Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr
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ABB's Optimization Package Aims to Reduce Costly Process Variability 42 E&MJ; • JANUARY 2016 www.e-mj.com ABB now offers a package of services that the Switzerland-based company said is intended to identify performance gaps in mineral processing and provide solutions to reduce process variations that will help lower operating costs, increase product quality, prevent waste and protect valuable equipment. ABB explained that the package— named PRISE, for Process Improvement Services—recognizes the increasing pres- sures facing human operators who monitor multiple complex processes and predict and control their behavior based on an over- whelming amount of data. The packaged offering removes the problem of operator overload by providing essential information while steering all processes in an optimal way. PRISE can be applied to a variety of mining processes, including crushing, grinding, flotation, thickening, dewatering, leaching or stockpile management. By first analyzing existing processes, ABB experts will determine current levels of performance and deliver a report with an estimate of potential improvements. Because it's critical to know what proper- ties influence process performance, PRISE will also identify missing instrumentation and then provide detailed measurement procedures to ensure that all important ele- ments are being measured. Since only top-performing PID-loops will allow execution of an optimal control strategy, PRISE uses tools and procedures developed by ABB to scan and tune critical loops, setting the foundation for increased overall performance. The final cornerstone of the service is advanced process control to first stabilize processes, then drive them to their per- formance limits in a consistent and perma- nent way. "Reducing variability, while pushing the process to its limits, is not something a human being can accomplish in the same way PRISE can," said Dominik Groenveld, global product manager for PRISE. "PRISE eliminates shift-to-shift variations by per- manently and smoothly controlling plant processes at optimal levels—at all times and in all situations." ABB recommends that a long-term service agreement will ensure that the increased performance delivered by PRISE can be sustained. Siemens Software Streamlines ThyssenKrupp's Plant Engineering Work ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, the plant construction division within the ThyssenKrupp group, has opted to use Siemens' Comos plant engineering and plant management software solution, not- ing that using standard software will enable it to handle global engineering processes and plant management faster and more efficiently. Jens-Michael Wegmann, chief operat- ing officer and director of the Industrial Solutions Business Area, said, "For us, Comos is a future-proof software solution for holistic plant management over the entire life cycle of an industrial plant. Consolidating and harmonizing the IT infrastructure provides us with the basis to make optimum use of global opportunities for growth in plant construction." Siemens explained that Comos provides a consistent system landscape from engi- neering through to operation. According to the company, it enables the user to achieve higher plant efficiency through all phases of the lifecycle, and encompasses process engineering of components and plants all the way through to complete automation including operations relevant to electrical engineering, measurement and control. Siemens also noted that the uniform data platform provided by the Comos soft- ware solution gives plant designers, opera- tors, and installers a seamless flow of pro- ject-relevant data across all company levels and project phases. This facilitates a com- prehensive software solution concept that can be integrated globally. Consistent plant lifecycle engineering with the Comos soft- ware solution intermeshes the engineering and operating worlds to provide holistic plant management over the entire lifecycle of an industrial plant. Workflows become more efficient, productivity and quality in engineering are raised. Plant data is always kept up to date and consistent throughout the entire lifecycle. Integrated engineering reduces sources of error as there are fewer interfaces between the various technical subsystems. It also raises quality in all steps of the engineering workflow and cuts times-to-market by means ABB's PRISE service epackage is designed to eliminate shift-to-shift variations by keeping plant processes at con- stant optimal levels, using tools and procedures to scan and tune critical loops. P R O C E S S I N G S O LU T I O N S