Coal Age

MAR 2013

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VDMA Research and Development: Laying the Foundations for a New Generation of World-leading Technology As VDMA Branch President Dr. Paul Rheinländer notes in his foreword to this edition of Best of Germany, German companies' development of successful products and services has been founded on decades— in some cases, well over a century—of dedicated research. These programs often require substantial financial commitments, especially as technology is continuously becoming more sophisticated, which in turn leads to the need for companies to target those areas that will best fulfill their customers' requirements. The VDMA-sponsored series of "Future Mining" conferences, which took place during 2010 and 2011, gave industry and academia the opportunity to discuss current research projects and to identify where future research needs to be targeted. Workshops run concurrently with the meetings, which took place at Aachen, Clausthal and Freiberg technical universities, looked at ways in which mining equipment could be optimized, not only for individual customers, but also on a regional basis by taking appropriate levels of technological sophistication into account. Speaking at the VDMA branch annual meeting in Essen, the chairman of the organization's research and technology steering committee, Dr. Holger Lieberwirth of Tenova Takraf GmbH, offered a view on how new R&D; programs can be driven forward. First, however, he reminded his audience of an illustration of the risks involved in not carrying out adequate R&D.; He used a slide from a presentation given in 2010, in which an imagined news report from 2020 discusses the closure of the country's last manufacturer of mining equipment. "We have to ensure that that will not happen," Dr. Lieberwirth said, as he outlined some of the challenges facing the equipment-manufacturing sector. "What has happened in the market over the past two years?" he asked. Aside from it having been a boom time for German mining Dr. Lieberwirth speaking at the VDMA branch meeting in November. VDMA 6 equipment sales, there has also been an increase in merger and acquisition activity worldwide, with new suppliers in the international market bringing increased competition. "And what do we need to do in order to ensure that German mining equipment remains competitive in the long term?" Dr. Lieberwirth looked at some of the suggested themes that had emerged from the Future Mining conferences. Improved training, more practical relevance in university courses, better transfer of expert knowledge to customers, better energy efficiency, a better understanding of rock mechanics, the development of unmanned production faces, automated transport systems both on surface and underground, and improvements in wireless data transmission and control systems; all of these could help make mining safer, more environmentally compatible and more productive, he said. Of course, a lot of effort is already being spent on addressing these points, he added, giving examples such as selective mining that can reduce the amount of waste being handled, the use of backfill as a means of reducing the industry's environmental footprint, and using rock mechanics to reduce or minimize the effects of unwanted ground movements on operations. "There is no lack of ideas, the challenges are more to do with resources to get them implemented," he stated. "When the market is booming, qualified people are in short supply, while if the market is quiet, obtaining the financial resources needed to carry out the R&D; becomes more of a problem. "One option to help overcome this is the establishment of a precompetitive research community," Dr. Lieberwirth suggested. In this way, German companies would be able to work together in the early stages of R&D;, each gaining valuable information that they could use for their own product development while retaining competitive integrity. He gave the example of a current three-way project being undertaken by Caterpillar, Eickhoff and Tenova Takraf that is evaluating the fundamentals of rock cutting from different perspectives. Eickhoff is looking at the development of a simulation model to optimize the design of shearer drums, he explained, while Caterpillar's role in the partnership is to focus on rock properties for optimizing the extraction process. Tenova Takraf is contributing work on simulating the comminution processes involved in rolls crushers as a way of saving energy. "Many aspects of rock characteristics are still not used in optimizing rock cutting," he said. "By doing so, the partners are looking at ways of saving energy, reducing wear and making better products." Many of the companies featured in this edition of Best of Germany have chosen to highlight equipment that has come from extensive R&D; carried out over many years. That there is a very wide range of technical expertise within the VDMA's mining branch can be seen very clearly, covering everything from high-precision pumps, valves and electronics to the real heavyweights of the mining world; high-capacity loading, hauling and materials-handling machines. Today, German manufacturers continue to lead the way as they develop the next generations of 21st century mining and mineral-processing equipment. VDMA MINING SUPPLEMENT • 2013

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