Lynxrail has been selected to install its Automated Train Examiner (ATEx) technology on the new Roy Hill iron ore mining project’s rail line in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The Roy Hill mine project is located in the Chichester Range and has indicated and inferred reserves of more than 2.4 billion tonnes.
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Roy Hill’s 344km standard gauge, single line, heavy-haul railway has been built to transport 55Mtpa of iron ore from the Roy Hill Mine to the dedicated Port stockyard facility, in the Boodarie Industrial Estate south of Port Hedland.
The ATEx will evaluate the condition of key rolling stock components while the trains are running in service, by using edge optics, electronics and machine vision algorithms.
Lynxrail founder and CEO Kris Kilian said: "We started with an idea to extend the life of the ageing ore car fleets that were being used in the Pilbara at the time.
"Roy Hill will be using our Wheel Profile Monitor, Brake Shoe Monitor and the Hunting and Tracking Monitor. We will also be providing an acoustic bearing monitor (RailBam) from Adelaide company TrackIQ, which ‘listens’ for faulty wheel bearings to complement our technology."
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By GlobalDataAt Roy Hill, the optics are mounted at sleeper level and on small towers located next to the track to capture precision measurements of rolling stock wheels to assess their spacing and speed.
Three high-definition images of each wheel are captured at different angles, in addition to two images of the brake shoe, which will be processed on site.
Using automatic equipment identification (AEI) technology, the images will be arranged in a database according to the vehicle number and train.
Hancock Prospecting holds the majority stake in the project with a 70% interest, while the remaining 30% stake is held by a consortia comprising POSCO (12.5%), Marubeni (15%), and China Steel (2.5%).
Image: Roy Hill’s heavy-haul railway will transport 55Mtpa of iron ore from the Roy Hill Mine. Photo: courtesy of Roy Hill.
