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Accidents involving mine hoist operations are relatively rare, but when one does occur, the outcome can be tragic if it results in personnel injuries or fatalities, or financially grim when an incident ends with equipment damage, extended pro- duction downtime, or regulatory fines and sanctions — if not all three. Accidents stemming from worker mis- judgment, distraction or just bad luck will always be difficult to eliminate entirely. For instance, in one of the most recent hoisting-related incidents resulting in a fatality, a worker in the shaft of a Nevada gold mine, standing near the edge of a work platform mounted on top of a skip, simply bent over to sneeze while the skip was in motion and was killed when his head was caught between a shaft cross- beam and the platform handrail. This type of horrifying and almost unpredictable accident reinforces the need for mine management to be constantly vig- ilant in assessing and enforcing its worker safety training and operational proce- dures. The other side of the coin — keep- ing a hoist and its ancillary equipment in top operating shape — presents an oppor- tunity to take advantage of a number of options, including inspection services from OEMs or third-party firms that can help reduce or eliminate potential mechanical problems. If a mine operator can't confidently answer "yes" to the fol- lowing questions, it might be time to take advantage of one of these services: • Can you guarantee your hoist will stop safely? • Is your hoist's production cycle at its optimum rate? • Do you know how the hoist's brake units are performing? • Is your maintenance budget growing to cover future contingencies? • Do you have the in-house skills and re- sources to keep the hoist at its opti- mum level? Remote Monitoring, On-site Fingerprinting Assuming that a significant number of mine operators could use some degree of outside assistance for hoist care, ABB launched its Hoist Performance Monitoring Service in 2013. With this ser- vice, ABB experts monitor and analyze a hoist system remotely, linking hardware monitoring with secure remote access options and expert software. It offers two components designed to maintain hoist performance: • Hoist service experts provide a scheduled quarterly analysis of collected data against established key performance indi- cators (KPIs). Through remote sessions with ABB engineers, corrective actions can be implemented. After every analysis, the customer gets a follow-up report. • Continuous asset monitoring over ex- tended periods. If the monitored hoist system shows abnormal conditions, pre-established triggers alert the cus- tomer immediately. ABB proactively in- vestigates the source of the alarm and provides recommendations to restore process performance. ABB said the Hoist Performance Monitoring Service uses continual data col- lection and analysis to transform raw data into actionable information, pinpointing issues so that the hoist operator can ensure optimal performance of equipment and systems. ABB's ServicePort, a secure, remote-enabled service delivery platform, enables the retrieval of information from numerous operational points, including the hoist's motor, hydraulics and brakes, and helps to diagnose and identify root cause problems. More recently, ABB — which has in- stalled more than 700 mine hoists around the world since 1937 — rolled out a hoist consulting and assessment service called Hoist Performance Fingerprint, first offered last year in Australia, Sweden and South Africa, and this year expanding to Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Hoist Performance Fingerprint helps customers assess and optimize the condi- tion of their mine hoists. It consists of a structured audit of complete hoist sys- tems, covering all electrical and mechani- cal parts to ensure reliable and safe hoist operation. The entire hoist system is assessed, analyzed and tested using high- quality data collected from more than 20 predefined points and a structured tai- lored analysis tool. This data forms the backbone for any further analysis done after leaving the site. All results, findings, as well as corresponding recommenda- 38 www.coalage.com January 2016 o p e r a t i n g i d e a s Keeping Mine Hoists Healthy Shallow shaft or deep, a mine's hoist machinery needs regular care and inspection Life-cycle cost, reliability and system availability can all come into play if hoist maintenance is inadequate.