Increase Mining Productivity with MineLink

MineLink is an advanced Mining Fleet Management System (FMS) developed by SNCTechnologies to meet the needs of the mining sector. Delivering increased productivity and higher production, MineLink is a state-of-the-art feature rich system that can be customized to customer requirements.

MineLink FMS has been designed and developed based on SNCTechnologies more than 14 years of experience in the design, implementation, support, and maintenance of mining FMS’s. MineLink easily scales from small to large mines with multiple pits and dumping areas. MineLink is rugged, built specifically to operate in the harsh mining environments. MineLink is designed to be user friendly, and is highly configurable on the fly.

Benefits of MineLink

  • Greater Mining Productivity
    The MineLink Fleet Optimizer is an intelligent automatic dispatcher increasing mine production by reducing loader hangs, truck queues, and truck cycle times. MineLink will make mining operations more efficient.
  • Greater Equipment Productivity
    By increasing equipment efficiency, MineLink will get more production out of your fleet.  Increase production without increasing the fleet size.
  • Greater Manpower Productivity
    MineLink FMS assists operators and supervisors to achieve the highest work performance by automatically assigning the operator to the most optimal loader or dump. Reduce lost manpower time waiting in queues or for the next truck.
  • Lower Fuel Costs
    Typically 30% to 40% of operating costs go to fuel.  10% of this fuel is burned up waiting in queues, or for premature fueling trips. MineLink reduces these losses.
  • Better Management Information & Reporting
    Real-time information and reporting capabilities assist management, dispatchers, and supervisors in achieving their goals. MineLink provides not only “data” but concise and easy to read summary data that allows you to identify and fix problems in real-time, Rather than looking at yesterday’s problems.
  • Reduce Maintenance Cost
    MineLink provides connectivity to CAT VIMS, Komatsu VHMS and other major heavy equipment OEM systems so engine problems can be detected early and before they require costly repairs. Also interfaces directly to: PLM, TPMS, and supports SAE J1939 communications protocol standards. This means that you can monitor and stream engine performance data quickly and efficiently.
  • Complete Equipment Tracking
    Complete mine operations real-time tracking of equipment position, activity, status, production, material, operator login, assignments and engine hours. Complete with automatic truck cycle activity detection. MineLink uses the most up-to-date next generation GPS and OEM interfaces that provide the most accurate cycle timing and activity detection features.
  • Onboard Moving Mine Map Gives the Big Picture
    Operators, dispatchers and supervisors can view a moving map of the entire mine site displaying all equipment in real-time. There are multiple map layers for each type of equipment, dumps, blasts, roads and more. Users can enable or disable layers to suit their preferences or requirements.
  • Easy to Use Interface
    Simple rich information Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the onboard operator unit includes site map, on-board messages back to base, KPI and system information. Customized versions of the onboard GUI feature is available upon request and includes, but not limited to languange, icons and forms.

MineLink is the FMS for today and into the future

The MineLink onboard system consists of a rugged LCD touch screen integrated display and processor, with WiFi communications and GPS tracking capabilities. Operators receive their assignments and update their status with the MineLink onboard unit. The moving mine map display always shows the operator their current position and guides them to their next assignment (loader, dump, etc.). The onboard screen also shows the location of the other equipment around the mine that is installed with MineLink or MineTrack.

Dispatch Control Center

The operational heart of a MineLink fleet management system is the Dispatch Control Center. Here the mine dispatch controllers can monitor all of the equipment throughout the mine in real-time. Alerts for the abnormal conditions like late arrivals and mis-routes flash on the dispatcher’s screen so immediate action can be taken. From the control center, special situations like reassigning trucks to work around breakdowns can be managed. Bottlenecks and delays are easily spotted so that they can be quickly remedied. Decisions can be made and immediately implemented with MineLink FMS.

Real-time KPI’s and Reports

Get complete report data at HQ, in the control center, on your computer, pad, or smartphone.

Report Samples
  • Activity History
  • KPI Dashboard
  • Dump Movement
  • Engine Hours
  • Engine State
  • Equipment Down
  • Equipment Down Current
  • Equipment Status
  • Equipment Status Current
  • Equipment Time Categories
  • Equipment Top Ten States
  • Equipment Top Ten Over Speed
  • Fleet Haul Distance
  • Fuel Summary
  • Loader Activity
  • Loader Activity Summary
  • Loader Lock Summary
  • Loader Operator Performance
  • Loader Summary
  • Material Movement
  • Operator Logins
  • Operator Logins Summary
  • Pre-Start Check
  • Production Summary
  • Shift By Hours
  • Shift Production
  • Status History
  • Truck Average Speed Summary
  • Truck Cycles
  • Truck Haulage
  • Truck Haulage Summary
  • Truck Haul Distance
  • Truck Operator Performance
  • Truck Over Speed Summary
  • Truck Summary
  • Truck Waiting at Shovel Detail
  • And many more can be customised on request

MineLinkMobile – Onboard Interactive Touchscreen

A rugged MineLinkMobile LCD touch screen is installed in the cab of on-site mining equipment. The MineLinkMobile screen displays the real-time information such as cycles, assignments, mine map, KPIs, etc. The onboard mine map provides the operator with awareness of other vehicles that are operating near them, which road/route that they must take and where their assigned shovel or dump is located. The onboard features will also improve the safety at the mine site.

The KPI screen will provide each operator with all of their individual KPI parameters such as number of cycles, tons per hour, cycle time and many more. This will help the operators to increase their productivity.

Tap the KPI icon, to open the Key Performance Indicator screen to display all of the important KPI information specific for that vehicle so the operator can evaluate his individual performance and productivity.

Tap on the Map icon to open the Mine Map view which shows the current mine situation. This includes highlighting the other equipment around the unit and the immediate locations such as blast areas, dumps and workshops etc. This feature provides the “bigger picture” to the operator during the operation of the equipment. The onboard mine map also updates automatically in real-time and will move along as the equipment moves.

Tap the Prestart Check icon to open to the Prestart Check Menu. The operator must go through each of the prestart check items one by one before the system will allow the operator to go to the next screen. this assures that operator is really doing a prestart check.

The button color will change to green if there is a problem with one or more checklist items. Additional comments can be added within each prestart check item and the message will be sent to the Plant/Maintenance Dispatcher.

MineDispatch – Dispatch Center Monitoring Software

Dispatch control center

MineDispatch is the dispatch control for the MineLink system. MineDispatch provides feature rich information and tools to manage the entire mining fleet. MineDispatch allows dispatchers, supervisors and managers to see and visualize exactly what is happening at anytime across the entire mine site in real-time.

MineDispatch provides important information and visualization such as machine position, machine status, machine activity, detailed operator information and accurate measurements of loads, volumes and dumps.

MineDispatch also provides user friendly tools for dispatchers and system administrators it has tools to simply and accurately change the system configuration including creating new roads, new blast/dump locations and boundaries, adding new status information or alerts, adding new material types and many more.

The extremely flexible and interactive MineMap has multiple layers such as GPS history, wireless access point location, landmarks, boundaries and ESRI Shapefiles providing a broad overview of the mine site operations and infrastructure.

MineMap View with ESRI Shapefile Layers in Background

Simply & Easily Change Road Layouts Using Drag & Drop Method

Prestart Check Configuration – Different for Each Tpe of Equipment – Enable & Disable Features

Prestart Notification Message when an equipment operator reports problems

MineView – Reporting System

Having accurate, timely and comprehensive data is vital to any mining operation. However, the ability to access and interpret the data is needed for effective decision making. The MineView Reporting System uses the world standard MSSQL database that allows for easy access to the data for custom data analysis and reporting requirements.

The MineView interface uses SharePoints and SQL Reporting Server (SSRS) making it quite simple for someone with even the most basic reporting experience to do report customizations and create functional KPI Dashboards. The reports are able to be exported to CSV and PDF formats and can be set to be emailed to site Managers or different departments at pre-determined times.

During the project implementation stage SNCTechnologies will review the customer reporting requirements so the customer has the flexibility to determine the reports that will be needed. A SNCTechnologies database analyst will sit with the customer and gather all the requirements and pull together a Customer Requirement document for the reporting system.

The figure below is a customized real-time KPI dashboard developed for a customer.

Additional customized reports are available upon request.

  • Shift Absence
  • Shift Loads
  • Shift Dumps
  • Shift Logins
  • Shift Activities
  • Shift Engine Hour
  • Shift Overspeed
  • Shift Event Logs
  • Shift Messages
  • Shift Prestart Check
  • Summary Report
  • Production Summary
  • Loader Hourly Production
  • Truck Hourly Production
  • Production Summary
  • Equipment Status
  • Shovel Cycle Time
  • Truck Cycle Time
  • Truck Average Speed
  • Fleet Haul and Travel Distance
  • Equipment Status History
  • Summary Operations Cost
  • Operator Performance by Activities and Loads
  • Equipment Availability and Utilization

Below is an Example of a Standard Prestart Check Report

Both of these units were chosen not only based on their unique ruggedness and very high and communications capabilities, but also for their state of the art new generation capabilities and features. To ensure the MineLinkMobile software delivers its best performance, SNCTechnologies though a careful selection process and on-site testing chose two difference on-board LCD computer hardware units.

Onboard Hardware

SNC VMC All-In-One Vehicle Computer with Touch Screen and Multifunctional Tracker

SNC VMC, a new generation 7-inch vehicle mount computer with dual core Intel® Atom™ processor, is designed for transportation applications requiring real-time vehicle tracking. Adopting the latest low power consumption processor and integrating a WVGA LCD with a brightness of 400nits and a 4-wire resistive touch sensor, SNC VMC does not compromise with its space to sacrifice its functional features. It provides dual CANbus, RS-232, RS-485, USB 3.0, GPIO, analog input, PWM and LAN signal. For security, SNC VMC supports real-time vehicle tracking through GPS and SMS/GSM/GPRS. SNC VMC can also be upgraded to a different LCD resolution and include other features such as LTE, projected capacitive touch, CANbus protocol support and backup battery.

SNC VMC All-In-One Vehicle Computer with Touch Screen and Multifunctional Tracker Specifications

 GeneralCooling System: Fanless
Enclosure: Plastic PC + ABS with aluminum die casting heatsink
Mounting: Support VESA 75, stand mounting
Four SMA Type antenna connectors of BT/Wi-Fi/WWAN/GPS
Power Input: 9 ~ 36VDC input with Ignition
Power Consumption: 26W
Ingress Protection: Front panel IP54
Dimension: 213mm (W) x 145mm (H) x 50mm (D)(8.3″ x 5.7″ x 1.9″)
Weight: TBD
 LCD Panel7-inch TFT LCD Panel with LED Backlight
800 x 480 pixels (WVGA)
Brightness: 400 cd/m² (typical)
Contrast ratio: 600:1 (typical)
 Touchscreen Sensor4-wire resistant touch
Anti-glare coating surface
Transmission rate: 78 ± 3%
 CPU And ChipsetIntel® Atom™ Dual Core E3825 1.33GHz
 MemoryOne 204-pin DDR3L 1600MHz SO-DIMM slot (up to 4GB)– Default 2GB
 Expandable Storage1 x SATAIII SATA DOM Slot (available option 16G and 32G)
 Expansion1 x Half mini-PCIe socket (PCIe + USB) for WLAN option
1 x mini-PCIe socket ((USB + UART) for WWAN option)
1 x External module for OBD/Battery module option(UART + USB)
 I/O Interface-FrontF1 ~ F5 functions key
Light Sensor
Internal Mic-in
2 x Built-in 2W speakers
3 x LED indicators (Power mode, Storage and WWAN status)
 I/O Interface-LateralRight side
– 1 x Micro SD card socket
– 1 x SIM card socket
– 1 x USB 3.0 host type A connector
– 1 x Mic-in, Line-out
Left side
– 1 x Power button
– 1 x System reset button
– Volume up/down or Brightness up/down
 I/O Interface-Rear1 x 5-pin Circular connector for Power/Ignition input
1 x RJ45 for LAN
1 x RJ45 for Full RS-232 with 0V/5V/12V power supply (0.5A)
1 x DB9 (Male) for
– RX/TX or RS-485
– 2 x CAN Bus 2.0
1 x DB15 (Female) for
– GPS dead reckoning interface (optional)
– 2 x PWM, 2 x Analog Input, 3 x GPO, 3 x GPI
Analog Input requirement for Voltages are measured
Channel: 8
Voltage range: 0 ~ 38V
Resolution: 8 bit
Analog Input requirement for Frequency, Speed
Square wave
Frequency signal offset voltage range: 0 ~ 15VDC
Protection: +/- 500V spike
Frequency signal duty cycle range: 10% ~ 90%
Communication Module1 x On board GPS module
1 x WLAN or Bluetooth module for optional
1 x WWAN module for optional
Power ManagementSelectable boot-up & shut-down voltage for low power protection
HW design ready for 8-level delay time on/off at user’s self configuration
Power on/off ignition, software detectable
Support S3 and S4 suspend mode; wake on RTC and SMS
 Operating SystemWindows 8 Professional, WES8
Windows 7, WES7
Linux Fedora (kernel V3.2.0)
 EnvironmentOperating temperatures: Ambient with air -20°C to 60°C
Storage temperatures: -30°C to 80°C
Relative humidity: 10% to 95% (non-condensing)
Vibration (random): 3g @5 ~ 500Hz
Vibration
– Operating: MIL-STD-810G, 514.6 Procedure 1, Category 4
– Storage: MIL-STD-810G, 514.6 Procedure 1, Category 24
Shock
– Operating: MIL-STD-810G, Method 516.6, Procedure I, trucks and semi-trailers=20g
– Crash hazard: MIL-STD-810G, Method 516.6, Procedure V, ground equipment=75g
Power Design & ProtectionLoad dump and inductive load protection
Cold cranking protection
Transient voltage protection
Electrostatic discharge protection
 Standards/CertificationsEMC
– CE, FCC class B
Power
– SAE J1113
– SAE J1455
– ISO 7637-2
Safety
– EN 60950-1 LVD

MineLink is Best in Class

Experience

MineLink has been designed by SNCTechnologies dedicated team of hardware and software engineers with many years of on-the-job experience in the mining industry and specific expertise in fleet management systems.

Onboard Equipment Designed and Built Tough for Mining

The MineLink onboard units have been designed and built tough for rugged mining conditions. They include an industrial grade Mobile Data LCD Touch Screen Terminal which has been fitted out with the very latest and smartest Intel Atom processor to exceed the intensive onboard data processing requirements. SNCTechnologies has proactively partnered with an international industrial grade hardware manufacturer to ensure that we have the very best-in-class ion onboard hardware. With over a million of these devices operating throughout the world, these units have had years of in-field experience.

State of the Art Communications

MineLink works with SNCTechnologies MineComm communications system to deliver the highest bandwidth capacity while at the same time ensuring efficient frequency channel usage and smooth vehicle travel with high speed data roaming and handover between communication access points across the entire mine site network.

Latest Advanced Database Technology

MineLink utilizes state of the art database technology for both the server and mobile devices. It is the most reliable database synchronization framework and was designed specifically for mobile devices travelling at high speeds with very high mobility flexibility, low bandwidth power requirements while holding a consistent connection to the server. It uses SQL databases for easy custom report writing.

Continuous Development and Improvements

SNCTechnologies keeps up-to-date with the worlds continuously changing mining technologies. With non-stop product development the improvements are continuously adding more feature rich modules such as proximity detection, fatigue detection, shovel to truck peer to peer communications, harsh brake/acceleration detection, prohibited zones and much more. The MineLink road map is a continuous development cycle. As new features are developed, trialed and tested they will be automatically updated to the current installed site systems seamlessly. This means your MineLink system is never out-of-date.