Removing workers from the line of fire

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When Australia’s mining industry had a distinct lack of jacking equipment, EDMO set their minds on creating well designed, safe and fit for purpose solutions for heavy machinery. More than 50 years later, they continue to research, innovate, and develop better and safer ways to lift heavy equipment and machinery.

We recently spoke to Group CEO Tim Young about EDMO’s beginnings, how to build the right products for the end user, sensor-based technologies, underframe robots, and most importantly, how to keep people safe in an inherently risky line of work.

EDMO was started in the early seventies by the Mott family, and was initially named Storey Steel. They were not only selling steel, but also provided general fabrication and engineering services. It had 48 employees and was, at the time, probably South-East Queensland's largest workshop, particularly for heavy fabrication related activity. The business first achieved entry into the mining sector through winning the initial tender to build the Moura mine (QLD) workshops, which I believe is still standing today.

The next evolution was to get into specialised lifting solutions for heavy equipment, which is what you predominantly see as our core product today. These products were initially designed to aid in OTR tyre removal from Euclid haul trucks which had over 45-inch tyres on them. What the maintenance teams would do to get the tyres off, was back the trucks up onto two tree stumps to raise the rear wheels off the ground to remove them. It would take them a period of three days to remove the four tyres from the one truck. The original owners saw this activity and figured there's got to be smarter ways of doing this, so they designed and developed what was the first EDMO jack, called a BX style, which enabled the maintenance teams to swap the tyres in less than a day. Over time, the jacks use and acceptance became very wide spread on mine sites in Australia and globally, for multiple uses, not just tyres, due to simplicity of their operation and the robust design. In the late seventies-early eighties they diversified into larger equipment in the design, supply and manufacturing of tyre presses from 175 – 400 tonnes.

EDMO has been around for 54 years and has products across the four corners of the globe from India, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, and the United States to name a few. That's a direct testament to the market leadership, product innovation and evolution of the engineering within the business, the passion for the product, the quality that we produce, and all the controls we put in place getting products fit for purpose, with the end user in mind. We've continued to focus on the end user requirements which help the tyre fitters and the maintenance technicians, to make their roles easier and remove them from the line of fire. That's been the ethos of this business since the seventies right up to today and will certainly be the ethos moving forward.

First and foremost, it's about engineering fundamentals and, where possible, removing as much risk during the design phase, through to manufacturing and operations aspects in the use of jacking equipment. To achieve the right design specification, we work with our end users around what precise load caps or application they require the tool for. To reduce operator risk and greater understanding of the application of our product line, we are also creating competency-based training development programs through the use of software solutions and picture process mapping to make sure the end users are operating the tool in the manner for which it's been designed. We're always looking for more innovative and creative ways to enhance safety through different material types, manufacturing methodologies and quality control mechanisms to make sure that when the product leaves the workshop, it has met the necessary engineering design requirements and certificates of conformance. In fact, we're very proud to say that all our systems are tested to 300% of the working load limit as part of our product testing regime.

We are also cognisant that Asset Management methods are making a rapid shift from preventative to predictive based maintenance methodologies and we want to enable increased levels of availability of key assets to support that shift. In doing so, we're undertaking research and innovation of various sensor-based technologies to measure load shift and cyclic counts of our jacking systems to reduce risk and enhance asset availability.

There is no harmonised legislation across Australia as it relates to lifting solutions for tyre bays or specific jacking applications. There are various Guidance documents and Mining Operations Guidelines across the country. However, there is no harmonised Standard that is applicable across all applications and facilities. I think this is where we are trying to take the lead position in aiding mining maintenance teams enhance asset availability through the correct application, safe and effective use and operation of the jacking systems, combined with further understanding of the maintenance intervals of the jacks themselves.

In support of our heavy lifting solutions, we are also exploring the application of underframe robotics, with the combined aim of reducing cycle times for inspections, increasing inspection quality and fleet availability levels. Capitalising on Industry 4.0 and bringing new technologies to market to compliment our heavy lifting solutions is what we’re aspiring towards.

MINExpo is the opportunity for us to harness what other technologies and innovations are out there that could compliment or expand our product and service offering so we can continue to strive for leading practise products in the sector. I'm very conscious that technology is growing at a rapid rate and it’s important that we continually strive for product enhancement through good partnerships and constantly pursuing the Art of the Possible. With a deep immersion for three days in a global forum for the Mining Sector, we can't underestimate the benefit associated with that.