The first CSense Process+ user group forum took place at the end of June 2003 at the CSIR conference centre in Pretoria giving users of the system the opportunity to showcase their results to fellow customers and to prospective clients.
The opening address and introduction was conducted by Crusader Systems CEO, Derick Moolman. He highlighted a few key facts about the company, focusing on Crusader Systems being a fully South African technology group exporting its products worldwide. The company has developed the CSense Process+ system among others for the processing industry.
International CSense users include mineral processing giant Outokumpu, based in Finland, well-known process solution providers, Hatch, with headquarters in Toronto and mineral processing solutions company, Bateman. The products are also currently being used for projects by a growing number of local solution providers in a variety of process areas throughout general industry.
CSense Process+ was developed by Crusader Systems to fulfil a need for maintaining process plant base layer control systems. This is a critical requirement for effective and efficient process control. Initial development work began at Impala Mineral Processes UG2 concentrator in Rustenburg, where visionary Brian Talbot saw the need for such a product. As process control manager, Brian is responsible for all levels of process control and after a successful evaluation, he gave the go ahead for CSense Process+ to be installed on all of the plants at the mineral processes complex.
The user group programme of events kicked off with an informative and fascinating look into the optimisation of process control loops. This address, given by control engineering expert, Michael Brown, highlighted the importance of using the information provided by the system to formulate a loop tuning and optimisation schedule.
Johan Rademan, chief engineer for Crusader Systems, who has been involved in several installations of this product, gave a practical demonstration of CSense Process+.
Maintenance engineer from the Chrome International plant in Newcastle, Erich Holm, outlined the cost savings that were achieved at their plant as a direct result of installing the system. They discovered that their control problems could be identified and rectified quickly and with optimised control they would be able to realise cost savings of R200 000 p.a. and reductions in production downtime of at least R300 000 p.a.
The powerful diagnostics provided by this system were shown by Dirk de Wilde from Impala Platinum Base Metal Refineries. He explained that these results were used as the basis for an intensive process control loop optimisation exercise carried out by Michael Brown.
In another area of the plant, information provided by CSense Process+ presented evidence of conflicting control strategies. Based on this information, a new control strategy has been drawn up for implementation on the plant.
The final speaker of the morning was Richard Rule, automation manager from Outokumpu South Africa. His presentation focussed on how CSense Process+ has become part of Outokumpu's global services division plan, an initiative designed to provide its customers with a full service solution from its equipment suppliers.
To round off the seminar, Jacques Ludik, chief technical officer for Crusader Systems, tabled the CSense Process+ development roadmap for comment from the audience. The interaction from the attendees provided very valuable input that will ensure the company and its systems continue to deliver what the customer requires.
For more information contact Rebecca Hope, sales manager, Crusader Systems, 012 347 3110, [email protected]
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