IIoT: TRANSFORMING MINING INDUSTRY

In the digital era, the internet rapidly transforms how people live and work. As technology and innovation advance, the boundaries of possibility are being pushed even harder. The last few years have seen internet connectivity harnessed and applied to an endless array of physical objects, leading to a technological revolution. This entire scenario is referred to as Industrial IoT (IIoT). The IIoT is expanding rapidly across the globe, creating interconnected intelligent solutions and equipment. Like other industries, mining is also experiencing these technological shakeups in recent years. Emerging technologies are helping to upgrade the mining operations. The mining domain primarily benefits enhanced productivity, safety, improved efficiency, and asset utilization by adding more automation, sensors, and connectivity to equipment. Although the use of technology has a positive impact on business, the adoption is not smooth, creating many challenges with equipment OEMs always looking at ways to overcome barriers to stay competitive. Globally, many mining companies are evaluating connected mining on their Industrial IoT journey. Today, Indian mining OEMs are also evaluating challenges and benefits and have started evaluating technologies. They have understood that early movers will gain substantial competitive and sustainable advantages over slow movers.

Key issues facing the mining sector

New technologies bring in new unexplored challenges, and similar is the case with Industrial IoT. Based on the industry and geography the challenges could be diverse. Mining OEMs too, face plenty of challenges slowing down technology adoptions. Non-clarity about investments and ROIs, data security, poor network coverage, lack of standardizations etc. are a few challenges, which are not unique to India. Apart from these, Industrial IoT in mining faces some other challenges, elaborated below with the possible solutions to alleviate them.

A guide to predictive maintenance for the smart mine

Equipment maintenance is a critical aspect of mining OEMs as it consumes a significant budget. Maintenance is crucial for smooth equipment operation and operational safety. Every mining site generally follows a unique maintenance schedule to ensure that every piece of equipment is working as desired and capable of efficiently working throughout the day. However, the equipment undergoes immense stress, often creating situations of unforeseen breakdown. When such unplanned failure occurs depending on the severity of the fault and complexity of the asset, it reduces productivity or even brings it to a standstill. Mining sites are often located in the remotest locations with extreme weather conditions, the least accessibility and communication difficulties. Maintenance requires a more proactive approach than normal routine maintenance in such situations. In addition, the cost involved in maintaining equipment is very high, and the time needed to service them on the field is considerable. The remote locations also make reporting errors and breakdowns problematic, as some places do not even have network connectivity.

Predictive maintenance is the solution mining sectors are looking at to improve productivity and reduce unplanned downtimes. It provides an ability to anticipate failures before bringing the entire equipment to a standstill. It helps to maximize availability using data acquired through condition monitoring, constantly monitoring equipment health, recognizing problems early, and preventing unplanned downtime. B&R’s X90 module allows mining OEMs to monitor mobile equipment status continuously. The results help determine exactly which components require maintenance and when. Its typical applications include continuous monitoring of the machine’s moving components such as hydraulic assemblies, belts, bearings, gears, motors, and other mechanics. The processed sensor data is also available for further use in the application. The modular X90 control and I/O system are equipped with condition monitoring functions. The problems or faults can be detected in their early stages and corrected before they result in unplanned downtime. Condition-based predictive maintenance maximizes equipment availability, saves the considerable cost of outages and arbitrary service calls. Most mines are environmentally challenging to work in. Dust, moisture, water run-off, and outdoor exposure to sunlight, wind and rain might affect the smooth working of the equipment. However, all products in the X90 mobile automation family are designed with IP69K protection on all sides for use in harsh industrial environments. They can handle operating temperatures from -40 to +85°C and are resistant to vibration, shock, salt, UV light and oil.

Technologies for smart mining and workers’ safety

Mines are spread over a large area and often in remote locations. As discussed earlier, operation and maintenance are critical aspects. Advanced technology solutions such as remote monitoring and maintenance are helping reduce the massive operational costs faced by mining operators. The remote maintenance solution from B&R makes equipment diagnosis and maintenance more accessible than ever. The solution utilizes the latest IT and security standards and allows for significant savings with low investment costs. Equipment downtime results in losses, and in such cases, every minute counts. If a service technician is not available on-site, it takes hours or days before expert assistance is available. With the B&R remote maintenance solution, a technician can connect, run diagnostics, adjust parameters and resolve the error – all in a matter of moments. With B&R’s remote maintenance solution, a service technician can access machines from anywhere in the world to retrieve logbook entries, application data and much more. Moreover, remote maintenance solutions can be used to log field data from the equipment, which can prepare trends providing a graphical representation of the situation on-site. This solution uses queuing protocols such as OPC UA, MQTT or AMQP, which allow storing data on the controller and sending it to the cloud when the network is available. Coupling predictive maintenance with remote maintenance helps OEMs access equipment from their offices and gets complete details about its operations.

Keeping the information safe from data miners

The increased use of Industrial IoT in mining is expected to generate huge volumes of data. Analyzing this data will provide valuable information by identifying inadequacies and waste in existing operations. Advanced data analytics gives insights into past actions and helps mining companies to predict future occurrences. Today, managing the safety and security of this data are new challenges, which are comfortably resolved by using open-source networking protocols such as OPCUA, MQTT or AMQP. For safe and secure data transfer between field and cloud, B&R relies on vendor-independent communication protocols.

OPC UA is an open-source communication protocol widely used in industrial automation applications and has made its way into off-highway equipment. It is based on the client-server principle and allows seamless vertical and horizontal connectivity. The protocol is platform-independent and features built-in safety mechanisms. Since OPC UA is flexible and completely independent, it is an ideal communication protocol for vertical and horizontal connectivity. B&R’s support for such open technologies helps reduce the total cost of ownership and provides a common platform for networking due to the vendor-independent nature of these protocols.

In addition, B&R provides robust, real-time communication on the field level and in-equipment connectivity based on open-source platforms. CAN in Automation (CiA) and Ethernet POWERLINK Standardization Group (EPSG) are the non-profit organizations driving the open-source technologies CANopen and Ethernet POWERLINK, widely used and accepted globally in off-highway equipment for the field to controller communications. B&R trusts OPC UA, MQTT, and AMQP for secure and safe connectivity to the cloud for equipment-to-equipment and equipment-to-cloud communication. At negligible investment, the vendor-neutral approach has helped various vendors adopt such technologies in their controllers, actuators, cameras, and other peripheral devices. This allows OEMs to connect multiple devices on a single network, enhancing diagnostics, reducing maintenance and providing seamless connectivity to the cloud. Even cloud platforms have already adopted such open-source communication for interfacing with field devices. OPC UA, Ethernet POWERLINK, and MQTT are all open source, and Ethernet-based provide the necessary bandwidth for such complex and demanding applications.

Extracting the power of IIoT

Industrial IoT eliminates the most intensive challenges of the mining industry by providing real-time visibility of equipment, allowing quick problem solving or preventing it altogether. Industrial IoT helps improve operational and functional safety and equipment health. With cutting-edge technology solutions and open-source communication standards, B&R is the right partner for implementing industrial IoT for increased sustainability, flexibility, higher productivity, and profitability.

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