Mechanical Technology February 2015

⎪ Innovative engineering ⎪

are ideal for three broad purposes: mobile machine positioning; operator assistance and collision avoidance; and volumetric or throughput scanning for inventory control. The company has developed ap- plications packages and software for sev- eral typical tasks: iProximity and iTruck for collision avoidance; iBelt, iApron, iStacker and iReclaimer for bulk materi- als handling; and iStockpile, iSilo 3D and iDome on the volumetric side. “But these are not off-the-shelf products. Our starting point is always a site survey to identify the environmental conditions and working routines for any application. We do this to see which one of our solutions is most suited to a task. We then tailor a solution for the facilities and processes to improve the safety and productivity of the operation. Using iBelt for example, we have a baseline starting point that can be implemented and adapted to any conveyor applications. But all of our sys- tems are unique. We don’t sell monitoring products, we create safety, optimisation and automation solutions,” he says. According to Winkel, the use of in- durad radar systems for 3D stockpile management and reclaimer productivity

material on the belt. By multiplying the profile area by the material travel speed, we can calculate, in real time, the instantaneous volumetric

flow rate of material, in m 3 /s, for example. And by taking succes- sive readings, we can collect very accurate data about the throughput of the belt,” Winkel tells MechTech . Not only is this a real time substitute for belt scales, but the data can

For collision avoidance, indurad takes a ‘virtual-fence’ approach, which involves warning the driver of avalanches or potential obstacles well in advance, as well as automatically taking action to avoid accidents. This rendering repre- sents a design for a ship-loader.

also be used to automate belt loading so as to optimise material flow and feed. This reduces the wear of downstream equipment such as crushers and guaran- tees that material will never be dumped into an empty crusher. “On our iBelt™ systems, we can also install a radar sen- sor on the edge of the belt to measure whether the belt is properly aligned or not – so corrective action can be taken before misalignment switches trip. And all of this monitoring is 100% contact free and reliable,” he adds. Industrial radar systems from indurad

plate mechanism, the effective life of the crusher can, essentially, be halved,” he explains. For this application, point mea- surement using a one dimensional radar system cannot predict the true height and quantity of material on a conveyor – hence the move to 2D and 3D systems. The 2D scan capability allows the profile of the material to be scanned as it passes a specific line across the belt. “This allows us to calculate an area of material above the belt. Also, because the belt might be slipping, we use ra- dar to measure the exact speed of the

36

Mechanical Technology — February 2015