Advanced Training Simulation at Mining World Russia

THOROUGHTEC SIMULATION – MARCH 2014

Increase safety, productivity and training while reducing maintenance costs. This will be music to any mine owner’s ears and is exactly what ThoroughTec’s CYBERMINE advanced training simulators are designed to achieve. Potential customers will be able to experience this at the upcoming Mining World Russia at the Crocus Expo in Moscow from 9-11 April. The ThoroughTec team will be on hand for a personal demonstration of the Sandvik DD420 drill rig and CAT 992G wheel loader simulators. You’ll be able to discover first-hand how CYBERMINE simulators can benefit your mine site.

Simulators allow trainee operators to learn all the vehicle’s functions and operating procedures in a safe and controlled environment. Trainee operators can be taught how to deal with advanced emergency situations such as engine fires, tyre bursts and runaway vehicles without harming themselves or the equipment.

The CYBERMINE Simulator System is now in its fourth generation and whether you’re after a surface or underground equipment simulator, you get a highly realistic replica of the cab with fully functional instruments and controls. The replicated cab is mounted on a motion platform capable of imparting three or six degrees of freedom and is surrounded by a 360° panoramic, high-resolution projection display system with surround sound audio.

“Trainees are taught to get the most efficiency out of their vehicles and are continuously monitored during the training process,” says Greg Lew, ThoroughTec’s Executive Vice President of Global Business Development. “Faults and inefficiencies are recorded and can be improved upon through after-action review and analysis. In addition, the production cycle is not compromised by mine vehicles being removed for training purposes.

“A more efficient operator is a more productive operator – greater efficiency means reduced cycle times, more productivity and ultimately a lower cost per tonne.”

Because mine vehicles are being used for fewer training tasks, the associated running costs of training are greatly reduced. Damage and wear-and-tear on mine vehicles decreases as green operators are able to familiarise themselves with the controls of the machines and iron out their mistakes on the mining simulator instead of the real machine. This means less unscheduled maintenance and lower maintenance and training costs.Mining simulators are able to bridge the gap from classroom learning to hot seat training faster by combining visual cues, motion, sound and motor memory with an advanced reporting system to fast track students to the required competency level.

During training, operator errors are identified and recorded so trainees are able to focus on areas where they need to for accelerated improvement and elimination of bad habits.

Simulators can be used for ab-initio training, refresher training, operator screening and evaluation. Simulator based evaluation has many advantages over traditional methods. Operators or potential employees can be assessed in a virtual environment, under typical conditions and can even be exposed to emergency and advanced situations such as brake or steering failure or a tyre blow-out.

“The simulator also provides an unbiased evaluation score, thereby removing human error from the assessment process. This same unbiased evaluation score is also presented at the end of normal training or refresher training sessions. In this way the simulator is used to iron out bad habits and to improve efficiencies,” concludes Lew.