Integrated crushing station control system

• Posted by Mavis Chai Jan 30 Filed in Technology #stationary crushing plant  #crushingequipment  #crushing machinery  21 views
  click to rate

  In the fields of mining, construction aggregate production, and engineering construction, the comprehensive crushing station, as the core equipment for material crushing and processing, has a control system like a "nerve center" that directly determines the efficiency, stability, and safety of the entire production line. Currently, with the deep integration of automation and information technology, the control system of comprehensive crushing stations is rapidly evolving from traditional basic automation to integration and intelligence.

  System Principles and Configuration: The Automation Core of Hierarchical Control

  At present, the mainstream comprehensive crushing station control systems in the market generally adopt the architecture of "centralized monitoring and decentralized control", which can be mainly divided into the following three layers:

  1. Equipment Execution Layer: Composed of various sensors (such as level gauges, vibration sensors, temperature sensors), frequency converters, motor protection devices, and execution mechanisms (such as feeders, crushers, screening machines, belt conveyors), responsible for real-time collection of equipment status and execution of control instructions.

  2. Process control layer: with Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) as the core. It is the "brain" of the system, receiving signals from the execution layer and automatically controlling individual equipment and process sections (such as coarse crushing, medium fine crushing, screening) based on preset logic (such as start stop sequence, interlock protection, load adjustment) to ensure continuous and stable operation of the process.

  3. Monitoring and management team: usually composed of industrial computers (IPC) and monitoring software (SCADA). It provides an intuitive human-machine interface (HMI) to achieve centralized start stop, process visualization, parameter setting, alarm recording, production data report generation, and other functions for the entire station equipment. High end systems have begun to integrate basic production management (MES) modules.

  Performance, Advantages, and Disadvantages: Balancing Efficiency and Intelligence

  Based on the above architecture, modern control systems demonstrate significant advantages, but also face deep-seated challenges.

  • Core Performance and Advantages

  High process automation and stability: It realizes the full process automatic interlocking control from feeding to multi-stage crushing, screening, and conveying, greatly reducing manual intervention and ensuring the continuity and stability of production.

  Key protection and warning: It has complete protection functions such as motor overload, bearing temperature rise, belt deviation, as well as warnings for material blockage in the silo and iron overload in the crusher, effectively improving equipment safety.

  Centralized monitoring and simplified operation: You can have a global overview in the control room, simplifying operations, reducing labor intensity, and facilitating the recording and analysis of production data.

  • Main shortcomings and bottlenecks

  Limited "perception" and "cognition" abilities: The system lacks real-time and accurate online detection capabilities for key process and health parameters such as incoming material particle size, hardness mixing degree, and internal lining wear status of equipment . Control strategies are mostly based on fixed parameters and cannot be dynamically optimized according to operating conditions.

  Insufficient level of intelligence: The adjustment of core parameters such as feed rate and crusher discharge port still heavily relies on operator experience, and the system does not have self-learning and optimization capabilities, making it difficult to always operate within the optimal energy efficiency and product granularity range.

  Information silos and lack of collaboration: Control systems are often limited to a single station and disconnected from upstream mining, drilling and blasting, or downstream yard and loading system data, making it impossible to achieve cross process collaborative scheduling and maximize global benefits.

  Passive maintenance mode: Maintenance work mainly relies on regular maintenance or post failure repairs, lacking predictive maintenance guidance based on real-time equipment health status.

  Future development prospects: evolving towards autonomous intelligence and collaborative operation and maintenance

  The future comprehensive crushing station control system will deeply integrate new technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence, and develop towards a higher level of "intelligent perception, autonomous decision-making, and collaborative operation and maintenance".

  1. Intelligent perception and process adaptive control: By integrating machine vision (online granularity analysis), acoustic sensing, LiDAR, and intelligent wear monitoring sensors, the system will obtain richer production panoramic data in real time. By combining artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced process control (APC) algorithms, it is possible to dynamically predict and adjust feeding speed, crusher parameters, screening efficiency, etc., achieving precise closed-loop control of product particle size and grading and optimal energy efficiency throughout the entire process.

  2. Predictive Health Management and Digital Twin: Based on equipment operation data (vibration, temperature, current, etc.), a digital twin model is constructed. Combined with an AI fault diagnosis model, the system can warn of main bearing damage, excessive wear of lining plates, and other faults several hours or even days in advance, achieving a fundamental transformation from "regular maintenance" to "predictive maintenance" and greatly improving equipment utilization.

  3. Cloud based collaboration and remote intelligent operation and maintenance: with the help of 5G and industrial Internet platforms, the control system data will be uploaded to the cloud in real time. Experts can conduct centralized monitoring, fault diagnosis, parameter optimization, and even unmanned inspections of crushing stations distributed throughout the country in remote operation and maintenance centers. At the same time, the system can seamlessly integrate with the overall production scheduling platform of the mine, achieving intelligent planning and collaboration throughout the entire process from resource models to final products.

  Conclusion

  The control system of the comprehensive crushing station is at a critical turning point from "automation" to "intelligence". The future system will no longer be just an "automated tool" for executing commands, but an "intelligent production partner" that can perceive the environment, analyze data, autonomously optimize, and collaborate. This transformation will profoundly improve resource utilization, production safety, and operational economy, driving the sand and gravel aggregate and mining industries towards a new stage of green, efficient, and sustainable development.