Understanding Dropped Object Prevention for Energy Industries
In 2016, dropped objects from Offshore Oil facilities resulted in 255 worker fatalities in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an alarming statistic that made clear the urgency of a curious, but important safety protocol that industries needed to adopt: fighting gravity. However, these incidents are far from inevitable and can be significantly reduced through a robust Dropped Object Prevention program. And, considering the scale and complexity of the energy industry’s operations, these programs became a fundamental piece of Industrial Safety and Risk Management. But what defines a Dropped Object? What is a Dropped Object? [...]
Enhancing Mining’s Risk Management with AI
Properly managing risks in the mining industry isn’t a simple task. Inherently, mining activities are characterized by high structural damage, safety risks, and obstructed productivity. Within this volatile environment, companies still face several limitations that impede effective risk management and safety efforts. For this reason, new methods to optimally control hazards need to be explored by the Mining Industry. This article elucidates the industry's bottlenecks in managing risks and how AI-driven technologies are enhancing current strategies. Concerns regarding risk management in Mining Industries According to the European Commission, risk management of a mine or any other mineral extractive [...]
How AI streamlines mineral transportation
Mining logistics involve managing activities related to the transportation of ore from the mine site to the ore processing plant and eventually to the final customer. In this context, this process consists of transporting large volumes of minerals for thousands of kilometers. According to McKinsey, today’s complex mining value chains are almost inevitably subject to disruption. For this reason, new strategies for streamlining mineral transportation must be developed. However, before delving into the challenges of mineral transportation, we need to understand how the whole process occurs. The mining logistics process Mineral transportation is embedded in the Mining value [...]
Why Reality Capture is a must to report anomalies in industrial inspections
Industrial inspections consist of reporting anomalies to later perform maintenance plans. For this purpose, companies display several methods to inspect assets that can be divided into two major categories: the traditional methods and the digitized ones. In this context, these two groups present clear disparities in the benefits they generate to operators. While traditional methods still expose professionals to risky and time-consuming activities, new digitized ways of capturing reality have intuitively fostered safety and uptime for industrial inspections. Indeed, the new optimized methods of visually inspecting assets have accurately illustrated industrial realities to streamline maintenance actions. Thus, reporting anomalies with [...]
AI-driven Hull Inspections: Streamlining Safety and Efficiency
Vessels are crucial parts of different industrial operations. Considering this, the ship's main body: the hull, must be regularly inspected to ensure high asset integrity, safety, and efficiency standards. Hull damages such as cracks can lead to oil leaks, which can implicate direct emergency costs that surpass USD 50,000,000 according to Brazil's National Petroleum Agency, which is 100x more expensive than the investment to repair the defects on time (before the accident) not including compensations, fines, and asset depreciation. In this regard, hull inspections are a maintenance procedure that helps energy companies and bulk cargo transporters maintain high safety, compliance, [...]
Developing an Effective Corrosion Prevention Strategy for Mining Operations
Intro Corrosion consists of constant material degradation by chemical or electrochemical reactions with its environment. Indeed, heavy corrosion damage can lead to extended unplanned shutdowns, decreased safety, and increased environmental exposure. And, while corrosion progression doesn’t stop, asset activities must be paused to address degradation and anomalies. In this context, mining structures are exposed to harsh environmental conditions, including moisture, acidic or alkaline substances, and abrasive materials, which accelerate corrosion. This being said, developing an effective corrosion prevention strategy is crucial to mitigate the impacts and costs of corrosion. A two-year global study released at the CORROSION 2016 conference [...]
Enhancing Crusher Performance: Overcoming Maintenance Challenges in Mining Operations
In the mining industry, crushers are essential pieces of equipment used to break down large rocks and ores into smaller pieces for processing. These machines have a variety of types and sizes, from jaw and cone to gyratory and impact crushers. These equipment play a critical role in mining operations, enabling efficient processing of materials and ensuring valuable minerals can be extracted from the ore. That means that Crusher must operate at optimal conditions with no window for unplanned downtime or sudden stops. Monitoring this equipment’s performance can be a challenging task. In this blog, we'll discuss the most common [...]
Predictive Maintenance for a more optimized and less expensive mining operation
The hostile environment and complex operation of mining industries are major drivers of the main problems faced by the sector: unplanned equipment downtime and high operational maintenance costs. Because of this, the recent technological advances have begun to deliver more precise solutions to the challenge of keeping up with the industry's demand for its products while seeking to reduce unnecessary expenses in the operation. In this context, the predictive maintenance process will be presented and deepened in order to understand how it can be the solution to increase the efficiency and profitability of mining industries by facilitating data management [...]
Maximizing Efficiency and Safety in Mining Operations with Asset Performance Management
Intro The mining industry is continuously facing the challenges of equipment downtime, high maintenance costs, and safety risks. These problems can negatively impact a mining operation's productivity and profitability. However, asset performance management has been proven to be of great assistance to address these hurdles. The challenges of Mining Industries Mining operations face a number of obstacles related to the management and performance of their equipment and infrastructure. One of the most significant challenges is equipment downtime, which can occur due to a variety of reasons such as equipment failure, lack of maintenance, or unplanned events. Downtime [...]
Driving safety in Mining through Risk-based Inspections
Intro Risk-based inspections are an important method for driving safety in mining operations. Unlike traditional inspections, which are based on a predetermined schedule, risk-based inspections prioritize areas of the mine that are more likely to be susceptible to accidents or incidents. By identifying and mitigating potential hazards, risk-based inspections can contribute to improving safety standards and reducing the likelihood of accidents. One of the main benefits of risk-based inspections is that they allow mining companies to focus on the areas of the mine that pose the greatest risk to workers and the operation. This means that resources can [...]
