Pacific Automation’s Smart Series is eliminating false trips across Australia’s mining industry.
Kilometre-long conveyors dot the Western Australian landscape, moving iron ore from pit to port.
This critical infrastructure basks in the hot desert sun, reaching 45°C or higher before dropping rapidly at night.
Temperature fluctuations like this cause metal throughout the system to expand and contract. When a high level of vibration is added into the mix, it creates the perfect conditions for the wires inside an emergency stop system to cause a false trip.
Pacific Automation product manager for conveyor controls Johan Blignaut said these false trips can cost mines a lot of money in paused production.
“False trips are a very common problem,” he told ABHR. “Some conveyors will have them once every other week, some may be dealing with them every day, or even multiple times per day.
“Once the safety switch has been tripped, it resets itself, making it difficult to find.
“If you have a 10km belt with multiple loose connections, it can cost a lot of money in lost productivity as maintenance teams undertake hours of fault-finding.”
To find a solution to this issue, Pacific Automation has worked with maintenance teams, safety managers, and control system engineers working in bulk material handling operations.
These discussions revealed exactly where standard pull-wire switches fall short and led to the creation of the Smart Series range.
The Smart Series is a modular conveyor safety system that combines pull-wire, drift, rip, slip, and blocked-chute protection into a single, connected platform. The system has several core features that make it perfect for a variety of different locations and situations. These include scalability for longer conveyor systems, no need for an external power supply.
Blignaut said all of the company’s switches are manufactured from high-quality materials and are IP66 or IP67-rated to withstand tough environments.
“Our equipment has never had a contact failure. The chances of it happening are very slim,” he said.
“Because dust cannot enter the components, the maintenance team does not have to open up each box to replace switches. Instead, they can quickly test them during scheduled downtime.
“The quality of our switches and how they are designed is what sets us apart. The switches are engineered to eliminate the problems our clients are facing.”
The Smart Series has also achieved a Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 2 rating. The SIL2 rating is a measurement of a safety system’s reliability, indicating its probability of failure on demand.
Bilgnaut said Australian businesses have come to expect SIL2 ratings for conveyor switches as industries look to improve their site safety.
“Our product is at a level that provides additional safety for the customer, which is important for us. Quality, safety, and reliability are key for us as a company,” he said.
“It’s not just about the cost of a product. We encourage our customers to explore how the system can save time and money over its lifespan.
“Over the past year, we have grown alongside our customers. Trials are ongoing across the country, with mines and ports starting to adopt the system.”