L & L Automation » AS-i

Since 2005 L & L Automation have been system integrators for the IFM product range and have distinguished ourselves as frontrunners in the automation and safe guarding of conveyors in the mining industry by promoting and implementing AS-i Fieldbus.

L & L Automation presented the AS-i field bus to the mining industry (Xstrata and Aquarius) with the intent to replace the customary hardwired safety system with the field bus system. The AS-i field bus system was inaugurated at the Xstrata Kroondal Chrome mine’s first 3 underground conveyors and has since been implemented in the entire mine – including dump conveyors. Our existing installation portfolio includes all AS-i installations at Xstrata’s Waterval, Helena, Thorncliffe, Mototolo North, Mototolo South and Magareng mines as well as Aquarius’s Kopaneng, Simunye, Marikana 4 Shaft, Bambanani and currently the Kwezi shafts.

AS-i enables the retrofitting of belts while running with the new equipment, followed by changeover concurrent with shift change or maintenance days without affecting production:

• The AS-i Master serves as the controller local to the belt sending signals from the master via a fibre profibus network. The latter signals are received by the PLC, acting as an interface between the Masters and the SCADA where all the relevant information is displayed on graphics develop by L & L Automation’s internal developers.

In addition, L & L Automation introduced AS-i to SAB Rosslyn in 2005 during a period where the Amstel brand was moved to this brewery. The duration of time ranging from acceptance of the project to the commissioning was less than two months; the automation directed the civil work and the concluding project automation was accomplished in time – a remarkable achievement ascribed to the modest design and little installation time required for field bus systems.