The Cathodes System Selection Project, proCCat, was distinguished with the Raúl Sáez 2004 Award . This project consisted in the design, engineering, construction and commissioning of an automatic system for the inspection and selection of copper cathodes according to quality criteria. The initiative was developed by Cerro Colorado with the collaboration from Aplik.
Through proCCat, the quality of a cathode can be characterized according to the attributes that are captured by a high resolution vision system. The project also automatizes the manipulation of the cathodes by handling the packages from before they are inspected to the final stage, where they are separated into packages according to the measured quality. The observation mode gathers and offers that information in order to facilitate decision making in the production process as well as to allow for necessary control actions to be taken.
The engineering design work on this project was done entirely in Chile. The same can be said of its manufacture, proCCat made entirely in mechanical workshops in Chile.
The result was an absolutely new, world-class system for which Cerro Colorado has presented a patent application.
- The use of proCCat has defined a new way to perform mining activities. Some of the benefits of using this technology are:
- A precise and reliable selection process.
- This directly affects the relationship between the mining company and its clients because the product has an objectively measured level of quality. This selection procedure is an innovation in the copper market, giving Cerro Colorado a competitive advantage over other producers.
- Time and cost reduction for the quality selection process.
- The proCCat selection process requires a fraction of the personnel and it is faster than manual selection.
- High quality information to improve the production process.
- The proCCat system provides several statistical reports to characterize quality throughout a given period of time. It is possible to correlate this information with the production process itself in order to plan and assess improvements continuously.
The proCCat project is an application based on CSQA technology. CSQA technology can identify and measure specific characteristics of copper cathodes. These characteristics include roughness, nodules, stains, among otheres. Given that copper cathodes have two very different surfaces (one is smooth and the other is rough) there are important differences in the characteristics that are analyzed on each face. More information.
- The proCCat machine was designed and built to classify and separate copper cathodes according to specific quality criteria. The classification is made by using a high resolution vision system that captures, process and analyzes images of both smooth and rough surfaces of each copper cathode.
The overall functionality of proCCat is distributed in the following subsystems:
- Vision Subsystem
- Captures, processes and analyzes the cathode images.
- Information Subsystem
- Integrates the information from the vision subsystem to determine the class of every cathode. This system also implements all the necessary functionality to generate information for the user interface, as well as to interact with the components that automate the machine's operation.
- Package Feeder Subsystem
- Receives packages of cathodes fed by a fork lift and moves transports them to the cathode feeder subsystem.
- Cathode Feeder Subsystem
- Takes one cathode at a time from the package and puts it on a line to be transported by conveyor chains.
- Conveyor Chain and Vision Subsystem
- Moves the cathodes in front of the vision subsystem cameras so that both faces can be inspected. This subsystem maintains a constant speed during the inspection process.
- Output and Unloading subsystem
- Puts the cathodes in different output piles according to the classification assigned by the inspection. This subsystem also handles each output packages pile so that it may be unloaded from the machine.
- Control subsystem
- Runs and coordinates the machine operation. Interacts with the different actuators and interfaces with the different subsystems. It also interacts with the human operator through the operation console.
In this picture you can see an inside view of the proCCat's control room. This system counts with operating conditions at the level of the world's highest security standards in this field.
