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And What of the Future? Schilling (FLSmidth): "At the moment, it is not completely clear where the develop- ment in technology is headed, but most equipment manufacturers are focusing on building smarter instruments and machines. While half the market seems to be a little reluctant to go all-in on these sophisti- cated solutions, the other half happily embrace it, moving toward fully automated systems with very few dedicated operators." Knabenhans (ABB): "Instrumentation and automation systems will become commonplace. In addition, there will be ore property sensors that will inform the control system in real time, which ore is being processed. This will increase the ability to optimize performance by better exploiting the tradeoffs between quality, recovery and production." Culph (Gekko):" Global connections that allow remote monitoring is the short-term future for many processing plants. This ability allows experts from anywhere in the world to review a plant's performance, and to provide advice on how to get the best out of it. Same ser- vices can already perform this function, and the concept is developing rapidly." Bagley (Rockwell): "Process control systems will increasingly become the focus of mining companies trying to get more production from existing opera- tions. We anticipate increasing connec- tivity between systems so that the control and instrumentation of concentrators will be connected via higher-level advanced control and predictive systems to provide smooth, plant-wide control. The centralization of control systems in regional centers will become the norm." Yseboodt (Siemens): "We anticipate seeing more demand for accurate and reliable measuring in the field. Operators must know all the conditions in the pro- cess at every stage in order to automate to the highest level. The development of smart instrumentation for ease of use and performance will certainly continue." Jonas (Honeywell): "We see the use of newly emerged technologies as a compet- itive advantage for mineral processors. As an example, Honeywell's Lean Execution of Automation Projects (LEAP) utilizes cloud engineering, virtualization of con- trol hardware platforms, and application driven systems with universal I/O. The result is faster and more flexible project deployment that reduces costs and risk. "Human factors and usability are core values, allowing mineral processors to do more with less effort and resources. Honeywell's Experion Orion console helps to improve operator effectiveness through touch panels, alarming through ambient lighting, and clusters of ultra hi- def monitors, while the Experion Collaboration Station assists decision- making using a display that brings together data from widely differing sources." No question, then, that control sys- tems are going to get more sophisticated as time goes on. The challenge will be for software developers, equipment suppli- ers and operators alike to produce sys- tems that can respond quickly and effectively to changing conditions on a plant-wide basis. And that is going to take more than "the plant metallurgist and at least one computer technician." December 2014 www.coalage.com 39 a u t o m a t e d c o n t r o l s c o n t i n u e d