HIoTee and IoThink deliver the first IoT project via satellite connection in difficult areas

The initial need :

One of HIoTee’s mining customers wanted to do some predictive maintenance on a copper mine site in Chile, in order to reduce its operational costs. As the site was located at high altitude and in an area without any network coverage, the IoT/Satellite solution was the most suitable for digitizing the mine. The priority was to plan the maintenance operations of the cable shovel, initially performed every two months by an external service provider, which would require the total shutdown of the site for 48 hours, representing a loss of production (1 to 3 million dollars per day).

As the site is located in a white zone (remote and difficult area), there was no means of communication to manage the fleet of construction equipment nor to monitor the equipment by analyzing essential data such as tracking routes, fuel consumption, tire condition, maintenance alerts, etc.
Finally, to comply with the regulations in force, equipment for measuring environmental parameters had to be deployed throughout the site and its surroundings.

The IoThink & HIoTee solution and its benefits:

In order to answer this problem, the team created an IoT/Satellite network based on the HIoTee solution.
For the predictive maintenance of the cable excavator, about 50 temperature and vibration sensors were installed at different critical points of the machine. A fixed OmniTee station provided radio coverage of the mine and interconnected the sensors with the satellite.
MobiliTee mobile stations connected to various vibration and temperature sensors were installed on excavators to ensure predictive maintenance.
For the management of a fleet of dumpers, the HIoTrack solution (direct satellite link) was set to allow tracking, geofencing, fuel consumption control, accounting of downtime and waiting time before loading, on site and off site.
Finally, the installation of HIoSense equipment (direct satellite link) on the periphery of the mine allowed the measurement of environmental parameters (such as air, water and soil quality).

Thanks to the KHEIRON interface, the customer was able to :

• Have an overview of the network of installed IoT/Satellite equipment and their status;
• Retrieve temperature and vibration parameters and visualize them as graphs and curves, to extract crucial information;
• Control equipment remotely to trigger alerts and emergency shutdowns;
• Collect environmental parameters in order to have a regular follow-up for generating reports;
• Manage the fleet of construction equipment and create precise geofencing zones;
• Monitor the different equipment installed.

This was the first KHEIRON satellite connection, in white zone to cover the most isolated places. Thanks to the KHEIRON solution, the site has been digitized and can now be managed remotely from any location.