Miner reduces downtime with simulation SW

BANGALORE, INDIA: International mining enterprise Anglo American plc has selected engineering simulation software from ANSYS for its in-house consulting and technology division, Anglo Technical Services.

Based in South Africa, the division is responsible for specialized mining technologies that relate to innovation, operational efficiency, best practices, safety and sustainable development.

After an extensive evaluation of available products, Anglo Technical Services made a strategic decision to switch to ANSYS software for all its finite element analysis needs, said a press release.

The suite from ANSYS enables customers to optimize designs throughout the product development process, especially in the early stages when changes can be efficiently and cost-effectively implemented.

Anglo Technical Services plans to leverage structural mechanics and explicit dynamics analysis tools from ANSYS to perform mining equipment failure scenario studies. Engineers will use numerical simulation to help identify the cause of the failure and develop new designs that will prevent future failures – all in a relatively short time, long before final design modifications can be suggested and implemented.

“It is clear that the ANSYS tools will dramatically improve our productivity. This is crucial in the mining industry, where every minute counts when equipment is down due to mechanical failure,” said De Wet Strydom, lead engineer, mechanical engineering at Anglo Technical Services.

He added, “We have found that ANSYS software has already reduced our modeling time significantly.”