CNC Design - Motion Control Solutions for Mining Applications

Mechatronics company CNC Design has been offering machine tool, electrical drive and automated handling solutions for the mining industry since 1984.

We are a partner for Siemens Industry, drive technology division, as well as systems partner for Swiss-based precision automated gantry systems manufacturer Güdel AG.

Our team of more than 120 dedicated staff is located throughout Australasia and South-East Asia supporting our products and systems.

Consultancy service for expanding mining businesses

Many businesses in the mining sector have experienced unprecedented levels of growth in recent times. Planning for this expansion has been difficult and in many cases this growth has been realised too late, meaning the window of time to invest has been lost.

With the benefit of time to better plan for this growth, businesses may look at investing in faster machines which can deliver a better quality product and/or automating part of their production line to increase efficiency and meet new levels of demand.

Our focus at CNC Design is to work with companies that are either anticipating high levels of growth or are currently operating in an increased production cycle. We achieve this by utilising our machine tool, general drive or automated handling solutions to improve their production efficiencies.

Retrofitting of large mining machine tools

CNC Design is the Australian and South-East Asian distributor for Siemens machine tool products, including SINUMERIK CNC systems and SIMODRIVE and SINAMICS AC servo systems. We provide products, service and engineering solutions to machine tool OEMs and end users in the region.

Retrofitting of large machine tools is one of CNC Design's core business sectors. Over the past 27 years we have completed more 1,500 CNC retrofit projects. Many of these have been for mining machinery OEMs and machinery component suppliers with large tools for machining metal components. Our capability includes complete electrical and mechanical upgrading for all types of machine tools.

Drive solutions for the mining sector

We provide complete solutions to OEMs and end users requiring low-voltage drive systems and motion control or automation systems. Our solutions, based on the Siemens SINAMICS low-voltage drives from 0.3kw to 4MW, include:

• Electrical drive and control solutions for new mining equipment manufacturers, including crushers, tunnel borers, mining conveyors
• Electrical upgrade solutions for mining machinery, such as crushers, conveyors, belt making machinery
• Gearbox full load and spin testers for large gear boxes from 0.1MW to 4.5MW. These meet the requirements for testing of mining conveyor, wind turbine gearboxes, as well as other gearboxes

Automated handling solutions

Güdel Automated Gantry systems are the industry standard for accurately moving large components (50kg to 3,500 Kg). These gantry systems offer major advantages over industrial robots in terms of payload, area coverage and safety. They are designed to withstand the rigors of heavy industrial automation and work equally well in hot and dirty applications, as well as cold room applications.

The Güdel Gantry product is of a modular construction and produced in seven standard size modules to suit applications up to 3.5t. For heavier load carrying applications, special custom-builds can be procured.

The synergy of the Güdel mechanical gantry systems and CNC Design's motion control and automations capability puts us in a unique position to be able to provide fully-engineered automated gantry handling systems. We believe this combination is an ideal fit for the mining sector. Many of the components being manufactured to support this segment are generally quite large in mass and overall size which suits the Cartesian-style gantry handling system.

Güdel gantry benefits include:

• High load carrying capability
• Large area coverage
• Overhead mounting - minimal floor space required
• General installation has less impact on existing equipment
• Access to areas under the gantry for operators
• One, Two and three-axis standard modules available plus gripper axis attachments.
• Güdel also produce a series of robot tracks for moving articulated robots (floor or overhead tracks available)

To support our main areas of discipline, CNC Design can also offer the following services:

• Project management
• Project engineering
• Mechanical design
• Electrical design
• Installation and commissioning
• Mechanical and electrical service and support