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Author: Admin | 2025-04-27
Some may still find driverless trucks to be a product of the future – they aren’t. ifm efector systems & IoT manager Freddie Coertze tells Australian Mining the future of the mining industry has already arrived.For Coertze, there is no better time than now for companies to take the training wheels off and jump the gun into autonomous technology, given the current state of affairs.“In the last two weeks of talking to customers, all we talk about now is getting remote monitoring systems on remote critical assets for them because they can’t access the site,” Coertze says.“I really see a change especially in Australia where customers are starting to be more and more open to certain technologies.”Cat 793F autonomous mining truck.ifm offers a huge portfolio of sensor and control solutions for automation across several industries worldwide.The company provides a range of mining-related technologies such as pressure sensors, temperature sensors and flow sensors. Its sensors continue to help mining machinery stay up and running.“One thing that we provide for users is the ability to control and monitor sensors through smartphones and tablets,” Coertze says.“We have a universal technology called IO-Link. Basically, it allows us to unlock all of the trapped information inside a sensor.“For example, if you get a simple inductive Proximity switch, we can now actually read the true inductance of the target coming across and we can then give you the actual distance to a metal target. We can now detect mechanical wear of the target. That means it becomes a lot more valuable than how it was traditionally used before.”The ifm suite software can also run on computers or through a smartphone application. Coertze says this allows mine sites to be monitored from anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection.This gives mine workers the ability to work from home if their mine has adopted specific automation technology.“If we have 20 IO Blocks in the field, we can actually scan the network and it will read all the sensor data directly to your laptop,” he says.“That means a user can actually parametrise and get data and diagnostics straight from the sensors.“Workers can monitor the mine from their home if it has enough of this technology. If you have sensors they become like extra sets of eyes and ears.“If you don’t have a clear view of what’s happening on site, then you can just jump on your computer and you can scan all the devices and see all your instruments.”Maintenance sensors are not all that ifm provides. The company also sells a range of automated vehicle equipment that can be controlled off site.And that might become the norm depending on how long the coronavirus crisis lasts.“We provide controllers for mobile vehicles and also for drill rigs on sites as well,” Coertze says. “We offer a control-based screen for the truck or the mobile rig which will read all the data provided. From there, we send it to a cloud database through a 4G connection where we perform
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