3DPM : Automated Particle Size Distribution Measurement using 3D Imaging

New control and optimization possibilities for grinding, crushing, & agglomerating with 3DPM automated online particle size distribution measurement of bulk material on conveyor. 3DPM is used on a range of materials including limestone, coke, iron ore pellets, and metal ores, and for product assessment and automatic control applications.
Innovative Machine Vision (IMV) is a key partner in the development of 3DPM in conjunction with Swedish engineering firm Optimation (formally MBV-Systems). Principal Scientist Matthew Thurley has worked closely with Optimation since 2006 and has been integral in taking 3DPM from research to prototype to commercial product.
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Find out more in these customer examples and videos;
- IGO's Nova mine in Western Australia uses 3DPM's size distribution as input to their model predictive controller for the SAG mill.
- JFE Steel uses multiple 3DPM systems for blast furnace optimization
- Fully automatic control of an agglomeration circuit
- Boliden uses 3DPM to measure the size input to their large autogenous grinding mills and establish an agreed size benchmark between the mine and the mill. Boliden has been using 3DPM since 2012 and have systems across their Tara, Garpenberg and Aitik mines in Ireland and Sweden.
- International Mining Magazine June 2020: Visualising the future of particle measurements with 3DPM
3DPM provides
- Confidence that the measurement is reliable and a realistic representation of the material that was visible on the conveyor at the time of measurement
- Consistent, non-contact, high speed and fully automated
- Accurate measurement of size based on 3D imaging (no scaling and perspective distortion errors)
- Identification of non-overlapped and overlapped particles, mitigating errors from mis-sizing overlapped particles as smaller sizes
- Identification of areas-of-fines mitigating errors from mis-sizing them as large particles
- Reliable measurement as key opposing errors from overlapped particles and areas-of-fines are mitigated
- Reliable, automated, consistent measurement 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- Results that facilitate fully automatic control of particle processes such as; agglomeration, pelletisation, and crushing
- Extremely low maintenance (years)
- Results based on a solid foundation of 20 years of evidence-based research, peer-reviewed publications, products, and industry prototypes by IMV's Principal Scientist Matthew Thurley