专业论文

Law, K., and Rourke, P. (2005). Flexibility into the Future. Engineering & Mining Journal, 206 (6), pp. 40-42

This article focuses on the new materials handling control system at BHP Billiton Ltd's iron ore terminal in Port Hedland, Western Australia. The Hatch Product Transport System simplifies material routing and allows plant reconfiguration with fewer production stoppages. It includes advanced and innovative process control functions that improve overall plant productivity. The system provides improved plant availability by reducing the downtime required for plant modification, simplifies the process of managing route change over, and staged capacity expansion with minimum disruption to production.

Law, K., and Rourke, P. (2005). Facilitating Continuous Expansion of a Bulk Materials Handling Facility. Iron Ore Conference, Fremantle, Western Australia. 19-21 September

In this climate of increasing demand for commodities, it is becoming necessary to expand and optimise existing bulk material handling facilities in order to increase capacity to satisfy demand. Production capacity in these facilities is often adversely impacted during the expansion process. A successful and proven strategy to reduce this impact is to bring the additional capacity online in stages coinciding with routine maintenance or other short shutdowns. Compatibility of the automation systems with staged upgrades in capacity is the key to achieving a successful outcome. Since 1994, Hatch has been researching a generic, highly configurable product transport control system that can be reconfigured to cater for plant expansions or modifications without incurring significant risk to production capacity. In 2002, BHP Billiton Iron Ore (BHPB IO) recognised the need for such a generic Route Selection and Sequencing (RSS) system and engaged Hatch to build a generic RSS system as part of the $US351 million BHPB IO Products and Capacity Expansion (PACE) project. In 2004, Hatch successfully deployed such a generic configurable control system at BHPB IO Port Hedland Ore Handling Facility. This generic system is known as the Hatch Product Transport (HPT) System.