OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
The mining process and conveyor belts transporting coal to the collection site are monitored from the control room.
T e Vršany Lom open-pit quarry
covers an enormous area and mining takes place at several locations simultaneously. T e coal is extracted using large bucket wheel excavators and loaded onto kilometre-long conveyor belts that transport it to the collection site. Some sections of the conveyors are permanently positioned, whilst others are moved as the digging location changes.
Better connected T e entire network is now running entirely on Westermo WeOS- powered devices, consisting of 60 Westermo Lynx switches and 40 Wolverine Ethernet extenders. T e data communication equipment and cabling are installed along the conveyor belts. T is connects several hundred sensors that provide critical operational data to the central SCADA system, which helps to ensure safe and eff ective mining. Fibre optic cables are located inside the permanent conveyors, with the Lynx switches installed in substations at set points along the
conveyor belts. T e fi bre network is confi gured in a ring topology with Westermo’s FRNT super-fast ring reconfi guration protocol providing network reconfi guration times of less than 20ms. “T e fi bre network works fl awlessly.
T e switches and cables have been in operation for quite a while now and have required very little maintenance,” explains Hudský. “T e real challenge is the data communication closer to the actual mining. T is is where operating conditions are really tough due to continuous vibration and electromagnetic interference from the machines. Also, because the equipment needs to be constantly moved this exposes the cabling to constant wear and tear. “We have been familiar with
Westermo technology since the days of short-haul modems,” says Hudský. “When we fi rst introduced to the Wolverine Ethernet Extender we were immediately interested. At that point we were using a custom- made communication device, which was not really suitable for a tough
mining environment. It caused regular network downtime, maintenance and production standstills, which was a completely unsustainable situation. “T e fi rst thing that appealed to me about the Wolverine was that it was able to provide reliable data communication over regular twisted- pair copper cables. We use copper cables because they can withstand a lot more abuse than fi bre before failing, however, when the digging location changes cabling is often bent, cut and sliced, which can reduce the quality of signal. Despite this we are still able to achieve reliable data communication thanks to the Wolverine device, which enables reliable communication even if the copper cabling is not in pristine condition. Secondly, the device had the robust characteristics that are needed to operate reliably in this type of environment. Finally, the Wolverine off ered a lot of functionality, such as super-fast ring reconfi guration, LLDP and SNMP that enabled both a very technically advanced and very robust network solution. “It has been quite a long process of continued improvement to get to where we are right now with the network in terms of functionality and reliability. Last year, I replaced the remaining legacy devices. We are now running the network entirely using Westermo WeOS-powered products and I am very pleased with the overall performance,” says Hudský. He concludes: “We have always looked for that next improvement that will further strengthen the resilience of the monitoring and control system. By selecting Westermo products and utilising the WeOS operating system to its full capacity, Vršanská uhelná will now see many years of robust and trouble-free data communications.” ●
For more information visit
www.westermo.com
www.engineerlive.com 27
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