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BMT WBM, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, has announced the successful deployment of its innovative machine health, production and payload management system, the Pulse TerraMetrix RS for Syncrude Canada, based in the Northern Alberta Oil Sands region which produces over 350,000 barrels of oil a day.
Due to high production demands, Syncrude identified the need for a shovel based payload monitoring system to allow operators the opportunity to implement strategic truck loading control strategies. 
Charles Constancon, Director of BMT WBM Canada explains: “Electric rope shovels have become an integral part of open pit mining operations, where rugged reliability, high performance and optimum productivity are key requirements. The Pulse TerraMetrix RS helps to maximise efficiencies with its high accuracy and ability to significantly increase productivity levels – both of which are of vital importance to Syncrude Canada and other mining companies around the world.”
Configured to communicate with any third party truck dispatch system, the Pulse TerraMetrix RS system can be applied to different models of electric rope shovels including P&H4100 and CAT 7495. Recent developments of the system have included a comprehensive machine health monitoring capability using strain sensing transducers placed on the A-frame and boom structures. These transducers allow the system to track boom jacking and adverse swing events, identify alarm events and quantify the mechanical damage per swing cycle. Productivity indicators provide meaningful online feedback to the operator including average bucket/truck payload, overall shift production, swing cycle time, as well as operating and delay times.
The system developed for Syncrude Canada is configured to communicate through the mine wireless mesh to a server located in the mine’s administration offices.
Data is saved in a SQL database and is accessible through an advanced server analysis programme located on the mine’s intranet. This enables maintenance, training and production staff to easily access, process and analyse the data on a shift basis to identify where production shortfalls arise and where further operator training is required.
With over 35 years of experience working in the mining industry, BMT WBM has distinguished itself from the competition by developing the Pulse TerraMetrix RS. Recent studies show that if the operator utilises such a system in order to load effectively with a tight load distribution, productivity benefits of 10% can be achieved.
