them to wear very quickly, resulting in shorter maintenance intervals.”

That’s why Hardox Wearparts makes wear products that strike the right balance for dealing with both impact and sliding abrasion scenarios.

Hardox Wearparts work with their customers to understand the needs of the wear parts based on production and maintenance schedule needs.

“For mobile plants there are clear advantages in cost savings from weight reductions which can translate into reduced cycle times and increased productivity, but for stationary structures we can generate cost savings through careful material selection processes which caters to specific maintenance schedules, machinery and mineral needs,” Ian says.

“There is an ongoing focus on extended maintenance intervals and streamlined maintenance strategies across the Mining sector. Ideal maintenance schedules should have most parts lasting about the same amount of time; you don’t want a range of maintenance schedules for different wear parts on the one machine, and you don’t want to be wasting money changing out parts that have life left in them but may not achieve another full maintenance interval.

Ian says Hardox Wearparts are concerned with getting the best value out of their parts for the customer, which is why the company uses proprietary computer software to review different wear scenarios in your machinery, incorporating minerals analysis relative to your particular mine site or quarry, and providing estimations on the relative life of different materials.

“For example, if you’re currently using mild steel, or a 450 Brinell wear plate, then under the same conditions we can estimate what gains in wear life you may be able to achieve with different material grades. The software can indicate to us where the maximum benefit of using harder wearing plate will be: there may be a huge benefit in going from 450 to 550, but under your particular wear regime an increase to a 600 Brinell material could be negligible.”

This can help in the selection of the most appropriate materials to achieve increased maintenance intervals, or to enable the selection of thinner wear parts, resulting in a lighter machine operating on the same maintenance schedule.

“The hardest materials are not always the best: we want to be economical so that our customers get the best advantage possible from our products.”

In this fashion, the software helps to make estimates of the minimum product required to get the best economy out of Hardox products, keeping weight and material costs down.

The Hardox steel as used by Hardox Wearparts is produced exclusively by SSAB in Sweden and the USA, with the entire steelmaking process being tightly controlled to minimise impurities, and using very low levels of alloying elements in order to optimise the materials for welding. The hardness levels of the steels are achieved through a closely controlled roller quenching process and subsequent heat treatments designed to achieve consistency and through hardness.

Hardox Wearparts is a leading manufacturer of wear parts and wear services around the world, with more than 150 centres and operating in more than 55 countries. Locally, Hardox Wearparts have centres in Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand.

For more information on Hardox Wearparts products, visit http://www.hardoxwearparts.com/

Keech Australia has introduced a new innovation designed to assist construction and mining operators extend the working life of their loader buckets, and boost productivity by reducing costs and downtime.

Keesharp, Keech’s new product innovation is a bucket tooth designed to get sharper with use. According to Keech Australia Marketing Manager Brad Clark, the bucket tooth offers market-leading longevity and also extends the operational life of the bucket. He explains that Keesharp adaptor and bucket tooth systems increase nose strength and integrity, while the specialised design of the tooth profile increases the sharpness of the tooth with use, boosting efficiency.

As it gets sharper over time, Keesharp improves bucket penetration in even the most challenging conditions. Since Keesharp enables easy changeover with a one-pin-fits-all design, productivity is further enhanced with better machine availability and reduced downtime. Keesharp is recommended for applications ranging from underground production and development to open pit mining and digging as well as construction and earthmoving requirements.

Key features and benefits of Keesharp self sharpening bucket teeth include hammerless system designed with a pin on either side of the tooth for a more balanced locking system; tooth and adapter absorbing the force of digging to keep the pins free of pressure for optimum performance; quick and easy replacement of teeth with a single pin size across the range allowing simple and safe tooth changeover; and suitable for machine sizes from 20 to 350 tonnes.