The ASIA Miner - Reporting Important Issues to Mining Companies in the Asia Pacific Region
Issue link: https://asiaminer.epubxp.com/i/830355
10 | ASIA Miner | Volume 14 • Issue 2 | 2017 Future of Coal THE reliability and efficiency of the train load out process at coal mines can be a 'make or break' when it comes to meeting pro- duction timelines and profitability. Train loading stations are often considered a bottleneck as they are typically operated manually re- sulting in variable performance, wagon over or under loading and poor reliability. As a result, companies often face heavy fines and in some cases substantial costs to obtain additional trains to meet required throughput. MRA Electrical & Automation Engineering was involved in the first automation of a train load out (TLO) in Australia more than 15 years ago and, as such, the company has a detailed understanding of the systems required. At that time there were limitations in the technology that resulted in some shortcomings of the systems, which culminated in issues with accuracy and environmental conditions. To address this, MRA conducted extensive research and development, using the latest technologies to overcome the shortfalls and develop an efficient and reliable automated TLO solution. Anglo American is the world's third largest exporter of metallurgical coal. The company uses the latest technology to run operations in the best possible way and strive for continuous improvement at existing assets. When Anglo American tasked MRA with automating the TLO pro- cess at German Creek coal mines in Central Queensland, the result exceeded expectations and provided an intelligent and intuitive sys- tem that not only improved efficiency and reliability but also delivered a state of the art solution with an unrivalled return on investment. Clever control technology Initially MRA primarily investigated vision based systems but were subject to accuracy issues as a result of changing environmental and weather factors such as sun, rain and fog. As laser and sensing technologies advanced, they provided a more reliable alternative that is not as vulnerable to the effects of these often harsh mining environments. MRA general manager Stephen Mount said, "We built the robust automated TLO system on the fundamentals of train speed and position to improve the accuracy of the process. The raw data is filtered and moved into our system to perform the correct analysis to overcome any issues with environmental conditions." There are three major components to the system - the sensors in the field, the laser scanners and RFID tag reader; the second is the PC-based server that performs all the filtering and analysis of data prior to communicating to the PLC, the third component. "The system architecture of this TLO demonstrates the power of the ControlLogix platform for data processing and integration as well as control," said Rockwell Automation mining industry manager Geoff Irvine. The Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix® PLC is programmed to provide centralised control for the entire TLO process. The MRA system has been engineered to integrate seamlessly with the controller via Ethernet/IP communications using point to point networking via a Stratix™ switch. "We incorporate as much functionality as possible inside the Logix controller which delivers unmatched fault-finding capabilities and advanced integration between the PC and controller," explained MRA engineering manager Peter McPherson. "Laser sensors detect information about the wagon location that is communicated to the Logix controller. Also, information about coal profiling is concurrently fed back to the controller which is pro- grammed to analyse this information and provide advanced feed- back control of the TLO process in real time." Automated loading Prior to automation of the TLO process, operators were only able to load wagons based on the tools at their disposal. However, significant advancements in automation technology have enabled operators to consistently load wagons with uniform and symmetric Automating the train load out process MRA technology delivers improved capacity, profitability and safety Automation technology enables operators to consistently load train wagons. The automated TLO is monitored from the central control room.