Case Studies

Case study March 10, 2024

Heguang Cloud ore particle-size analytics toward zero-fault crushing production

Efficient, accurate, low-cost ore particle-size analytics for mining through intelligence and automation

Customer background: crushing-line pain in cement ore

— LiDAR + AI vision fusion to break crusher choke and surprise downtime

Conveyor gallery and ore burden

A leading domestic cement producer runs mine-to-mill as mine → crush → grind. In crushing, ore feeds the mill via belt, but two issues persisted:

  1. Hidden equipment loss: worn or failed crusher teeth let >80 mm rock through, jamming the mill—single events cost well over CNY 500k;
  2. Slow manual checks: two-hour spot samples meant ~47-minute average delay before anomalies were noticed.

HEGANG YUNCHANG ore sizing: LiDAR + AI for live particle control

For this line, HEGANG YUNCHANG deployed the intelligent ore particle monitoring system—a three-layer defense:

Field installation and HMI

1. Crusher health watch

  • High-rate LiDAR scans the burden surface at line speed with about ±3 mm class accuracy;
  • AI tracks size distribution—P80 swings over 5% raise automatic tool-change advisories;
  • PLC interlock can trim pressure when oversize is detected.

2. Mill feed gatekeeping

  • Industrial camera at 200 fps covers the belt width with sub-60 ms anomaly cues;
  • Multi-stage thresholds (e.g., <50 mm to mill) can trip pneumatic diverters;
  • 3D contouring estimates equivalent diameter with low false positives.
Field installation and HMI

3. End-to-end data fabric

  • Edge boxes process streams under ~200 ms for closed-loop hints;
  • Control-room twins show size heatmaps, equipment health, and throughput forecasts;
  • History-driven blade change guidance—fault rate down materially in the pilot.

Outcomes: from firefighting to predictive control

After go-live, crushing gained a step-change:

  • Crusher maintenance cost down ~30% with fewer blade-related trips;
  • Production efficiency up ~25% with tighter size to spec and fewer downstream plugs;
  • Manual inspection load down ~90% with remote monitoring.

"HEGANG YUNCHANG's system is like putting a CT scanner on the line—we can see the ore 'internals' in real time and anticipate when equipment might fail. We moved from reactive firefighting to predictive operations."

— Li Zhenhua, production director

HEGANG YUNCHANG ore sizing: core strengths

  • Industrial reliability: IP68-class mechanical design, −30°C to 70°C intent for dusty mines;
  • Models trained on 300k+ ore images for lithology and lighting adaptation;
  • Modular install targeting under 72 hours to first data, PLC/MES friendly.

Core value tags: #intelligentinspection #predictivemaintenance #zerofaultproduction #Industry40

Keywords

Intelligent inspectionPredictive maintenanceZero-fault productionIndustry 4.0

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