The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame recognizes outstanding achievement in the mining industry, celebrates individual leadership and aims to inspire future generations in mining.

Tom Palangio, President of WipWare Inc, was inducted into the Mining Hall of Fame. SAMSSA presented the award at Dynamic Earth in Sudbury December 5th. After 15 years, Tom decided to retire as President of SAMSSA. SAMSSA honoured him last night at the SAMSSA AGM.

From Humble Beginnings Come Great Things

Thomas Palangio, Chief Technical Officer at WipWare spoke at the induction and had the honour of introducing his father, Tom. Thomas spoke about Tom’s life in the early years including his academic accomplishments and early career. The full speech is available in the here.

Tom’s story began when a couple of Italian immigrants chose to call Northern Ontario home. In 1965 Tom moved to Southern Ontario and dabbled with electrical and mechanical engineering. Also, while there he met and married his wife, Phyllis. Eventually, he completed his education in architectural design and returned to Northern Ontario.

When an opportunity arose with Dupont, he accepted and so began is love affair with explosives. After 27 years with Dupont, later ETI, he became the Technical Specialist. He quickly realized measuring the blast might be lucrative niche in the mining industry. In 1986, Tom Palangio, in collaboration with John Franklin and Norbert Marez created the Waterloo Image Enhancement Process, or WIEP.  John and Norbert worked in Waterloo’s Earth and Computer Sciences divisions. Recognizing the importance and sales potential of their discovery, the trio formed WipWare to further develop and market the technology internationally. 

Tom has taken some leaps

Prior to Tom’s induction into the Mining Hall of Fame, Hugh Kruzel wrote a featured SAMSSA article on October 17th. In this article, Hugh speaks with Tom about the leaps Tom has taken as an entrepreneur and innovator.

When Hugh asked Tom about his childhood, Tom explained how he liked to build things.

“I was always drawn to art, mechanical, electrical and scientific topics at a time when space was in the news. I’m a real boomer. I liked to build things and take them apart and was resourceful, but never thought I’d earn a living playing with the stuff that interested me. Leonardo da Vinci would be my history hero. My teachers said I was “disruptive” and it took me many years to realize that’s a good thing”.

Image Analysis Technology – Mining Industry

In 1995, Tom started Topex Inc – his own explosives consulting firm. Later, he formed WipWare Inc. to commercially market and sell image analysis technology that improves blast fragmentation results.

“The explosives business was ‘booming’ and I worked in Peru, Chile, South Africa, Australia and Hong Kong in the next few years providing training, troubleshooting, blast designs, vibration control, high speed camera work and other specialized services.”

Tom Palangio, President and CEO WipWare Inc.

One thing Tom has always believed in – mentoring newcomers to the world of business because this creates new jobs and he tries to participate in organizations that support this. After 15 years as President of SAMSSA, Tom decided to retire.

Tom has more than 40 years in the mining and explosives industries, over 22 years as an entrepreneur and won various awards and recognitions including: the NOBA Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2003; Export Development Awards in 2001 and 2002; the Ontario Leadership Award in the Provincial Global Traders Award category in 2003; the OACETT Outstanding Technical Achievement Award in 2009; was recognized by PROFIT 500 as being in the top third of growth companies in Canada in 2013 and received the Northern Ontario Business Award for Innovation in 2015.

Throughout this week of November 13-17, O-Pitblast has been lecturing at Blaster University on drone usage. The focus was for Blast and Topography Control. Additional training was on Fragmentation Control by Photo Analysis, Blast Design and Blast Optimization. As part of the lectures, Francisco Leite, Technical Services Director at O-Pitblast used WipWare’s WipFrag software. This software was excellent for demonstrating Blast Optimization and Fragmentation Analysis.

Students had a great opportunity to see how WipWare’s fragmentation analysis software allows instant PSD analysis of digital images. One lucky student will be receiving a full version of WipFrag for Windows free for participating in the workshops.

Thank you again to Francisco Leite for providing this opportunity to showcase our WipFrag software to the Blaster University students.

Dr. Rob Farnfield, Head of Explosives Engineering at EPC-UK busted some rock at WipWare on October 10 and 11th. Tom and Thomas Palangio had a great visit with Rob, gave him a tour of the facilities and discussed future opportunities.

WipWare values our many ongoing relationships with businesses and business leaders in the mining industry all around the globe. It’s relationships like Rob that help WipWare grow and continue to be a industry leader in optical granulometry.

We look forward to continuing and expanding our relationship with Dr. Rob Farnfield.

Tom Palangio attended the Mines and Technology 2017 Conference in Toronto, Ontario. The conference was well attended. Tom was the Session Chair on “The Culture of Mining and the Challenge of Transition” and moderated a panel discussion at the conference around Culture and Mindset Innovation. Participating in the panel were Neil Clegg, Vice President of VIR Electric Inc; Peter Kondos, Senior Director of Strategic Technology Solutions with Barrick Gold Corporation and Nathan Stubina, Managing Director at McEwen Mining.

The Mines and Technology Event in Toronto last week was an ideal venue to hear about innovations in mining from the people doing the innovation. Tom Palangio, President of Wipware shown above with Andrew Reese, Global Industry Mgr. with Endress + Hauser from Switzerland.
Mines and Technology 2017 focuses on a range of topic areas that are of critical interest for the next-generation mine, especially in the areas of digital analytics, data and tracking systems on mines; the role of robotics in future operations and how innovation will be crucial for waste and resource management.

By: Paul Chivers

Blast prediction is tricky business. The variables are many and there are always unknowns. Achieving ideal fragmentation is critical to controlling costs for many operations.

BlastCast, a blast fragmentation prediction module recently introduced as a free enhancement to WipWare’s regarded WipFrag software, is another tool to help clients resolve fragmentation issues. Blast Cast works in conjunction with WipFrag data to help you forecast and move your fragmentation in the desired direction.

You start by entering the parameters of a particular blast. BlastCast will predict the resulting fragmentation in a particle size distribution graph. The next step is to measure the resulting fragmentation using WipFrag software to determine actual fragmentation. Drag the results into the BlastCast window to superimpose actual fragmentation over predicted fragmentation. Now you can adjust the Rock Factor slider to shift the prediction curve towards the actual fragmentation curve.

Once you have calibrated the model, you can experiment with other blast parameter sliders to see how changing the spacing might affect fragmentation or other scenarios. The more you use BlastCast, the more accurate it becomes.
An explanation of the various sliders in the BlastCast module follows:

By default, BlastCast accepts whatever size classes are set in the WipFrag Output Options.

Metric/Imperial Radio Buttons: Choose preferred unit of measurement.

KCO Model – Kuz-Ram Model Radio Buttons: Choose between KCO Model (Kuznetsov-Cunningham-Ouchterlony) containing three parameters – xmax, x50, and xB – based on the Swebrec Function, or, the Kuz-Ram Model, (Kuznetsov-Ramler) containing two parameters – xc and N – based on the Rossin-Ramler Function.

Blast Values Checkbox: Leave on most of the time. Locks top section of interface. When unchecked locks bottom section of interface. 

By: Paul Chivers

Photoanalysis system data can be used for process control or to track relative changes without calibration. However, if your goal is to replace manual sieving then calibration is required. The calibration procedure outlined below is taken from the Calibration Document which is available to photoanalysis system users after logging into the Customer Download Area of the Downloads section of the WipWare website.

Calibration is the final step for system installation and cannot occur until all hardware and software adjustments have been characterized. These include mechanical setup; optical adjustments; scale settings; trigger settings; image quality settings and edge detection parameters. If any of these variables change, the system will require recalibration.

STEP 1: Stop Belt (perform a crash stop)

Once a system has been characterized and the process is running normally calibration can begin. Note that calibration is only effective if the material is unaffected by external variables not related to normal production (i.e., slower belts, partial process shutdown, etc…).

STEP 2: Image Material

In Delta, snap an image of the material. Save the image as ‘Calibration 1.bmp’ and close it. Place a scale reference (ruler, card, paper … of known dimensions) on top of the material in the viewable area. In Delta, snap another image and save it as ‘Scale 1.bmp’ before closing it.

STEP 3: Take Material for Sieving

In Delta, open the live image view. Find and mark the upper and lower limit of the viewable material on the belt. Remove the entire sample for sieving. Do not use coning, quartering, or riffling. The whole sample must be sieved.

STEP 4: Restart Belt & Sieve

All information has been gathered and your process can be restarted. Sieve the material before proceeding to next step.

STEP 5: Set Scale Factor

In Delta, open ‘Scale 1.bmp’ and set the scale using the scale reference of known length. Because the image was opened from a file, be sure the ‘Source’ is set to ‘Image File’. Close ‘Scale 1.bmp’.

STEP 6: Set EDPs

Open ‘Calibration 1.bmp’. Open the Options menu to get to the ‘Edge Detection Parameters’ tab and take note of which EDP preset is selected for the camera you are calibrating (i.e., Camera 1). Change the ‘Source’ to ‘Image File’ and select the same EDP preset from the previous step.

STEP 7: Set Size Classes

Select the ‘Output’ tab and take note of which Size Class preset is selected for the camera you are calibrating. Change the ‘Source’ to ‘Image File’ and select the same Size Class preset from the previous step. Make sure there is no calibration preset selected. Hit Apply and OK to save your changes.

STEP 8: Get Delta Values

Hit the ‘Generate Net’ button. Hit the ‘Sieve’ button. Take note of the following values: n, Xc, b, Xmax, X50. Save the chart as ‘Delta 1.bmp’. 

STEP 9: Enter Data into Calibration Sheet (See image to the right)