Stockpiles are part of the critical path in the materials handling supply chain. Any efficiency gains related to stacking and reclaiming directly affect profit while indirectly affecting machine maintenance.
A significant barrier to increasing stacking and reclaiming efficiency is often related to unknown stockpile profiles.
MRA has developed a comprehensive Stockpile Management System (SMS) that incorporates fundamental physical principles of material flow together with scanning instruments to deliver an accurate and robust solution. MRA has combined its vast experience and domain knowledge of mobile machine and conveyor control systems to develop a complete stockyard optimisation solution.
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Key Features
- The system is straightforwardly integrated with existing site hardware, control systems and operational database systems
- The system is generic and can be configured for any stockyard layout with any combination of yard machines, this includes the addition/removal of machines
- The basis of the profile model is constructed from machine position information and material properties, which are typically readily available without the addition of new hardware
- The system also accepts optional input from stockpile scanning sensors to refine the stockpile profile
- The stockyard profile can be readily displayed in 3D on most common SCADA visualisation tools (such as Citect and FactoryView)
- The system can be used to simulate different scenarios including new stacking/reclaiming modes
- The system can determine burst out limits, to accurately determine when the bucket wheel will leave the coal to optimize turn around for all reclaiming methods
- Ability to provide volume look ahead for current bucket wheel trajectory, allowing the machine control system to adjust long travel / slew speed accordingly
Efficiency gains
MRA’s Stockpile Management System offers efficiency gains in the following key areas:
- Maximises time in material for reclaiming, and maximises usable volume for stacking
- Irregular stockpile profile detection allows for the elimination of overloading the machine while reclaiming
- Real time stockpile profiling allows multiple machines to simultaneously work on the same stockpile
- Predictable feed rates from optimal reclaiming lead to more reliable down-stream plant behaviour
