Maintenance is a key factor for modern mining production. Positively influencing this concept is a necessary condition to advance in relevant areas such as the safety of people and programmed production, thus constituting the concept of integral maintenance.
Mirs, a company recognized for designing, integrating and manufacturing robotic products and solutions, capable of performing in highly variable industrial processes, allowing its customers to incorporate productivity, safety and quality to their processes, has promoted a set of robotic applications implemented for mill maintenance, reducing human interaction to the maximum and decreasing the time normally considered in the maintenance that accompanies the milling process.
These solutions are made up of high quality and world class robots, making it a more precise, safe and profitable operation system.
With the idea of reinforcing the concept of integral maintenance, MIRS has proposed to the market a series of applications that act together and thus allow the integrity of the maintenance process, since all the dynamics are covered through this system that interacts with each other.
These are the Robot for removal and retorquing of nuts and bolts in SAG mills, the Robotic Manipulator of mill liners, the Robotic Manipulator of trommel blades, and the Ball Loading. For the operators and maintainers of concentrator plants, the mere thought of being able to intervene the mill at any time, without mobilizing external personnel, and to be able to carry out a total or partial change of liners in half or a third of the time, is a reality today.
MIRS has already taken important steps in this direction. It is the launching to the national market of the new MI robotic SAG Mill product line, and specifically, of the Trommel Robotic Pallet Handler.
This launching will take place tomorrow, December 15, and will gather a wide range of operators who will have the unique opportunity to witness live and direct a physical test of one of the largest robots in Latin America, demonstrating its millimetric precision and strength capacity. In the future, MIRS as a leading company in the development of robotic solutions, is preparing activities where the market will be able to know the other components of MI ROBOTIC MOLINO SAG and its concept of integral maintenance.
Written by rcd_admin, December 14th, 2016 | No Comments »
Today, when the dynamism of industry has been affected by fluctuations in the economy, the incorporation of technology in production processes is far from being a threat to employment. On the contrary, its positive effects are expected to be a true revolution.
When we talk about robotic technology, we tend to think of highly complex systems with a demanding installation and induction process. However, this perception has had to evolve as technological solutions are a reality both in the home and in industry. It is for this reason that experts in the area dare to analyze the effect that the growth of this area has on employment and people’s habits in the world.
The changes, or rather the technological irruption, is being seen from household chores to the aerospace sector; from agriculture to health and education, from leisure to the military industry, thus covering a huge space in the economy, and therefore, can easily become prey to fears about a negative influence on employment.
According to a study by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, robots will take over 45% of manufacturing jobs in the next 20 years, compared to 10% today. A true industrial revolution comparable to that of almost two centuries ago, when the introduction of the steam engine gave way to an urban and industrialized economy, thus opening new job opportunities that go hand in hand with the development that industry professionals are also experiencing and in order to adapt to new technologies.
Investors will see new business opportunities open, while users will change their habits following a productive revolution that will involve all economic spheres. According to Merrill Lynch, the robotics and artificial intelligence market will reach a volume of 152 billion dollars by 2020, currently standing at 32 billion.
The Merrill Lynch report highlights eight strategic sectors where robots will have a revolutionary economic effect: artificial intelligence; defense and aerospace; transportation; finance; healthcare; industrial production; domestic services and mining.
In the case of the mining industry, experiences such as the one carried out by MIRS, a leading company in the development of robotic solutions, are an example of how the incorporation of technology in production processes means improvements in the workplace, in terms of safety, effectiveness and resource savings. And at the same time, these changes demand from professionals a constant search for improvement and specialization, which results in an important contribution to production and to the basic premise in the mining market, that is, to concentrate efforts on improving production and prevent it from stopping, in this case a productive continuity supported by the incorporation of robotic solutions.
Written by rcd_admin, November 17th, 2016 | No Comments »
As has been the trend in the mining and heavy industry, ensuring production safety is a responsibility that goes beyond the human factor. It is a commitment to strengthen the industry and its production processes.
This year, one of the main players in the national mining industry, CODELCO, released a decalogue detailing the main critical risks faced by mining and industrial production. The Decalogue describes the main problems faced by modern industry, which are mainly oriented to the care of people and to ensure the continuity of operations.
Within these risk concepts, there is the intervention of energized equipment and, better said, the exposure to high voltages of electrical energy and the possible consequences of an accident due to human intervention.
In their maintenance processes, the sites must energize the areas and equipment to be intervened. This is done in the electrical rooms by manipulating large switches called switchgear that control the flow of energy in medium voltage. In the operation of removing and replacing them, there is the probability of a high impact occurrence: The so-called “Arc Flash”, a sudden discharge that can reach a temperature of up to 3,500 degrees Celsius.
In the handling of these trolleys, every year hundreds of operators in the world suffer burns that are fatal or at least very disabling. The use of special PPE mitigates the extent of the damage but does not eliminate it.
For this problem, MIRS, a company focused on the development of robotic solutions, puts on the market a system that is consistent with the concept of ZERO HARM, by incorporating a hard barrier into the design, removing the person from the line of fire, eliminating exposure to electric arc, and also meets the international standard NFPA 70 E, and whose added value is to remove people from the risk of “electric arc”.
This solution, called SWITCHGEAR Robotic Manipulator (MRS), allows the removal and repositioning of the carts with the operator controlling the equipment from a safe distance with the help of cameras and programmed routines. Using joystick and cameras, the operator positions the manipulator in front of the cart to be removed, and the omnidirectional wheels allow for easy positioning. This switchgear trolley manipulator is designed by MIRS to face situations that usually become complex when an accident occurs, since, along with avoiding the damage to people as the main focus, it also provides collaboration in an increasingly relevant issue for modern industry, and that is to avoid at all costs the delay, delay or stoppage of the production process given the costs and problems that this implies.
Written by rcd_admin, November 10th, 2016 | No Comments »
The dynamics that are imposing the development and modernization of production processes in the industry, are directed to the idea of strengthening the Mining 4.0 concept. It means that every day it is possible to find new applications or robotic solutions that address these issues.
It is generally known that mining industry operations are permanently challenged to generate improvements and productive processes in accordance with the dizzying pace that the industry has today. Along with the challenges of process optimization, the concern for economic factors and their known fluctuations, the human or labor factor emerges more and more strongly.
In concrete terms, and when we make a detailed analysis of the stages of mineral production, we find a process or stage of high sensitivity to the human factor. The exposure to material with high temperatures or exposure to molten materials with high radiation.
A solution to this problem has emerged and is now available for the national and Latin American market. MIRS, as a leading company in the development of robotic applications, has created the Robot for opening and closing passages in melting furnaces. It is a robotic system designed to automatically perform the tasks of burning and plugging the slag discharge of the Flash furnace.
This application reduces human interaction to a minimum, thus avoiding dangerous and unnecessary exposure to toxic gases, projection of incandescent particles and molten liquid material. This robotic system allows the opening and plugging of the process in a more precise and safe way.
Besides avoiding the exposure of people to a very high temperature environment, with projection of incandescent particles, in a strenuous work, it also allows a more continuous drainage of the slag, avoiding contact accidents. The work of burning and plugging the slag discharge of the Flash furnaces, translated into the opening and plugging of passages in melting furnaces and operated by people, is an arduous and strenuous task that is also subject to high-risk environmental conditions and susceptible to accidents. Then, if we add initiatives such as the one developed by CODELCO for the industry, which is related to the identification of the most recurrent critical risks in the operation, including exposure to molten materials at high temperatures or high levels of radiation. In addition to the constant effort of the mining industry to modernize and robotize complex processes, it is understood that the path developed by MIRS so far is fully in line with the needs of mining 4.0, which has resulted in a correct interpretation of these needs and the generation of products that continue to support the path of technological development that modern mining is implementing.
Written by rcd_admin, November 07th, 2016 | No Comments »
The mining industry is developing actions to address critical safety situations and implement a culture of personal care. These issues are also present in the heavy industry.
From today until Wednesday, October 20, the “Fourth Critical Risks Interactive Showroom” is being held in the city of Calama under the auspices of Codelco’s Hales Division. The meeting is addressing issues of special importance related to critical risks in industrial management, and in this case, in mining.
What is sought with this type of initiative is that all the actors involved can have a common language, understanding that the commitment and effort of all is what will allow to maintain high safety standards, and what is even better, to aspire to have indicators at zero level when it comes to accidents.
From this perspective, MIRS, a leading company in the development of robotic applications, and as an important player in the mining industry, has decided not to be left behind and is actively participating in this Codelco initiative.
As a result of these meetings, 14 critical risks have been identified on which it is necessary to act in a decisive and effective manner. These include intervention in energized equipment, uncontrolled release of energy, not only electrical but also pneumatic and mechanical, contact or radiation with molten material, contact with concentrated sulfuric acid, exposure to dust with silica content above the permissible limit and exposure to inorganic arsenic, all of which can be addressed today with robotic applications designed by MIRS for such purposes.
For MIRS, a company oriented to generate the solutions that the mining and heavy industry need to solve safety problems among others, it is essential to continue developing knowledge, installing the discussion and robotic tools necessary to control the factors called “critical risk” and that today are of concern for mining both in Chile and internationally.
Finally, it should be noted that this type of meeting is an opportunity for the relevant actors in the sector to be aware of the main problems and, based on experiences such as that of MIRS, to understand the solutions that the market offers today for this type of safety and personal care challenges.
Written by rcd_admin, October 18th, 2016 | No Comments »
There is no shortage of challenges that modernity has imposed on humanity, from knowing how to adapt to new production models to rescuing the safety factor as key pieces in this path of modernization.
Throughout modern history, the factor of economic development has been a key element in driving powerful social movements and, therefore, the engine of enormous leaps in the characteristics with which the productive world has coexisted. Moreover, the concept of economic crisis is that he is taking the lead in driving the development of societies, as it can be understood that these same crises are those that have allowed the subsequent prosperity.
Today, we are entering an era of massive transformation, where the spectacular growth of access to technology and new markets defined as far-reaching are driving a new paradigm shift. We are moving from a total dependence on unlimited resources that are not necessarily effective and environmentally friendly to a new way of life that looks decisively towards the efficiency of these resources. Worlds such as the mobile Internet, advanced robotics, new automation know-how, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other technological elements are already transforming our industrial processes.
If we were to dare to take a global look, recognizing processes coming even from the early days of industrialization in the mid-1700s, we can be sure that progress has flooded our societies. Therefore now more than ever; heavy industry and mining have to understand that technology has long been the transforming force of our societies.
In the mining field, where MIRS has established itself as a leader in the incorporation of robotic technology, this point is of vital importance. Since the introduction of the steam engine, and later the combustion engine, giant steps have been taken, transforming the processes from a totally manual industry to a totally mechanized one, which nowadays imply new productive challenges.
It is here where robotic technology has much to contribute both in the construction of the present of mining and heavy industry, as assuming the mission of being a strategic partner for future development, and that comes to confirm the direction that a leading company in robotics as MIRS has been assuming over time, while offering a wide range of robotic applications that can support the future challenges of mining.
Written by rcd_admin, September 23rd, 2016 | No Comments »
The emergence of technological responses to the challenges arising from economic crises has been a tonic in the development of the industry towards the modernization of processes and machinery.
No matter how ironic it may seem, but it is not venturesome to point out that the main lesson learned from the crises that have occurred not only in recent years, but throughout economic history even since the invention of the steam engine in the late 18th century, is that crises are part and parcel of prosperity. From this point of view, crises can be the ultimate expression of the “discovery mechanism”, which necessarily determines the passage to new technological creations.
We are currently witnessing an era of massive transformation where technology is perceived to be growing dramatically and where new mass markets will drive the shift from resource dependence to a new way of life: resource efficiency.
Since the first glimpses of industrialization in the mid-17th century, progress has flooded our society, especially Western society, and this is when technology has become disruptive, influencing or transforming almost every aspect and reality of our industrial operations, the shaping of our societies as well as generating an obvious impact on the lives of all citizens of the world. Examples such as mobile internet, advanced robotics, advanced automation knowledge, internet of things (IoT), cloud technologies among others are already transforming our industrial processes and our ways of life orienting us towards efficiency and resource savings.
Faced with this scenario and today more than ever, mining companies and the industry in general, have to understand that technology has long been the transforming force and the engine to make productive processes bigger and stronger and, therefore, generate a great impact on society. During the development of the pathways to a modern world, access to technology and its incorporation into industrial and economic processes have been very important factors that have managed to separate successful companies from those that have not been able to withstand the changes that modernity and the implementation of technology imply.
END OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE DILEMMA OF GLOBAL PRODUCTIVITY IN THE MINING WORLD.
As history has shown, it is well known that a direct effect of the industrial revolution was that the average economic income of the population began to exhibit an unprecedented and sustained growth over time. Since the industrial revolution, mining has been one of the industries that has benefited the most from the introduction of massive changes to its processes and to improve working conditions, as well as influencing safety and productivity.
Figure 1 Left: lead mining in the upper Mississippi River region of the U.S., 1865- Barber and Howe. Right side: the robotic stripping machine, implemented by MIRS in 2015, is seen at Asarco copper refinery, USA.
The introduction of the steam engine, and later the combustion engine, transformed the entire mining production process from a fully manual to a semi-mechanized process and then to a fully mechanized one. This transformation was a revolution originally led by the workers themselves, one of whom was Aleksei Stakhanov, a Russian coal miner from Donetsk. – Stakhanov. He introduced a method of production by incorporating new mechanical elements, which greatly simplified the heavy labor that characterized the industry in those days. This change allowed the world coal industry to jump from an average of 7.2 tons per shift to 607 tons per shift, increasing production per shift 80 times in less than 5 years.
In Chile, this “robotization” effort has already been initiated. An example of this is Codelco and all other major mine operators that have launched massive programs in the last 5 years to achieve full automation of their transportation systems, as well as the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
MIRS, a Chilean-German company leader in robotics, in a joint venture with BHP Billiton and Codelco has introduced advanced robotic applications to improve process efficiency by improving the quality and stability of the production processes.
Figure 2 – MIRS robot disassembly start-up sheet, Amarillo refinery, Asarco Group USA 2015.
Figure 3 – Robotic MIRS for concentrate testing – Assembly and factory acceptance test for one of its customers at Codelco Mining Corporation. Today and over the last few years, significant cost reductions in robotic systems, together with new advances in control systems and auxiliary sensor systems, have allowed the incorporation of robots for more and more complex tasks, reducing operating costs, improving process safety, reducing the number of hours exposed to hazardous environments, and improving process quality and stability. These are all key aspects of long-term sustainable mining.
Written by rcd_admin, September 13th, 2016 | No Comments »
Mirs is one company that has put the spotlight on this global trend where robotic applications are becoming increasingly affordable and offer long-term savings as well as a range of benefits.
Concepts such as improved quality, increased production and efficiency are present in the day-to-day and challenges that modern industry faces. Those who are responsible for managing these notions should be aware of the solutions that the market offers for better management at all levels, and for this reason we will take a look at the challenges and/or opportunities that the heavy industry market faces and how robotics can become an ally for these challenges.
Reduction of operating costs
At a first glance, it can be pointed out that robots make it possible to reduce direct and indirect costs, which makes a dramatic difference in competitiveness. Let’s take the case of mining and its production process, which involves maintenance work, production and interference in the quality of the final product (copper cathode). Today the Chilean mining industry uses robotic solutions designed and implemented by MIRS, with almost ten years of experience and expertise at the disposal of the heavy industry.
Increasing product quality
In often extreme conditions, heavy industry and mining in particular, must focus on improving the quality of their products. This is where the robotics industry has a lot to contribute in processes that require constant precision and repeatability. These would be tasks inherent to robots meaning that a consistently high-quality finish of the products created can be achieved. The applications that MIRS has developed for this concept aim to eliminate the problems associated with fatigue, distraction and the effects of repetitive and tedious tasks.
Improved production conditions
When it is necessary to focus on improvements in production conditions, it is when the incorporation of robotics into these processes can be most effective, with the understanding that robots can be left running overnight and on weekends with little supervision, which can increase quality levels and meet deadlines committed to customers, and thus ensure an efficient coexistence between production processes and the best possible conditions giving way to new alternatives such as the possibility of programming robots off-line with rapid integration into the normal processes already established.
Improved safety and health in production
With robotic technology, working conditions for personnel involved in the heaviest and most hazardous tasks can be significantly improved. This challenge has been addressed by MIRS specialists who have developed a series of applications aimed at improving safety rates and lowering accident statistics. Thanks to the incorporation of these technologies, workers no longer have to work in dusty, hot or dangerous environments. In addition, by teaching them how to use robots, they can learn valuable programming skills and do work that is more stimulating and challenging.
Collaborate with heavy labor and give continuity to the operation.
Robots can easily take on unpleasant and health-threatening tasks that are currently performed by manual workers. By using robots, the likelihood of accidents caused by contact with machine tools or other potentially dangerous production machinery can be reduced, providing safety in terms of continuity of productive work. Another important factor to consider in this area is the high precision demanded today by industrial processes, where the highest levels of skill and training are required. In this scenario, and in the face of the availability of highly skilled manual workers becoming increasingly difficult to find and more expensive to employ, robots can provide an ideal alternative.
Finally, as discussed in this article, robots are increasingly affordable and offer long-term savings, as well as several benefits, including improved quality, increased production, efficiency, improved health and safety. Robotic automation presents itself as an increasingly attractive option for companies looking for ways to balance greater competitiveness in the face of increasingly technologized markets and seeking to optimize their production processes.
Written by rcd_admin, September 09th, 2016 | No Comments »
The country’s main producing company CODELCO, joins this trend that has already become a focus of foreign investment.
According to an article recently published by the CODELCO EDUCA portal, robotics is one of the key technologies to keep Codelco competitive in the international scenario, where today, more than ever, the technological bet is key.
The era of robotics is already present in many industrial niches, such as mining. In Chile, the main copper company has already taken great steps in this direction with the development and implementation of various automated solutions that have brought answers to problems ranging from the need to streamline production processes to the replacement of labor in tasks that represent a possible risk to people. At this point, it is worth highlighting the strategic role that MIRS has developed together with Codelco as its robotic technology supplier.
One of the technological focuses of application is cleaning, a process that is often complicated in foundries due to the nature of the materials to be treated and the dimensions of the spaces.
To facilitate these tasks, Codelco implemented two robotic solutions developed by MIRS.
The first one focuses on molybdenum roasting furnaces. Here, the machine is synchronized with the rotation of the moving furnace, to thoroughly clean the space between the teeth of the furnace. Its use has facilitated the task of the operators, in addition to fixing the periodicity of the cleaning, which in turn allows a better transport of loads inside the furnace.
On the other hand, Codelco implemented the “Robot for opening and closing passages in melting furnaces” system developed by MIRS. Completely autonomous in its operation, it not only cleans the discharge channel of the flash furnace, but also burns and takes samples, automatically replacing its tools at the end of each task. Its operations are controlled by an independent panel, which can also be commanded from a control room.
Some of its tools, which were also developed by MIRS, are: a lance guide for burning; a gripper, which includes a sensing system to define movements and speed; a hydraulic cylinder for plugging; and a hammer for chopping and sampling the slag at high temperatures.
CODELCO, after implementing this robotic technology in Chuquicamata, assimilated the benefits in its operation, especially for the workers, since it protects them from working at high temperatures, also reducing operational costs and helping to establish a continuous flow of slag, thus increasing the useful life of the equipment.
Worker protection
A factor that is always present in the development of processes and action guidelines is the reduction of risks and the occurrence of labor accidents inside the mine and also during the processing of material, being these some of the main evaluations when it comes to implementing state-of-the-art technology.
Another example of this view within the industry and in relation to the applications proposed by MIRS to address the safety of workers, is the case of the use of a robotic gipper for taking and positioning base plates, located in the Radomiro Tomic mine, a solution implemented by MIRS.
The objective is to spare the operators the difficult and dangerous task of moving the huge and heavy plates. The robotic application, equipped with special sensors and an effective communication system, manages to lift and move the cathodes on its own, maintaining the synchrony of the process, due to its ability to coordinate with the existing automatic take-off machines. This technology not only protects workers and reduces operating times, but also avoids empty spaces in the location of base plates and prevents mistreatment of the steel plates. By way of conclusion and rescuing the guidelines that focus modernization in mining, that is, the safety of people and the incorporation of new technologies to the processes, it can be stated that the industry has begun a phase of great development of tools and processes, which together with improving and betting on productivity come to support one of the most important pillars of the moment, the safety of people, an area in which a technological development company such as MIRS has much to contribute.
Written by rcd_admin, September 02nd, 2016 | No Comments »
Industrial automation is the application of techniques, software and specific equipment to increase efficiency.
When we talk about the need to impact production processes and how solutions are configured to improve capacity, influence accident rates, or even reduce stress or human interference in the production process or the machine involved, is when we must rescue the concept of automation.
Automation comes from the Latin Automatus, which means movement by itself. If we add the idea that industrial automation is the application of techniques, software and specific equipment in an industrial process in order to increase its efficiency, maximize production with a lower consumption of energy and/or raw materials, lower the emission of waste of any kind and improve safety conditions, is when MIRS appears as an innovative manager in these matters.
Ten years after the first robotic implementation by MIRS, and with the enormous development experienced by mankind in terms of formulas, techniques and tools adapted to mining production, today the challenges are aimed at autonomy and perfect coordination of all the elements involved in mining productivity, supported and supported by robotic solutions.
For the mining industry that seeks better methods, technologies and processes to maintain and improve items such as safety, and that has the need to extract and process more competitively, process automation is the answer.
According to Ricardo Cabral, Project Manager, MIRS has developed a series of applications oriented to solve the equation Automation V/S Efficiency, through the participation in the following productive systems and developed to give continuity to the whole process in question, here is a sample of these possibilities:
– MINE
Drilling, Blasting, Loading and Transportation through solutions such as:
Robotic washer- Robotic fuel supplier – Robot to support the change of tires.
– PLANT
Crushing, Grinding, Flotation, Filtration and Dispatch through solutions such as:
Trommel pallet robotic manipulator-Mill liner robotic manipulator- Robot for nut removal and retorquing – Robotic sampler of concentrate in trucks – Robot for safe loading and unloading of acid from trucks.
– FOUNDRY
Receiving and Sampling, Melting, Conversion, Pyro-refining and Molding through solutions such as:
Robotic sampler of samples in maxibags- Robot for opening and closing passages in melting furnaces- Robotic sampler of concentrate in trucks- Robotic assembler of anode packages- Robot for safe loading and unloading of acid from trucks.
– REFINERY
Electrorefining and Electroobtendering through solutions such as:
Robotic cathode stripper- Robotic stripper of initial sheets- Robot for inspection and selection of cathodes- Robot Base Plate Polishing Robot- Robotic Cathode Sorter.
– YARD
Yard and dispatch of trucks and trains through solutions such as:
Robot for cathode inspection and sorting- Robotic cathode sorter.
Along with the development of these robotic applications, the executive states that it is very important not to lose sight of the advances that the mining industry has experienced, since they are a fundamental engine for the continuity of successful production processes, and that today oblige the sector to continue advancing. A study carried out in Japan in 1983 showed that at the beginning of that decade there were some 25 thousand robots in the Japanese nation with a useful life of 6 years, working up to 22 hours a day, 7 days a week. That is, the robot in the 6 years of life would do about 48 thousand hours of work, which is equivalent to the working hours of a person for 30 years.
If we extrapolate this equation to the national reality, the comparisons could be of the following order.
A worker with a useful working life of 40 years, with a working day of 9 hours a day for 5 days a week will be able to reach a total of 80 thousand hours of productive work in a total of 44.5 weeks. To reach the same amount of 80 thousand productive hours, a robot with a working life of 10 years, with a working day of 22 hours a day for 7 days a week will do it in a total of 52 weeks, which corroborates the capacity of the robots produced by MIRS to influence the process in an efficient and solvent way.
Written by rcd_admin, August 24th, 2016 | No Comments »