vega using technology to automate mining processes Radar: VEGA’s specialty
Much of VEGA’s reputation around the world is built around their worldclass radars for level measurement. To many customers, VEGA is known as the radar company. VEGA solidified that status when they introduced the latest breakthrough in radar technology: 80 GHz frequency. The latest generation of high frequency radars delivers an enhanced focus and a higher sensitivity, which provides a higher measurement certainty over the entire measurement range. The new technology is allowing radars to make level measurements in applications that were previously impossible. The VEGAPULS 64 and the VEGAPULS 69 are VEGA’s 80 GHz radar sensors. The VEGAPULS 64 measures continuous liquid level, and the VEGAPULS 69 is specifically built for measuring the continuous level of bulk solids ranging in size from large rocks and small boulders to fine powders and ash. This technology makes choosing a level measurement sensor easier than it’s ever been. The VEGAPULS 64 can measure the level of liquids and slurries, and the VEGAPULS 69 can track the level of any bulk solid. As raw materials mix with liquid for processing, it forms a sticky, muddy mixture, and it can be difficult to track the level inside the tank or vessel. One of the largest platinum mines in the world understands this firsthand. In the final concentrate collection tank, water and aeration are used to separate the valuable platinum from the rest of the materials being extracted. The platinumrich mud sticks to everything it touches, including any level measurement instrumentation, which made it difficult to provide a reliable and accurate measurement. Other technologies worked, but those instruments required constant maintenance, which resulted in additional downtime. Once the platinum mine installed a VEGAPULS 64, maintenance and downtime for instrumentation became a thing of the past. The new radar sensor uses a special algorithm built within the electronics to ignore any buildup on the antennae while still being able to reliably make this critical measurement. With a consistent measurement, the risk of overflows and resultant process
The 80 GHz VEGAPULS 69 can accurately track the level in the crusher from a distance because of the narrow beam angle shutdowns were eliminated. Now the process can continue operating efficiently with less downtime and a higher throughput. In the early stages of any mining process, crushers are used to change the size of larger rocks into smaller rocks, reducing them to a workable size. Measuring level in this application is a particularly difficult one for most technologies because of falling materials, dust, debris, loud noises, and moving parts and internal structures within the crusher itself. All of these factors can interfere with a level measurement inside a crusher, which can affect how efficiently the crusher operates. One of the largest aggregate producers in the United States knows all too well the challenges of effectively running a
crusher. At just one of their facilities, operators had been running all fifteen crushers at a fraction of their potential because they didn’t have a reliably accurate measurement. Once they replaced the old measurement technology they had been using for 80 GHz VEGAPULS 69 radar sensors, they realized the full capability of their crushers – increasing throughput by 50 percent per vessel. A small investment in a superior technological solution was able to exponentially increase the bottom line at a single facility. Every mining facility keeps a stock of dry products in storage silos, and monitoring the level in these silos is of the utmost importance for inventory and process control. However, it can be dangerous to send someone to the top of World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com
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