What are the key products & services that your company is exhibiting at Electra Mining?
FLSmidth is exhibiting products that cover the full flow sheet of a minerals plant. Our products exhibited at Electra Mining 2012 span out from mine shaft systems, comminution equipment, minerals processing plant equipment to bulk material handling systems used in ship loaders.

What are its applications?
ICEman is a helmet equipped with a camera and a microphone for communication. The system is used in the cement and mining industries in which FLSmidth operates in. It is FLSmidth’s solution for a global performance and diagnostics centre with a possibility to support customer’s process plants remotely 24hrs/7days/365days of the years. In essence the product is used for supporting customers for equipment inspections, installations and repairs.

What makes the product unique?
What makes the product unique is that it offers FLSmidth the opportunity to offer our customers real time trouble shooting support. In cases there is a breakdown emergency at the plant or process, we are able to help the customer remotely from our Intelligent Collaboration Environment Centre (ICE centre) in real time. With the aid of the ICEman we are able to view what the customer sees at their plant in real time because live video footage from the plant is streamed to our ICE Centre where the ICE Centre operator is able to help the customer. Because the ICEman is also equipped with a microphone, the process operator from the customer’s end can communicate live with our ICE centre operator to explain the problem in detail. Being able to see what type of problem it is, the ICE Centre operator is able to point the right type of required specialist to help the customer with their problem in case they are not able to help the customer themselves. If there is a requirement for the identified specialist to go out to site, they can be better prepared as they would already have an idea what to expect from site.

Where was the product developed?
The product was developed in Europe. It’s a well known technology which has been used by government agencies like SWAT in the US. FLSmidth has simply taken this technology and packaged it in a way that we can offer swift service to our customers.

Has the product been imported or manufactured locally?
The ICEman product is imported. The system is currently put together at our head office in Denmark and sent out to our customers around the world where it may be required.

On which projects, if any, has the product been used successfully?
The product has been used successfully at our operations and maintenance plant in Ramliya, Egypt. Our FLS team onsite were able to get help from specialists sitting in the ICE Centre in Denmark with the aid of the ICEman. Another example where the system will be used is in Iran where FLSmidth will be installing a cement cooler. In this case, FLS specialists will be sitting at the ICE Centre while guiding the installation team onsite in Iran on how to do the cooler installation.

Is the product exportable?
The ICEman is exportable because it comes in a neatly packaged case which contains all the peripherals required to operate the system.

Background on the company marketing the product?
As this is a customer service tool, the company is marketing the product through our customer service division. This is a new concept of offering real time service to customers and the best way demonstrate the system capabilities is by doing a live demonstration.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Right now the product is offered through our Denmark office where our ICE centre resides. There are plans to offer additional coverage in all time zones around the world by having 3-4 regional ICE centres similar to the one in Denmark. With the Intelligent Collaboration Environment Centre, we are able to support our customers swiftly to ensure that they have higher plant availability by minimizing downtime and thereby maximising their plant output.