A new damage detection monitor for draglines could boost mine production rates by about 30 percent and minimise maintenance costs.
The computer system called the Advanced Dragline Dutymeter, estimates the duty (fatigue or damage) caused while operating $100-million draglines.
Engineers from the Cooperative Research Centre for Mining (CRCMining) at The University of Queensland built the Dutymeter to cut maintenance costs and boost production rates of draglines.
The Dutymeter displays operational data on bucket loads, wide bucket swings, premature bucket lifts, jerky operation and other bad driving habits to dragline drivers in real-time from their cabins.
Project leader Dr Paul Meehan said the Dutymeter was fed motor signals and dragline arm strain from two gauges fitted on either side of the boom.
Dr Meehan said the Dutymeter was better than other damage detection systems because it was in realtime and had embedded modelling which meant it only needed two sensors — not a large network of sensors.
“Up until now, there was no feedback to the operators as to how much damage they were doing on the draglines. . . we can differentiate duty by bucketload and duty by operator practice,” Dr Meehan said.
A prototype Dutymeter, which has been tested on a dragline at the open-cut Saraji Mine on the Central Queensland coalfields for more than two years, has shown that half of the total duty caused was bucket-load related.
Dr Meehan said the Dutymeter also showed that experienced or smooth dragline operators could carry up to 30 percent more than rough operators with no maintenance cost increases.
Dutymeters cost about $50,000 and six have been sold so far to mine companies in South Africa, Australia and the United States.
The latest Dutymeter upgrade alerts operators which of their bad driving habits are causing too much damage and why.
Dr Meehan said some mines had tended to overload draglines and the Dutymeter reporting module would allow minesites to balance the effects of overloading with productivity.
The Dutymeter, which can be fitted to different draglines, has been licensed to mining equipment company Leica/Tritronics.
CRCMining is considering commercialising the Dutymeter through its offshoot company, Universal Dig and Dump Technology.
Media: Dr Meehan (07 3365 4320, meehan@uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (3365 2619)
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