Client: Major goldmine

Location: Australia

Project

The client required an online monitoring system for its SAG mill.

The stator windings in the SAG mill motor have a history of becoming loose. If untreated, loose stator windings will lead to electrical faults with the motor and if complete dislodgement occurs, damage to the stator and rotor.

Any downtime in the equipment for repairs is a loss in the ability to produce product, costing the mine.

Project

Our online condition monitoring and reporting system is used for automated detection and reporting of faults in gearless and low-speed gear drives such as SAG (semi-autogenous grinding) mills and HPGR (high pressure grinding rolls) drives.

It combines traditional condition monitoring reporting with a continuous, automated online monitoring system that provides timely alerts and fault analysis. The reporting system is highly customisable, including options for both cloud-based and localised remote monitoring systems.

How it Works

  1. Our analysis of the characteristics of historical faults associated with equipment.
  2. Sensors, data collection and data transfer systems are installed.
  3. Software is set up to continuously process data, identify and locate characteristic faults, create alarm levels and create trends.
  4. Alarm levels, trends and fault locations are displayed on a real-time online monitoring screen.
  5. Online condition monitoring reports are provided at regular intervals, detailing machine condition and recommendations for maintenance.

Tailored Solution

Instead of using generic alarm limits, historical equipment data of the fault characteristics is analysed and alarms are then adapted to the equipment and type of fault. Tailoring the system to the equipment allows early identification of a fault and its source.

Challenges

We use a variety of sensors to record data for low-speed machines in extremely noisy and harsh environments. Our proprietary algorithms filter and process the high quality data captured from the sensors to detect low-level signals associated with the faults.

Equipment Owned by Site

Once installed, all of the equipment becomes the property of the site/client/asset owner.

Outcome

The online monitoring system provides a timely alert for the cause and location of a fault in a piece of equipment. This prevents unexpected outages and greatly assists in maximising component life, while reducing maintenance planning, time and costs.

The Specs at a Glance

Online System
  • Trending, warnings and alarms for critical faults specific to machine.
  • Simple visualisation software available on any internet enabled device.
  • No ongoing license fees (for example, SCADA, ACMA or other proprietary platforms).
  • Cloud based or localised data system.
  • Option for experienced analyst to analyse data.
  • Option for online condition monitoring reports at regular intervals.
  • Integration with existing site control system.
  • SMS/email message alert system for critical alarms.
Signal Processing and Fault Diagnosis

We provide a customised service to analyse and develop algorithms for fault diagnosis. The following signal processing and analysis techniques can be incorporated:

  • Energy band alarms for variable operating states.
  • Time synchronous averaging.
  • Envelope reference alarms based on various load/speed ranges.
  • Synchronous vs non-synchronous trends.
  • Faulty sensor logic – ski slopes, incorrect bias voltage etc.
  • Autocorrelation.
  • Kurtosis trend.
  • Harmonic energy bands.
  • Relative phase.
  • Time frequency analysis.
  • Cepstrum analysis.
  • Adaptive filters.
  • Operating Deflection Shape (ODS) analysis.
Hardware

Verico provides the following hardware:

  • Customisable, expandable diagnostic system hardware.
  • Up to 24 channels of synchronised data from sensors.
  • AWARE hardware including ruggedised transmission module using any of 3G, 4G, LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, LPWAN and satellite communications infrastructure.
  • Stainless steel equipment cabinet associated support hardware.

The system is able to be customised to include (but not be limited to) the following sensors: accelerometers, tachometers, oil analysis sensors, temperature sensors, acoustic emission microphones and cameras.

Commissioning, Training and Ongoing Support

Full setup, installation and commissioning are provided during set up of the system and throughout its operation. Other services provided include training in CM techniques and online system usage plus ongoing support for the online system and hardware.