Method and apparatus for carrying out a quality control

• US 5,079,727 A
• Filed: 06/30/1989
• Issued: 01/07/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu Seisakusho, Koito Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu Seisakusho
• Inventors: Okamoto, Osamu, Yasue, Masahiro, Yamaguchi, Masaaki, Ono, Noriyuki, Sunachi, Yoshiteru
• Primary Examiner(s): Lall, Parshotam S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Melnick, S. A.
• Application Number:
  US07/374,457
• Time in Patent Office: 921 Days
• Field of Search: 364/552, 364/550, 364/551.01, 364/557, 364/478, 73/863.03, 73/863.02, 73/863.01, 73/863, 73/864.34
• US Class Current: 702/84
• CPC Class Codes: B28C 7/0007 Pretreatment of the ingredients, e.g. by heating, sorting, grading, drying, disintegrating; Preventing generation of dust
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4183 characterised by data acquisition, e.g. workpiece identification
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 11/133 with discontinuous action
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 3/14 Quality control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0858 wherein the data carrier is removable
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A system wherein raw material excavated from a plurality of pit faces on a mine are conveyed to and collected at a specific collecting location at the foot of a mountain by a plurality of vehicles and the degree of quality of collected raw material is then properly controlled at the specific collecting location is generally called a mining site control process. To practically execute such a mining control process, the degree of quality of conveyed raw material previously analyzed per each pit face and a quantity of conveyance thereof are confirmed at every time when the raw material is conveyed to the collecting location. Then, the degree of quality of raw material required to be next conveyed so as to allow the degree of quality predetermined as a target with respect to raw material to be collected is determined on the basis of the confirmed degree of quality and quantity of conveyance, and the manner of operating the respective vehicles is determined on a real time base so as to allow the thus determined degree of quality to be realized. When such a manner of operating the vehicles is to be determined, the most effective arrangement is selected for them in view of the representative state of actual operations of the vehicles and their loading capacity. All information in relation to such a mining site control process are electrically processed using a variety of sensors arranged at the respective pit faces and the collecting location, a computer installed in a control center and the like means.

Claims

1. An apparatus for carrying out a quality control procedure for properly controlling a summed degree of quality of raw material at a specific collecting location to maintain a degree of quality of raw material at said collecting location to a degree of quality of raw material predetermined as a target, said raw material being excavated from a plurality of pit faces and conveyed to said collecting location by a plurality of vehicles, comprising:

pit face information setting means arranged at an excavated raw material loading location in the proximity of each pit face, for registering analyzed information concerning a degree of quality of raw material excavated from said pit face as pit face information,

first signal sending means corresponding to each pit face information setting means for sending registered pit face information to a vehicle passage region at the corresponding loading location,

first signal receiving means mounted on said vehicle for receiving information sent from said first signal sending means,

loaded weight measuring means mounted on said vehicle for automatically measuring a weight of loaded raw material and outputting weight information corresponding to a measured value,

conveyance information forming means mounted on said vehicle for integrating the received pit face information and the measured weight information with vehicle discriminating information previously registered with respect to the vehicle to form raw material conveyance information comprising a data set of said received pit face information, said measured weight information and said vehicle discriminating information,

second signal sending means mounted on said vehicle for sending the formed raw material conveyance information to the outside of the vehicle,

second signal receiving means arranged at said collecting location for receiving information sent from said second signal sending means,

collected information forming means arranged at said collecting location for integrating the received raw material conveyance information with discriminating information concerning the collecting location previously registered with respect to the collecting location to form raw material collecting information comprising a data set of said received raw material conveyance information and said discriminating information,

first calculating means for successively confirming at least a degree of quality of the collected raw material and a quantity of the same on the basis of the formed raw material collecting information to calculate at least a summed quantity of collected raw material and a summed degree of quality of the same at the raw material collecting location at every time of said confirmation,

a portable type IC card including writable/readable storing means,

a plurality of sensors arranged on the vehicle for outputting operation information indicative of an operational state of the vehicle as time elapses such as information indicative of an operational state of a conveying operation machine, information indicative of a movement distance and the like information,

an IC card holder arranged on the vehicle and configured to freely removably receive said IC card, for transferring to and storing the formed raw material conveyance information in said storing means in the IC card as required and for successively transferring to and storing latched data in said storing means of the IC card while individually latching operation information outputted from respective sensors on the basis of a predetermined time base, and

second calculating means including a card reader configured to freely removably receive the IC card for executing a required analyzation on the state representative of operation and movement of each vehicle while successively reading the data stored in the IC card to calculate at least a summed quantity of collected raw material and a summed degree of quality of the same per an arbitrary period of time in unit.

2. An apparatus for carrying out a quality control procedure according to claim 1, wherein the information transmitted between said first signal sending means and said first signal receiving means and the information transmitted between said second signal sending means and said second signal receiving means are conveyed through a medium of an infrared ray.

3. An apparatus for carrying out a quality control procedure according to claim 2, wherein said infrared ray is transmitted with a predetermined directivity in which at least the infrared ray transmitted from said second signal sending means is not received by said first signal receiving means of other vehicle so that said second signal sending means and said first signal receiving means do not interfere with each other when the vehicle passes by or gets ahead of the other vehicle.

4. An apparatus for carrying out a quality control procedure for properly controlling a summed degree of quality of raw material at a specific collecting location to maintain a degree of quality of raw material at said collecting location to a degree of quality of raw material predetermined as a target, said raw material being excavated from a plurality of pit faces and conveyed to said collecting location by a plurality of vehicles, comprising:

pit face information setting means arranged at an excavated raw material loading location in the proximity of each pit face for previously registering as pit face information at least information concerning a degree of quality of raw material excavated from said pit face, said information concerning the degree of quality of raw material being previously analyzed,

first signal sending means corresponding to each pit face information setting means for sending corresponding to set pit face information to a vehicle passage region at the corresponding location,

first signal receiving means mounted on one of said vehicles for receiving the information sent from said first signal sending means,

loaded weight measuring means mounted on the vehicle for automatically measuring the weight of loaded raw material and outputting weight information corresponding to the measured weight,

second signal sending means mounted on the vehicle for sending a data set comprising at least the received pit face information and the measured weight information to the outside signal sending means,

first calculating means for successively confirming the degree of quality of the collected raw material and the quantity of the collected raw material on the basis of at least the pit face information and the weight information received by said second signal receiving means to calculate in a real time manner at least a summed quantity of the collected raw material and a summed degree of quality of the collected raw material at the raw material collecting location at every time of said confirmation, and

second calculating means for calculating in a real time manner a degree of quality and its conveyance quantity of raw material necessary for maintaining a degree of quality of the collected raw material predetermined as a target value on the basis of a result of the first calculation, and

radio means for commanding in real time manner the operation of each vehicle on the basis of a result of the second calculation.

5. An apparatus for carrying out a quality control procedure according to claim 4, wherein the information transmitted between said first signal sending means and said first signal receiving means and the information transmitted between said second signal sending means and said second signal receiving means are conveyed through a medium of an infrared ray.

6. An apparatus for carrying out a quality control procedure according to claim 5, wherein said infrared ray is transmitted with a predetermined directivity in which at least the infrared ray transmitted from said second signal sending means is not received by said first signal receiving means of other vehicle so that said second signal sending means and said first signal receiving means do not interfere with each other when the vehicle passes by or gets ahead of the other vehicle.

7. A method of carrying out a quality control procedure for properly controlling the degree of quality of raw material at a specific collecting location to the degree of quality predetermined as a target without requiring previous preparation for operation planning with respect to each of a plurality of vehicles, said raw material being excavated from a plurality of pit faces and then conveyed to said collecting location by the plurality of vehicles, comprising the steps of:

confirming in real time manner the degree of quality of each raw material and a quantity of conveyance of the same at every time when said raw material is conveyed to the collecting location, said degree of quality being previously analyzed with the raw material conveyed from each pit face,

determining in real time manner a degree of quality of raw material and a quantity of conveyance of the same on the basis of the confirmed degree of quality and quantity of conveyance, said raw material being next required to be conveyed for maintaining the degree of quality predetermined as a target with respect to the collected raw material, and

determining in real time manner an operation mode of each vehicle on the basis of the determined degree of quality and the quantity of conveyance.

8. A method of carrying out a quality control procedure according to claim 7, wherein the control of a summed degree of quality of raw material per an arbitrary global period in time unit is carried out in addition to the control of the degree of the quality of raw material in real time manner, said method further comprising the steps of:

recording for each vehicle at least the information indicative of the degree of quality of the conveyed raw material and the information indicative of the quantity of conveyance of the same together with aging information and identification number information of each vehicle into appropriate recording means in each working cycle, and

calculating at least a summed quantity of collected raw material and a summed degree of quality of the same per an arbitrary period of time in unit on the basis of each of said recorded information.