Recently, the author saw in the operation room of the finished product operation area of the titanium beneficiation plant of Anshan Iron and Steel Group Panzhihua Mining Co., Ltd. that the on-duty workers were skillfully adjusting the operating parameters on the computer, controlling the temperature of the boiling furnace, and directing the on-site operators to inspect the relevant equipment. This is a major change after the implementation of the Panzhihua "Integration of Industrialization and Informationization" project of "Construction of MES System and Supporting System of Mining Company Titanium Beneficiation Plant".
The titanium beneficiation plant is an important raw material supply unit of Panzhihua Titanium Industry, and the production of titanium concentrate has reached the world's advanced level. Before the construction of the "Integration of Industrialization and Informationization" project, there was a problem in production management and execution that production operation information could not be collected in real time, shared in a timely and effective manner, and operators at various process positions recorded production data manually on paper while carrying out normal production, which increased the load of job operations, and the real-time and accuracy of the data could not be guaranteed. The previous and subsequent production processes could not be effectively connected in series, and there was a lack of a plant-level manufacturing execution system to support production management. At the same time, the planning and production control of the titanium beneficiation plant at the Panzhihua Mining Company level relied on paper or electronic documents to transmit information, which could not effectively and quickly support the overall and efficient control of the mining company. In response to this, Pangang decided to implement the "integration of industrialization and informationization" project in the titanium selection plant and carry out the construction of MES system and supporting system projects.
The project construction unit set out to fill the gaps in the informatization of the titanium selection plant's production management and the shortcomings of basic automation. By changing manual to automatic, adding on-site detection instruments, and centralized monitoring, the optimization of job positions was achieved. By fully integrating information technology, manufacturing technology, automation technology, communication technology, etc., starting from improving technology, efficiency, quality, management, and benefits, we will create a first-class domestic titanium selection intelligent production line. The business scope of the titanium selection MES starts from receiving the production plan issued by the mining company, through the entire production process, to the sale of titanium concentrate. Under the condition that the equipment of each process is operating normally, the MES system collects and organizes the input-output data and quality data of the process in a timely and accurate manner, and guides each process to organize production strictly according to standard requirements.
The project consists of three parts: basic automation, network video, and MES system. It was approved in July 2018, construction started at the end of December, and the project was handed over for acceptance in December 2019. After commissioning, information interconnection, data sharing, remote operation, and visual management have been realized, alleviating the problem of personnel tension and improving labor productivity.
It is reported that the MES system and supporting system construction project officially put into operation at the beginning of this year has indeed solved the problem of tight production site personnel, but there are still some problems in operation, which need to be carefully explored and gradually improved in the future use process. At present, the plant is optimizing and improving the project in combination with production reality, and doing a good job in data collection and sorting, striving to complete the deep integration of the basic layer and process control layer of the titanium plant with the MES execution layer and enterprise planning layer of the mining company as soon as possible.
