Ultra-Dynamics talks about measurement and data

The quarry industry is becoming increasingly more competitive as a number of factors, including tighter environmental constraints, come into effect. In addition to this, customers are becoming more demanding regarding product specifications, demanding improved quality control.
Budgetary constraints are also putting emphasis on automation of production and data collection methods.

The advent of on-line monitoring technologies such as moisture measurement now allows the opportunity to automate pug mill operations; “The Cloud” now provides ready access to operational data by all parts of the company.

Automation of Pug Mill Operations including Water Control Compared to traditional methods of blending, such as using a loader or excavator, pug mills are a much more efficient, accurate and labour-aving method to produce large quantities of consistently mixed products. They are primarily used to blend materials such as aggregates with water, to create consistent
and manageable products for construction, road base and other applications. Pug mills are an essential method for adding moisture at the rate to provide the optimal packing density.

The industry standard method for determining product moisture from a pug mill is to use the tried and tested “frying pan”, in which sample is heated to zero loss in weight. This is labour intensive and time consuming. Not only that, but the sample taken is only representative of a small portion of the product material.

The validity of the sample is entirely dependent on the skill with which the laboratory technician takes the sample. In contrast to this, an online moisture analyser, together with an accurate beltscale and the ability to control the moisture addition to the pug mill (such as with a pump variable speed drive (VSD) or proportioning valve), provides the opportunity to accurately control the moisture content in real-time.

Management Information System Using Access to a Cloud Based Data Collection System
The availability of production information is important to both the company management as well as the Quarry Manager who needs to know recovery and production rates regularly.

Labour pressures on site staff mean that any office work required to generate production data is a distraction from other critical factors, such as monitoring and controlling maintenance, breakdown and any operational problems. It is usual for head office to require weekly production statistics
and these can be the cause of several hours of manual date entry. The availability of automatic data collection is a very useful tool for the Quarry Manager to increase his or her time out in the plant.

The availability of production information is important to both the company management as well as the Quarry Manager who needs to know recovery and production rates regularly.

Labour pressures on site staff mean that any office work required to generate production data is a distraction from other critical factors, such as monitoring and controlling maintenance, breakdown and any operational problems.

It is usual for head office to require weekly production statistics and these can be the cause of several hours of manual date entry. The availability of automatic data collection is a very useful tool for the Quarry Manager to increase his or her time out in the plant.

Note: Ultra-Dynamics has been a member of CMPA for over 10 years.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login