Coal Age Magazine - For nearly 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.
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The world of telematics is exploding. As new and improved methods of transfer- ring information off of rolling stock improve and become more affordable, miners are finding all different kinds of applications that improve productivity, simplify maintenance and enhance safe- ty. There are several available tools cur- rently being offered in each category. Improving Productivity Global positioning systems (GPS) tech- nology is now commonplace in the min- ing industry, and it is no surprise that a supervisor can sit in an office and watch their fleet working in near-real time if they want to. The question becomes, "How do you use that information?" To increase productivity, an operator needs to find where the inefficiencies in an operation are "hiding." One common area is found in haul road layout. While larger open-pit opera- tions generally have fixed haul road loca- tions and are designed and maintained to eliminate bottlenecks, the same cannot be said at smaller coal operations where haul roads change frequently and are subject to a myriad of road building vari- ables such as availability of suitable material, weather conditions, geology and optimum pit layout. All of these factors can contribute to less-than-optimum haul road conditions that can significantly reduce haul road speeds and fleet productivity. Unless a supervisor is always out in the field per- forming time studies and checking con- ditions, these unfavorable conditions can go on unattended for extended periods of time. By monitoring fleet activity with a fleet monitoring program, metrics such as haul speeds, cycle times, haul dis- tances and load counts can all be accessed and analyzed from a computer with reports and alerts generated for any exception that a supervisor wants considered. Another hidden area of inefficiency, which is seen frequently at many opera- tions, is called Fleet Post Start/Pre Stop Time, or FPST. This is the time from shift start until when the operator actually takes his unit into production at the start of the s u r fac e ma i n t e n a n c e B Y T O M L A M P E R T , P R E S I D E N T , I R O N S Y T E M O N I T O R S 40 www.coalage.com December 2014 Remote Monitoring of Surface Mining Equipment Talking telematics, and where it is taking the surface mining sector The air intake sensor on board a Komatsu 830 truck. Data is sent through an IronSyte communications unit to the IronSyte server for processing. The wheel motor sensor working on a Komatsu 830. This sensor will sense temperature and vibration in order to determine wheel bearing health, with results sent to an IronSyte server.