Condition Monitoring of a Mining Quarry for Optimal Production - Application Note

CAS DataLoggers supplied the data logging solution for a major international building supplies provider experiencing regular downtime in one of their mining quarries. Raw materials were constantly moved using conveyor belts throughout the quarry, and evidence of a problem had surfaced when significant discrepancies between the manually-reported stoppages and the material throughput began appearing. To clarify this issue and to identify the cause of these discrepancies, an automated condition monitoring solution was required for the conveyors’ 4-20mA current loop on their belt scales. The solution was required to provide rate monitoring and calculate total tons of material moved per shift. Management needed to compare manually reported stoppages against sensed stoppages and assist in identification of cause. Current throughput monitoring was also needed to enable fast response times to prevent stoppages before they halted production completely. This intelligent solution would also needed to feature versatile communications options including USB data transfer for convenient data retrieval and accessibility and also have the durability to survive the challenging environment.