The client is a leading company of Australia engaged in providing support to coal mining industry.

The client approached Medma for building a system to track and minimize downtime of costly machines in coal mining. They wanted to be notified much before any major break down, which would cost them huge time & cost in doing repairs. These machines are operating up to 350 meters below the earth surface and generate lot of heat & friction so an appropriate system capable of tolerating heat, oil & dirt has to be developed. Also, as these machines are working in far away places so internet was not available in those remote areas. The system should also work in a very high temperature around 200 degree Celsius. The client wanted to monitor all their machines remotely and wanted to get email alerts and SMS of crucial events.

We analyzed and identified the important parts of the machines used in coal mining. We also identified few heat sensors capable of tolerating high temperature and friction. The idea was to reduce the machine downtime and repair costs by capturing the failure early by checking the sensors reading periodically. Once a faulty part is identified & notified to the stakeholder, appropriate plans were to be made for machine inspection and replacing the faulty part. We decided to monitor track pins, rollers and idlers in the mining machine. The temperature measured from these parts was collected in a black box and from there the data is transmitted wirelessly to a remote substation. Based on the temperature readings, we were able to trigger alerts and notifications to stakeholders via email and SMS.

A user-friendly dashboard for tracking faults in assets is now in place which optimizes project productivity & minimizes machine downtime. The stakeholders are able to monitor assets and make plans for repairs and timely service, without any downtime. They are also able to track the location of all their assets without any need to visit location physically. The remote dashboard is accessible 24x7 from anywhere, anytime. Appropriate alerts are being sent through emails and SMS to the designated staff for timely action.

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