RME wins Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference 2024 Innovation Award

The Award recognises RME’s Advanced Technology Mill Relining System for its use of automation to eliminate the need for crew to enter the mill during liner exchange, delivering significant safety and commercial outcomes for customers and the wider industry.

Furthermore, as RME approaches its 40th anniversary, the Award recognises RME for once again raising safety standards in the mill relining industry, demonstrating its unwavering commitment to safety leadership.

RME Founder, Executive Chairman and Chief Engineer, Dr John Russell celebrated the recognition of RME’s inventive engineers and wider team, along with the contributions from customers and suppliers.

“We extend our sincere gratitude to the judging panel for recognising the significance of this extraordinary achievement by our engineers, project collaborators, industry partners and customers. This innovation marks a new era of safety for reline crews,” said Dr Russell.

“We applaud the many worthy nominees, finalists and the winners of the highly commended and people’s choice awards. We thank the conference organisers and uvex for sponsoring the award.”

This year the conference theme was ‘Back to the Future’, with QMIHSC posing the question, “Can simpler processes coexist with new technology and work methods?” Using real-world examples, RME demonstrated to the judging panel that indeed, it can.

While mill relining is a significantly safer process since the invention of the RME Mill Relining Machine nearly 40 years ago, RME understood from its work with reline crews that some risks remained in certain parts of the process.

With creative problem-solving being core to RME’s cultural DNA, RME’s team worked closely with mill operators and reline crews to identify where these remaining hazardous and manually repetitive tasks could be eliminated or substituted.

RME then worked to ‘engineer the risk out of mill relining’ by roboticising existing, proven, and confidently-used relining systems, engineering faster and safer methods that reduce risks for reline crews and improve mill availability.

Additionally, RME’s modular platform and staged implementation program ensure these methods are readily accessible to grinding mills large, medium, and small.

“The question posed by QMIHSC is one we have constantly asked of mill operators, reline crews, industry technology partners and ourselves over the past 40 years, as we strive to enable our customers to remove fatal risk through innovative solutions,” Dr Russell added.

“At RME, people-centred innovation is a constant. It’s our DNA, our way of being, our promise to our industry and our ongoing purpose – for the hundreds of reline crews we support today and the hundreds to come in the future.

“We are thrilled that our dedication to the safety of mill relining personnel – through combining the reliability of the past with the cutting-edge technologies needed for the future – is gaining recognition.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/27082024/rme-wins-queensland-mining-industry-health-and-safety-conference-2024-innovation-award/