Michal Szepietowski
Poltegor - Institute
Institute of Open Cast Mining
Wroclaw

COMPUTER SYSTEM SUPPORTING CONVEYOR BELTS MANAGEMENT

Poltegor-Institute cooperatiing with Softprojekt company have developed and implemented in Adamow open cast mine a computer system for conveyor belts management.

The system allows quick and simple access to information and its processing, generating reports, etc. Special software application allows graphical visualization of conveyor system and construction of ring roads.

DataBase

The database has been constructed in a way, which allows acquirying information not only on current state of particular belt section, but also on operations conducted in the past. In order to do this an issue of information storage was split into 3 sections:

• Current information, e.g.: location of the belt, its work duration, amount of regenerations, etc.
• Information on conducted operations, grouped according to the type.
• Additional data file allowing quick restore of historical operations done to the belt.

Following organizational scheme of mine was adopted:

Fig. 1.1 Adamow mine organizational scheme [1]

The conception of database is based on the fact that conveyor belts can be operated in strict inadvance specified way:

• New belts revenue
• Belt comission
• Belt installation
• Belt de-installation
• Creation and liquidation of connections
• Belt cutting
• Regeneration
• Belt liquidation

Beacuse belts are connected alltogether, every operation is done on particular section. All operations target specified locations, e.g. regenreation process may happen only at Belt Regeneration Department.

Data entry

Our software has very expanded interface for data entry. It was developed in a specific way to minimize amount of necessary parameters to be entered by an operator. Data entry was grouped into operations. The operator has to choose action type, belt section, an object if necessary and enter necessary parameters for particular operation.

Below examples of dialog windows executing different operations on belts:

Fig. 2.1 Window of Belt comission operation

Fig. 2.2 Window of Belt cutting operation

Fig. 2.3 Window of Belt installation operation (complex)

Fig. 2.4 Window of Belt de-installation operation (complex)

Reports

This software allows creation of information reports. A set of reports was developed in accordance to client needs. It is possible to prepare report on belts according to specified criterion (Fig. 3.1). This method allows finding particular belt, presentation of information on specified object, searching for belts with specified length, type, etc.

Fig 3.1. Window of Report creation on belts

The software includes following reports:

• Belt history - chronologic report on all operations conducted on specific belt since revenue or cutting (it creates new belt also) until now.
• Report on operations - a list of specific operation (and their amount) conducted on specified object (an open pit).
• Report on work time - belts length in specific open pit or object with similar work time since revenue or regeneration.
• Connection creation confirmation - document relating to creation of specific connection, information on conditions of operation and employees conducting works.

Graphical presentation

The system was equipped with additional software module including graphical presentation of current condition. Due to security issues it does not allow any changes in the database.

Fig. 4.1 Graphical presentation of ring road

It requires manual input on the computer picture of the locations in the area of open pit. Such locations are not stored in the database, but only in separate file on hard drive. An image is multi-layered. One layer can contain a map of the area (bitmap background or AutoCad file). Manually added object have to be linked to physical locations. The software automatically inquires specific data from the database. An object defined in such way can give information on the ring road just with one mouse click! Information graphically presented (Fig. 4.1). The same method allows to access information on specific belt using a ring road image (Fig. 4.2).

All images are vector type and fully editable (line thickness, type, color, etc.) They can be easily transferred through Clipboard (copy & paste) to other software applications, see example in Fig. 4.1. It gives possibility of the same images re-usage in other projects or works.

Fig. 4.2 Window of belt information

Summary

Belts management software is a perfect tool for keeping record of belts used within the mining area. Multi-accessible network database allows dispersed access to information.

In future this software will be developed, so it would fully meet every customer expectations. It concerns especially software application in different types of mines. An existing core of database allows creation of new reports according to client needs. It is also possible to apply this software for using with different types of databases.

An interesting solution would to break the software (data entry) into separate modules for Storage Application, Vulcanization Application, etc. However, creation of such system requires appropriate technical infrastructure and keeping rule of multi-access to database, so it will not allow simultaneous execution of inconsistent operations from different locations.

We wish our software as every industrial application was always up-to-date according to the needs of our customers and provided to all of them as an upgrade package. Such idea will allow continuous use of the system for many years and will prevent against its withdraw, because of being out-of-date.

References

[1] E. Sobczynski, System gospodarki tasm w Kopalni Wegla Brunatnego Adamow S.A., by Poltegor-Institute, arch. no. 4617/IGO.