Weir Minerals has combined its efforts with industrial software maker AVEVA to form a strategic cooperation for digital services to mining clients.
Under the newly inked agreement, the companies will digitally enable the industry by simplifying data access and data sharing on-site or via cloud integration between Weir Minerals and its customers. A data foundation such as artificial intelligence will be formed to optimize equipment and processes for sustainable performance.
Additionally, the two will examine new digital solutions to support the goals of its common customers with digital transformation and adoption of intelligent solutions.
Specifically, Weir said, it will use the AVEVA PI System to collect, contextualize and analyze data streams, which will become the data foundation of its Synertrex digital ecosystem.
“This – along with AVEVA Data Hub, a cloud-native hub for aggregating and contextualizing on-premises and remote data – will offer the mining industry a unique solution for securely connecting mining operators with Weir Minerals as an OEM,” the company said.
“The business model will provide a variety of flexible integration solutions – from on-premises to cloud – that will make it easier for miners to integrate with the Weir Minerals’ Synertrex digital ecosystem [that] uses a secure and simplified approach to access and share real-time and historical operations data.”
The end result of the shared ecosystem, the two companies said, will give Weir and miners full data transparency and a real-time 360-degree view of all Synertrex-enabled equipment and processes.
Moreover, it will also serve as a basis for further development of digital twins and predictive algorithms to offer decision-makers recommended actions and real-time decision support, offering less power use and water consumption along with longer equipment life.
Weir Digital Ole Knudsen noted that the AVEVA PI system is used by nine of the top 10 Fortune 500 mining companies.
“The proven and secure PI System enables us to build a series of Asset Framework templates for our equipment, making it a secure yet simple plug and play exercise to connect our equipment to our customers’ digital ecosystems. This will enable the critical first steps of a structured and standardized data approach,” he added.
“With the addition of the new AVEVA Data Hub and Weir Minerals’ Synertrex solutions, we’re in a unique position as an OEM to offer our customers a real game-changing approach to a flexible data sharing strategy.”
Source: Weir Minerals