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| CENTRE OF ATTENTION |
The
Atlas Copco facilities in Örebro, Sweden. |
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By
Sverker Hartwig
Vice President,
Research & Development,
Atlas Copco Rock Drills. |
The town of Örebro in central Sweden is not internationally known but
it is rapidly being recognized around the globe as a world centre for
research and development in rock excavation technology. Here's why:
It
has been an exciting and eventful six years since we first began to concentrate
our production, design, marketing, and research and development activities
for Atlas Copco Rock Drilling Equipment to Örebro. It was a bold
move based on an even bolder vision - to bring all our expertise under
one roof and then exploit this combined know-how for the benefit of our
customers.
Judging by the result, there is no doubt that this strategy was absolutely
spot-on! Since 1998, our Rock Excavation Technology Center has been the
catalyst for all of the research and development, marketing and assembly
of drill rigs, for both surface and underground applications, taking drilling
technology to unprecedented heights.
Thanks to this collective "brainpower" the new generation rigs
have enjoyed full-scale improvements, involving numerous innovative developments
that have enabled these machines to become industry leaders and our customers
to reap the benefits of higher productivity and greater efficiency in
drilling operations than was ever thought possible.
And that's not all. As we now plan to relocate our LHD production facilities
from Wagner in the United States to Örebro as well, our control of
the three key functions - drilling, rock reinforcement and hauling - will
be complete and strengthen our position even further as the technology
leader.
So let's take a look at how this competence centre came about.
Foresighted approach
With the production of underground rigs already in place, we took the
decision in 1995 to move the production of all surface drilling rigs to
Örebro as well. This gave us the opportunity to form a collective
knowledge base, drawing on the strengths of both areas, and placing them
side by side under the same roof.
The list of products now under development in Örebro caters to almost
every drilling application within tunnelling, mining, bolting and raiseboring,
and since 1996 nearly 30 different types of new drill rigs have come off
the assembly lines.
In this way, you could say that we have really lived up to our three key
principles - interaction, commitment and innovation - in the best interests
of our customers. But more importantly, our total costs for product development
have decreased significantly during the same period, despite the higher
output, which, in turn, has enabled us to invest even more in the search
for new ideas and cost-effective solutions.
Several factors have driven these successful developments, not least that
we created an R&D organization that for the first time could function
as one entity across national borders, ensuring the development of the
best products possible.
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| Testing
of a Rocket Boomer with RCS system and ABC Total for fully computer-controlled
positioning and drilling. Left, the Atlas Copco facilities in Örebro,
Sweden. |
Enter
the computer!
In 1996 we also launched the ROC F7, which was a clear step forward
for surface crawlers in its day. And the development continued right
up to 2002 with the introduction of the ROC D7 C, the first fully-computerized
surface drill rig. Interestingly, both of these rigs were launched at
the prestigious Con-Agg exhibition in the U.S.
Two years later, in 1998, at Atlas Copco's 125th jubilee, the next generation
Rocket Boomer rigs was introduced with a great fanfare as the first
fully-computerized underground rig series. In addition to the computerized
advantages, the new series also came equipped with a newly-designed
ergonomic operator's cab.
By using CAN-bus technology as the basic platform, we developed the
Rig Control System (RCS) with Advanced Boom Control (ABC) for all of
our modern drill rigs and also provided numerous add-on software tools
such as Tunnel Manager, Measure While Drilling (MWD) and the Drill Plan
Generator system.
As many M&C readers know, the ABC system is available in three levels:
Basic, Regular and Total. Basic has instrumentation for angle measurement
of the boom positions. Regular includes a PC guidance display for positioning
the booms to a pre-selected drilling pattern, with completed holes marked
on the display and individual logging of each round on a PC card.
Once this initial platform was developed, it enabled us to apply the
same system to all of our rigs. Initially built for the Rocket Boomer
rig, RCS was later applied to the Simba, Boltec, ROC D7 C and Diamec
U 6 rigs and this year to the Robbins 97 RL C raiseboring rig.
Since these ground-breaking introductions, several other milestones
have also been reached. In 2001, significant developments and improvements
have been made with the Simba and Boltec rigs where Atlas Copco has
cooperated extensively with the Zinkgruvan mine, in Sweden, just 50
km from the Technology Center.
Modular design
Another key contributor to progress has been the actual design of the
products. For example, there are about 17,700 pieces involved in the
assembly of our latest Rocket Boomer L3 rig. And because of this, we
have invested countless hours in finding the most efficient, cost-effective
method of streamlining the manufacturing and assembly process.
As result, we now have a modular-design concept for all of our products
which means that whenever we upgrade - a cab for one of the rigs, for
example - we are, in essence, upgrading the cabs for all of the rigs
at the same time. Furthermore, the modular system makes it much easier
to modify the rigs to meet customer specifications.
I maintain that to create a very technically advanced and complex product
is a rather simple task. What we are trying to do is create products
that are easier to use and contain fewer components.
Customer gains
Combining all our knowledge and resources under one roof gives us the
opportunity to pass on these benefits directly to our customers in a
more effective manner than ever before.
The standard computer interface on our rigs allows us to easily update
software and provides increased savings and flexibility for our customers.
And with shorter operator training periods, users who can operate one
type of rig can quickly and easily learn to operate another.
As we all
know, time is money, and by relying on computerized systems our customers
are able to produce more during the available work time. The support
systems we provide make it easier to ensure that the operator is doing
the job correctly and data collection is the perfect guide that leads
to better results.
Along with this comes increased precision as accurately placed holes
means less overbreak, which, in turn, reduces the cost of rock reinforcement,
loading and hauling. In tunnelling, the cost of an additional concrete
lining, due to the differences in overbreak, is of the same magnitude
as the cost of drilling and blasting.
As our rigs are designed in a parallel manner, there is greater availability
of common components. This means faster repairs, better service and
maintenance and also allows customers to keep their stocks of parts
on site to a minimum.
Passing the test
In 1997, we began an intensive redesign of the entire production facility
at Örebro. A new, 3,200 m2 central lab was built for the testing
of new ideas and concepts. The lab houses the latest equipment for running
the rigs through rigorous testing at every stage of their development.
Whether it be computerized boom positioning or dropping huge boulders
on the roofs of the cabs, the tests are performed over and over to make
sure that each component of every rig meets the same high standards.
When the drill rig prototypes have been built, they are then put to
the test in drilling applications. Surface rigs are put through their
paces at the outdoor test site located right next to the Örebro
plant while underground rigs are taken to our own test mine in Nacka,
near Stockholm, where they can be tested in "real life" mining
and tunnelling situations.
People make the difference
As only a few of our highly skilled personnel in Stockholm could make
the move to Örebro, we were forced to hire new people. These young,
well-educated people were supported by the older, more experienced employees
and this transfer of experience and know-how has continued.
New horizons
Now we have entered a new era in the way we design and develop products,
from the creation of new ideas, all the way to the final testing phase.
And I am convinced that by combining all of our resources into one location,
Atlas Copco has the cutting edge in product development.
The addition of the Wagner product line will provide us with another
great challenge, giving us the opportunity to apply all the experience
and know-how that has benefitted our drill rigs and other products in
the past few years. We have also made sure that the Wagner know-how
will follow the transfer to Sweden and with this as a base and all the
synergies that exist here in Örebro I am convinced that our Wagner
products will come to dominate the world market.
In spite of it all, the real test of our products takes place after
they have left our hands and go to work for our customers - low height
solutions for the platinum miners of South Africa, drill plan generation
for Garpenberg mine in Sweden, precision drilling with the ROC L8 for
the Chuquicamata Mine in Chile ... the list of where Atlas Copco know-how
is really making a difference is extensive.
We have come so far in the past six years that it has become difficult
to predict where we will be in another six. At Atlas Copco, innovation,
interaction and commitment are our guiding stars as we constantly strive
to satisfy our customers. And in spite of all the products that we have
successfully introduced in recent years, I can assure you that there
is much more in the pipeline. Or to quote Winston Churchill: this is
not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps,
the end of the beginning.
Read
more:
Major
product launches since 1996
Milestones in drilling technology
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