Conveyor systems are dominant in the mining industry and they are used to move ore from the mine to the shipping yard. This is an effective means of transportation but is difficult to maintain as it results in outages. When there is downtime it is a loss to the organization in terms of money and time. The loss is not restricted to production delays but has far reaching effect. The breakdown leads to piling of stock at various points as the machinery is brought to a halt. The dispatch and loading activities at railways and ports are disrupted. The stockpiles are kept waiting for shipment. The delay leads to high demurrage costs.
The conveyor maintenance is the key to avoid problems. The industry’s traditional approach depends largely on visual and manual inspection. The problems are not detected and it could be a daunting task as the conveyor operation runs to tens of thousands of kilometers. The companies have to respond to the problem and the fix the issue.
In today’s digital age scanning and fixing the problems can be done within no time. The evolving digital technologies are comprehensive and have an effective approach. Here the focus is on preventing the problem rather than repairing the problem. The technologies allow the miners to monitor the conveyor parts for any problems in real time. The conveyor belt scanning system uses sensors to monitor the issues. Some of the activities involve:
Video/image analytics is used in real time for video monitoring of the conveyor belt systems.
