At the end of October, our WipWare Technical Specialist had the pleasure of traveling to Western Australia to install our Solo Online Conveyor Particle Size Analysis System at the BHP Jimblebar Mine. With the support and assistance of BHP and the Downer teams, the system was successfully installed with real-time particle  size telemetry being collected.

The team met on the first day for a safety discussion and to visit the location where the Solo System would be installed. Our Technical Specialist also reviewed the installation steps. BHP and the Downer team installed the Solo System and Hood while our specialist concentrated on the camera, verified functionality and collected sample images for setup.

After the set up was completed, a product demonstration  and a quick tutorial  with WipFrag software was done.

The system will be able to detect very subtle changes in material size and shape allowing automation and optimization efforts.

Thank you to everyone for your cooperation with the successful installation of WipWare’s Solo System.

On October 29th, one of WipWare’s Technical Specialists visited the Nickel Rim South Mine to gather information about particle size distribution of the standard run material.  This project was carried out through cooperation with Glencore Canada, Hatch Ltd, Jenike & Johanson Ltd. and WipWare Inc. The companies involved needed data on what material would be carried by the belt, and how the material would be processed. WipWare’s involvement was to gather photographs of the material and determine particle size and shape data through photo analysis with WipWare’s WipFrag software.

The visit to Nickel Rim South Mine was efficient and effective. The information needed was gathered quickly and safely. All parties were very accommodating of the required equipment that WipWare had to bring into the mine to effectively photograph the material. Excellent pictures were taken at the various locations that ensured an appropriate amount of data was collected and analyzed.

A special thank you to everyone on site for accommodating this project.

On Wednesday, August 14^th, WipWare’s Value Added Retailer Technical Liaison, Marty Wanner visited Queen’s University in the beautiful city of Kingston, Ontario.  Marty worked with the Head of The Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining, Takis Katsabanis, and the Bachelor of Mining Engineering Technology students. They completed a hands-on lab that included reviewing manual sieving techniques and photo analysis with WipWare’s fragmentation analysis software, WipFrag 3.

The lab included reviewing the WipFrag iOS App and working with WipFrag for Windows. Also, the lab compared the manual sieve analysis results with the photo analysis software results. Features and benefits of both processes were discussed, and the features of online analysis systems were also reviewed.

Marty very much enjoyed working with the BTech students, learning more about manual sieving techniques, and sharing resources.

Our technical specialists are always available to assist our customers in understanding the capabilities of our systems and software. WipWare prides itself in providing ongoing technical support in-house and on-site. A two-day training workshop on WipWare’s WipFrag software was conducted with Hayden Materials, and host Austin Powder, in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

The WipFrag team visited a local quarry during the workshop. The team demonstrated WipFrag and the use of drone technology. As a result, Hayden Material customers attending the workshop saw the systematic approach to size data collection and the UAV capabilities of the WipFrag software.

With WipFrag, customers can take drone orthomosaic images and analyze these images. This ability gives the customer a full picture of their fragmentation and make quantitative decisions based on these results.

The two-day training allowed new and existing users to explore the capabilities of WipFrag for iOS and Windows and to learn new techniques that can help operators create accurate reliable size data after blasts.

When acquiring image samples each image should:

• Contain an easy to read scale (two for tilt correction). If using two scales, both should be horizontal.
• Be high definition – Not necessarily high resolution.
• Never be taken with a wide-angle lens.
• Contain clearly visible particles (if you can outline each individual particle, the software can too).
• Have consistent lighting – avoid hot spot/shadow areas if possible.

For more information, please read the Sampling and Analysis Guide found on our WipFrag product page.

It’s always nice to be able to take in some local scenery and enjoy the trip, even when it’s business. As our Technical Specialist made his way to the Thyssenkrupp installation site in Lovelock, Nevada, he had the pleasure of enjoying Nevada’s landscape through Reno, Nevada. 

From June 19-21, our WipWare Technical Specialist was on-site at the Coeur Rochester mine site in Lovelock, Nevada to commission the installation of a two-month trial Vertex S System.

Following the installation of the Vertex frame, the camera was focused and the scale was set. Additional installation of the fabric canopy will take place at a later time after lighting has been installed.

The product installed is a Vertex S conveyor particle analysis system. This WipWare technology should perform very well in this application. The system will be able to detect oversize material allowing automation and improve crusher output optimization efforts.

Thank you to the Thyssenkrupp team for working with our technical specialist for a successful installation and commissioning.