As an industry leader in fragmentation analysis, WipWare has been recognized internationally for its expertise in fragmentation and explosives technology.

In the Summer 2018 edition of Mining Life and Exploration News, SAMSSA was interviewed on their role in promoting Northern Ontario businesses for the mining sector and related clients. For 15 years, the Sudbury Area Supply and Services Association (SAMSSA) has been a major advocate for the Northern Ontario innovative supply and services sector.

Our company was mentioned in the Summer 2018 edition of Mining Life and Exploration News as a major contributor to innovation/leadership globally. A proud member of SAMSSA, we continue to innovate and improve our products to stay current and provide the best fragmentation analysis systems and software on the market.

From the article, WipWare was mentioned as an innovative company who “invented optical granulometry at the University of Waterloo more than 30 years ago with the creation of WIEP (Waterloo Image Enhancement Process), later renamed WipFrag. The commercial introduction of WipFrag in 1986 positioned the company as the industry leader in optical granulometry of fragmented material”.

WipWare continues to improve their systems and software to help companies save millions of dollars by preventing equipment down-time, improving productivity, enhancing personnel health and safety and optimizing processes.

For more information on our products and services, visit our website at www.wipware.com

At the CIM 2018 in Vancouver, President of WipWare, Tom Palangio sat down with Jerrod Downey of Crownsmen Partners. They discussed Automatic Real-Time Fragmentation Analysis and the changes that technology is bringing to the mining industry.

How WipWare got its Name

One of the questions frequently asked is how the name WipWare came about. The WIP stands for Waterloo Image Process – take a picture of broken material and get engineering data from it. Tom and some Waterloo colleagues developed the technology that WipWare uses today in their WipFrag real-time fragmentation analysis software. 

Before technology like WipFrag, you’d look at a blast and have to visually try to determine if it was good. Another method was to stop the belt and take a manual sample. Then, wait for the sieve results which could take hours, even days. So, by the time the results came back, they weren’t actionable and this was an ineffective method. With WipWare’s fragmentation analysis systems and software, you get real-time results immediately to make quantitative decisions to improve your processes. 

Cutting Edge Technology

In the past, “it has been difficult to introduce new technology into a traditional business”. The mining industry “hasn’t always been receptive to change”. With remote sensing, robotics and automation becoming common technology, WipWare’s real-time fragmentation analysis systems and software is on the cutting edge of this new technology.

Now, the mining industry is becoming more receptive to automatic processes. Tom explains, “Our technology allows you to measure material in real-time. If you’re off spec, you can adjust it and it’s not disruptive”.  Imaging, computer and sensor technology has really improved. Tom states, “We thought creating the data…was a reason for being…but it’s getting the data to the people that can act on it”.

Mobile Device Compatibility

Two years ago, WipWare decided to integrate the technology onto mobile devices and introduced WipFrag iOS. There were over 5000 downloads in 18 months and WipFrag iOS is now available through the App Store.

The mining industry is not the only industry that our technology can be utilized. Other industries include medicine, agriculture, chemical industry and the explosives industry just to name a few – anywhere that you have materials and want to detect contamination.

The applications are numerous and it’s always exciting to find new applications for WipWare technology.

WipWare’s Chief Technical Officer Thomas Palangio and Technical Specialists Kevin Rivard and Marty Wanner had the pleasure of working with some guests from SNF Group, demonstrating aerial imagery with drones and applications with our WipFrag photoanalysis software. Visiting our facility Wednesday May 30^th were Philippe Galy-Jammou of SNF France and Bruno Cote of SNF Canada.

It was a great opportunity to showcase the capabilities of our WipFrag software and how it can be used with drone technology. With the use of drone technology, drone orthomosaic images of a muck pile can be taken and analyzed to give a complete picture of our customer’s blasts.

It was a great opportunity to showcase the capabilities of our software and we look forward to working with Philippe and Bruno in the future.

Janice Leuschen interviewed Tom Palangio, President of WipWare for The Canadian Mining Journal in their February/March edition located under the Sudbury Innovation Cluster section on Innovation and Commercialization.

In the article, Tom speaks about WipWare’s WipFrag software and the ability to measure a blast. “For us to be able to measure it in real time, actually opened a whole bunch of doors to the automated process.”

He believes that the market for new products and services for mines is opening. “NOW IS THE TIME”.

It has been difficult, in the past, to get mining companies to look at new technologies to improve their processes. The Commercialization gap has makes it challenging for inventors to convince mines to use their new inventions. 

In the mid-1990’s, Tom paired WipFrag software with his consulting services. This provided a great opportunity to show the mining industry how the software works giving tangible results. Due to an agreement with his former employer, Tom was not allowed to sell his WipFrag software domestically. As a result, Tom travelled extensively throughout Panama, Peru, Chile, South Africa and Australia. The international mining industry is more receptive to new innovations and technology. 

In 1998, Tom started selling domestically and has continued, to this day, to expand into the North American market. 

You can read more on this interview on page 49-51 for the full article.

WipWare is pleased to announce that we have signed an agreement with Haver & Boecker OHG in Oelde, Germany to handle our products. Haver & Boecker is a leading manufacturer in processing, storage, mixing packing, filling, palletizing and loading systems. The company’s mission is to deliver the best of these technologies to the marketplace.
See their website here: Haver & Boecker Canada

“One of their divisions, W.S. Tyler is renowned for their standards in screen media and it is a complementary and natural fit to be working together to characterize materials,” says Tom Palangio, President of WipWare.

The company founded by Carl Haver and Eduard Boecker in 1887 has been producing products for quarries, sand and gravel, fertilizers, paint, powder coating, chemical and pharmaceutical companies and the food industry – Haver & Boecker analytical equipment is used in almost all areas of industry.

On December 6th Wipware signed a license agreement with Datamine to support and distribute WipWare software products and services globally.
“We are extremely happy to work with Datamine as our vision and plans are closely aligned and we have much to gain in working together,” said Tom Palangio, President of Wipware.

With a global presence, Datamine provides solutions ranging from exploration data management and orebody modelling to mine planning and operations. These solutions are provided to over 1,600 companies around the world. Their software solutions integrate with consulting and training services to ensure that clients are provided with industry-leading support and expertise.

Established in 1981, Datamine revolutionized the industry as a pioneer of 3D computerized resource modelling and estimation tools. Over a period of 30 years Datamine became a leading supplier of geology and mine planning software. In 2010, CAE Inc purchased Datamine and Century Systems Technologies. They made significant investments to create an end-to-end portfolio of products and developed several new products. One of these included the innovative Summit cloud-based technical mining platform. In July 2015, Constellation Software Inc (TSX: CSU) acquired Datamine, Canada’s largest software company. Building on their history of domain expertise, coupled with CSI’s deep capabilities in the software industry, Datamine continues to develop the mining industry’s most advanced range of technical software and complementary services.