ABB now offers a package of services that the Switzerland-based company said is intended to identify performance gaps in mineral processing and provide solutions to reduce process variations that will help lower operating costs, increase product quality, prevent waste and protect valuable equipment.
ABB explained that the package—named PRISE, for Process Improvement Services—recognizes the increasing pressures facing human operators who monitor multiple complex processes and predict and control their behavior based on an overwhelming amount of data. The packaged offering removes the problem of operator overload by providing essential information while steering all processes in an optimal way. PRISE can be applied to a variety of mining processes, including crushing, grinding, flotation, thickening, dewatering, leaching or stockpile management.
By first analyzing existing processes, ABB experts will determine current levels of performance and deliver a report with an estimate of potential improvements. Because it’s critical to know what properties influence process performance, PRISE will also identify missing instrumentation and then provide detailed measurement procedures to ensure that all important elements are being measured.
Since only top-performing PID-loops will allow execution of an optimal control strategy, PRISE uses tools and procedures developed by ABB to scan and tune critical loops, setting the foundation for increased overall performance.
The final cornerstone of the service is advanced process control to first stabilize processes, then drive them to their performance limits in a consistent and permanent way.
“Reducing variability, while pushing the process to its limits, is not something a human being can accomplish in the same way PRISE can,” said Dominik Groenveld, global product manager for PRISE. “PRISE eliminates shift-to-shift variations by permanently and smoothly controlling plant processes at optimal levels—at all times and in all situations.”
ABB recommends that a long-term service agreement will ensure that the increased performance delivered by PRISE can be sustained.
