CRCSI Startup company commercialised laser technologies
Scanalyse Pty Ltd was a start up company arising from CRCSI researchers at Curtin University. It commercialised laser scanning technology to improve the efficiency of various mining and mineral processing operations.
The company’s first product, Millmapper, significantly reduced the maintenance cost of grinding mills by providing unique wear detection, monitoring and predictive intelligence.
Proprietary technology and procedures provide a fast, safe and highly accurate method of detecting and monitoring wear over time to determine optimum replacement rate of mill liners and predict costly liner failure through localised wear patterns.
The procedure uses a high precision terrestrial laser scanner to collect a large quantity of 3D measurements of the feed end, discharge end and shell mill liner surfaces. The data is then processed using MillMapper, a unique software package.
The scanner can be operated remotely, eliminating the need for time consuming and costly isolation and vessel entry procedures required for other inspection methods. The scanning process takes less than five minutes, so it can be easily scheduled around other regular mill maintenance.
"MillMapper is unique in its ability to capture and provide visualisation of very large amounts of highly accurate data and report it in meaningful and valuable way to mining operators"
New products for wear applications were developed with CrusherMapper and TransferMapper now being offered around the globe.
At the time of purchase by Outetec, clients came from over 20 countries and with nearly 40 staff across 5 offices around the globe.
“It is a great move from a Scanalyse point of view as we can now tap into Outotec‘s global network and rapidly expand our reach. This is precisely what the business needs to do. Outotec has a reputation for innovation and high quality technology capabilities and that plays to Scanalyse strengths” said Chief Executive Officer Peter Clarke. “Outotec’s global centre of excellence in grinding is in Perth, and the Scanalyse operations will remain here.”
This is a great outcome for our partners and the CRCSI is proud to have played a critical role in the company’s genesis,” said CRCSI CEO Peter Woodgate.
Peter Clarke agrees, having stated “No CRCSI, no Scanalyse. Simple as that.”
AWARD WINNERS
Scanalyse has won numerous awards including most recently the 2013 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Commercialisation of Innovation.
