ARTICLES

AUTOMATED ANALYTICAL CONTROL SYSTEM AS A TOOL FOR THE EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT

Journal № 2 (13) 2021
The feature of processing and metallurgical enterprises is the instability of the indicators of raw materials-ores and their concentrates. This feature leads to instability of the entire technological chain, which significantly affects the quality of the final product. To reduce this negative impact, it is necessary to monitor continuously the composition of the feedstock, intermediate and final products in the production process, as well as to form controlling and controlling influences aimed at reducing the impact of instability of the feedstock.

At many enterprises, the work of analytical control services is based on the principle of periodic manual sampling of technological products with their subsequent chemical or hardware analysis.
The sampling frequency is usually 1-3 hours. If you add 1-2 hours to receive the results of the analysis, then its data may be delayed relative to the sampling time for a period of 3 to 5 hours. Thus, the resulting delay in obtaining analytical information actually excludes the possibility of forming adequate control actions and leads to significant economic losses.

The solution of these problems is in use of automated system of analytical monitoring (ASAM) at enterprises. Modern ASAM is an integrated complex consisting of technical means, mathematical and software. The complex allows you to perform complex tasks, including:
  • implementation of the processes of automated selection of representative samples of products;
  • preliminary preparation of samples and their transportation;
  • reception and preparation for analysis; express analysis to determine the content of the required chemical elements using X-ray spectral analyzers;
  • processing, storage and transmission of information for process control;
  • formation of the production database of analytical control.

ASAM is a powerful, effective tool for the study of dynamic technological processes, which occupies a leading position in the management of these processes in order to achieve the necessary indicators of product quality, the amount of useful product extraction, reduce energy consumption and increase the environmental safety of production. ASAM acts as an information-providing subsystem of an enterprise’s automated control system (MES, LIMS, ERP) and allows you to transform an enterprise into an observable and managed ecoenvironment.

Promtech Company, which is one of the leaders of the domestic market in the field of telecommunications and industrial automation, based on the analysis of integrated solutions for creating ASAM presented on the market, offers customers solutions based on the use of technical means produced by leading companies of the European and world market – Metso Outotec and Sympatec.

For example, Outotec Courier analyzers, analyzing the metal content at all key points, provide upto-date information about the main indicators of technological processes, and Courier flow analyzers have high performance and allow real-time analysis of up to 24 technological pulp flows, while having high sensitivity and short cycle time.

The granulometric composition of the pulp is crucial for the management of ore dressing processes. Effective control of the process can be achieved only by timely monitoring of the particle size distribution after the grinding stage and allows you to obtain a product with a granulometric composition that is most suitable for the subsequent stage of enrichment. To measure the granulometric composition of the pulp, Promtech uses OPUS analyzers manufactured by Sympatec.

The use of ASAM in processing and metallurgical enterprises has obvious advantages that provide:
  • the improvement of extraction indicators by eliminating technological violations;
  • the quality control improvement of the concentrate and minimizing its undesirable deviations;
  • the accuracy of the analysis, comparable to the accuracy of a normal laboratory procedure performed manually;
  • the cost reduction of analysis by eliminating manual labor.
Thus, ASAM is not only a tool for effective process management, which leads to an increase in product quality, but also a way to economically optimize production at the same time as increasing its environmental safety.