Los Pelambres mine, situated in Salamanca, Chile, is the seventh largest producer of copper on the earth and sits at an elevation of over 3,000 meters above sea stage within the Andes Mountains. Greater than 365,000 tons of copper is transported yearly by means of 50 sq. kilometers of uneven terrain.
At Los Pelambres, 55 Komatsu mining vans play a vital function within the mining of copper and different minerals. These super-large dump vans are used to maneuver the copper alongside the totally different processing facilities. In an effort to maximise asset utilization, the mine adopted a quick refueling system that would cut back refueling time from 25 to roughly 5 minutes.
This initiative to enhance operations got here with an sudden collection of points that offset the supposed purpose. Particularly, the rupture of the factory-installed gasoline sensors on account of strain. And not using a working gasoline sensor, drivers needed to guess when it was the fitting time to refuel and will solely estimate how a lot gasoline really wanted to be added again into the tank.
Because it seems, guessing hardly ever paid off. Drivers generally waited too lengthy to refuel and the tank went empty inflicting air to leak in. This restore added 5 extra hours to the refueling course of as air would wish to first be eliminated. Most frequently, nonetheless, tanks had been crammed to most capability solely 0.6% of the time, which ended up considerably rising the variety of refueling stops. As a result of nobody might optimize the refueling schedule, drivers usually travelled to the identical refueling middle on the identical time, which prompted lengthy strains and delays.
These points and the following penalties not solely negated the supposed advantages of adopting the brand new refueling technique; they really elevated downtime and negatively impacted income.
The answer chosen at Los Pelambres was developed by Tarco LTDA, a Chilean integrator that makes a speciality of creating customized monitoring and monitoring options for the mining business. Tarco’s PCR 1000 continually screens tank ranges and transmits tank-level knowledge in addition to different car telematics knowledge again to a centralized utility in real-time utilizing ORBCOMM expertise. Since mining vans function in distant areas, satellite tv for pc connectivity is a should to make sure the well timed and constant supply of knowledge.
With over 15 years of promoting expertise at corporations huge and small, Lina Paerez leads ORBCOMM’s international advertising staff, driving key positioning methods, product launches, demand technology and model consciousness.
