Judging from interactions with mining customers at Electra Mining Africa 2022, Weir Minerals Africa notes that there is a growing demand for digital integration, which provides mines with data to develop strategic improvements to their operations.

“Several customers spoke about the need for real time management of important operational parameters at their operations. Mines are moving away from human assumptions to using actual data points for tracking key indicators that make equipment reliable,” says Tiisetso Masekwameng, General Manager – Comminution at Weir Minerals Africa.

To respond to this growing need for digital solutions, Weir Minerals Africa showcased its Synertrex® intelligent platform which provides mines with insights into actual costs of running their plants, data to develop strategic improvements to mining operations and the opportunity to performance benchmark every part of their operations.

“Synertrex is a complete digital ecosystem that continually monitors equipment’s performance and integrates with customers’ distributed control systems. This means that advanced analytics are conveyed through a digital interface, making sure our customers have all the indicators delivered to their devices with accuracy and in real time, even if they aren’t at the mine” explains Masekwameng.

As part of Synertrex® condition monitoring, she adds, sensors are applied to processing equipment and the data they provide is captured and continuously analysed. Customers are therefore able to eliminate guesswork from their operations by having detailed real time insight into how their equipment is performing. Information is displayed on a simple, easy to understand dashboard which can be accessed via any device or integrated into existing operational systems. It will convey real time fact-based insights into machine performance and health, remaining useful life and other crucial operational indicators.

“As mining companies redefine their investment strategies, the Synertrex intelligent platform can help customers transform their operations. This is because it also assesses their machinery’s performance, including potential improvements, such as optimising the equipment’s energy efficiency or throughput. The Synertrex intelligent platform remotely manages maintenance from monitoring wear and tear, to scheduled servicing and repairs, to keep mining equipment at its most productive, thus ensuring maximum equipment uptime and profitable operations for mining companies,” concludes Masekwameng.

Dar Es Salaam Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (DAWASA) has awarded Metito, a leading provider of intelligent water management solutions, the contract to design, build and operate a new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Dar es Salaam region, Tanzania

Construction is expected to commence in April 2023, with the commissioning date set for October 2024. (Image source: Metito)

Located in the Mbezi Beach area, the 16,000 cu/m per day wastewater treatment plant will have state-of-the-art engineering and technologies to enhance operational and maintenance costs, improve sludge quality, and minimise the overall carbon footprint. Additionally, the plant will be designed in almost half of the allocated area, optimising land usage and maximising savings.

Metito’s scope of work involves three years of operation and maintenance for the wastewater treatment plant with the full participation of DAWASA staff members in all operational sections of the treatment plant. Metito will utilise conventional activated sludge technology and implement anaerobic digestors to produce biogas followed by Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generation system which will reduce electric power consumption by almost 40% at ultimate plant capacity. Metito will also use the sludge anaerobic digestion process in the first treatment phase to ensure the sludge is stabilised and the quality of the sludge is maintained.

The Mbezi Wastewater Treatment project will contribute to Dar Es Salaam region’s sustainable economic and industrial development by creating skilled jobs and safeguarding the health and well-being of the community by providing efficient wastewater treatment.

Karim Madwar, Metito Africa managing director, said, “The project is a true milestone towards modernising Dar es Salaam’s wastewater system and bolstering the resilience of its water infrastructure, all while safeguarding its natural ecosystems. Metito’s founding principles are Impact, Sustainability, and Innovation, and this project ticks all the boxes. We are proud to be working with Dar Es Salaam Water Supply and Sanitation Authority on this project and are looking forward to making this a benchmark to similar projects in the region.”

LITEF has received ETSO certification from EASA for its LCR-110 GNSS-aided Inertial Reference System (GIRS).

The certification of the LCR-110 includes the ETSO-C201 for the AHRS functionality and – as an essential component and for the first time for LITEF – the ETSO-C196a. The latter allows the user to perform so-called RNP (Required Navigation Performance) procedures, for which the LCR-110 monitors the horizontal position and provides the user with information about the trustworthiness of the navigation data.

“We are very pleased that we have now received ETSO certification from EASA. This is a great achievement for the whole project team and for LITEF. Another milestone has been reached and we can now extend our product portfolio with a cost-effective inertial reference system”, says Klaus Blatter, Product Manager Commercial Aviation at LITEF.

LCR-110: The ideal solution for Performance Based Navigation

The LITEF LCR-110 is a low cost, small size, low weight inertial reference system based on MEMS accelerometers and fiber optic gyroscopes. In addition to heading, attitude and navigation data for use in fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, it provides a navigation solution based on Kalman filtering of raw inertial and satellite navigation data that facilitates improved integrity monitoring of the GNSS information (Aircraft Autonomous Integrity Monitoring – AAIM). Based on its high-class inertial sensors the LCR-110 continues navigation and integrity monitoring even after loss of GNSS information. It is therefore the ideal solution for executing cost and time-optimized flight paths as part of Performance Based Navigation (PBN) with enhanced reliability, worldwide and at any time.

With its low cost and weight saving design the LITEF LCR-110 is the ideal alternative to classic IRS/INS and it therefore facilitates more reliable NextGen and SESAR operations of aircraft that are usually not equipped with such systems.

The LCR-110 IRS satisfies the certification requirements defined in FAA AC 90-101A and EASA AMC 20-26 for performing RNP-AR flight procedures (RNP <0.3 nm) and has been certified according to ETSO/TSO-C201 and ETSO/TSO-C196a.