Improving efficiency with AI in mining and construction

The WearApp™ app has been developed by Sandvik to give its mining and construction customers unparalleled maintenance information about the screening media on their rock processing equipment. Enabled by AI, it accurately predicts wear rates and remaining lifespans. It can be used to prevent unnecessary shutdowns, maintain high production rates, avoid unnecessary equipment replacements and improve productivity levels. It can save customers considerable amounts of time and money.

“It provides the sort of detailed information that has never been available before,” says Matthew Cutbush, Product Manager, Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions. “It therefore enables customers to make decisions they have never been able to make before, about how to operate more efficiently.”

Optimizing maintenance with digital solutions

The app is available as an optional add-on to DeckMapp™, a digital maintenance management tool that provides customers with a single source of information for managing their screening media on site.

After downloading the DeckMapp™ tool from a website, operators can use it offline. This is particularly useful in rock processing sites with little mobile reception. Via different configurations of deck layouts, the maintenance tool gives real time information that all operators can access about the screening media on their vibrating screens.

“Most people use fancy spreadsheets to plan and record their maintenance activity,” says Cutbush. “But the DeckMapp™ maintenance tool helps customers manage their screening media more efficiently. Our biggest machine has 784 screening media panels. This tool helps you make sure that if a panel is wearing, you put a new panel in at exactly the right place."

It can be used to record each maintenance activity in one place that everyone has easy access to, rather than trawling through emails. It saves operators a lot of time and prevents costly mistakes.

Maximizing panel lifespan with AI insights

The WearApp™ app goes even further than this in terms of maintenance optimization. It works through operators taking photos of screening media panels and then uploading those photos onto the app. The AI analyses the photos, measures the size of each of the apertures in the screening media, and calculates various details. These include the life span of the panels and at what level of efficiency the apertures are still operating at.

“It predicts when panels will fail,” says Cutbush. “It makes accurate assessments that are usually made less accurately by humans. These include understanding if panels will or will not need to be replaced before the next shutdown. Making the right decision here can prevent shutdowns or efficiency drops between shutdowns, and prevent unnecessary replacement of panels that are still working efficiently. These decisions can save customers large amounts of money and make operations much more efficient.”

Future of AI in mining and manufacturing

The WearApp™ app was developed inhouse by Sandvik’s AI software engineers. Cutbush believes that the technology can be adopted for use in other Sandvik solutions and has started talking to other product managers. “A great example of its use could be for the maintenance of trucks,” he says. “Using the image recognition, it could calculate if rocks jammed in something like a truck radiator will cause it to fail. But I think there are many ways in which we can use AI in the mining industry and AI in manufacturing to benefit our customers.”
Learn more on Sandvik Rock Processing website