Will robots rule the high-risk areas?

Will robots rule the high-risk areas?

It’s likely that we’ll see robots working in the high-risk areas in the not-too-distant future.

By Leon Louw founder of WhyAfrica and Endorphin Expeditions and editor of the WhyAfrica magazine

It may not be time yet to fully replace mining technicians with robots, but there’s certainly potential for automation to play a bigger role.

If it’s up to John Martin, Vice President of tyre management company Kal Tire in Southern Africa, the shift could happen sooner rather than later.

“Robotic systems will enhance safety and efficiency in the mining industry while allowing technicians to transition to more strategic or oversight roles,” Martin tells WhyAfrica in a recent interview.

“Automation and robotics are exciting developments that we’re looking at quite seriously so that we can remove humans from the machine interface and therefore reduce risk,” says Martin.

Kal Tire at the forefront of adopting technology

Although Kal Tire has always been at the forefront of adopting new technology and innovation to improve not only the workplace for technicians in terms of health and safety, but also for mining companies to improve efficiencies and increase profitability, Martin feels that the adoption of technology by the tyre management sector has been slow.

“A lot of innovation has happened over the last ten years. However, I feel that the industry in general is still behind where we should be by now,” he says.

Kal Tire is upping the ante to develop new technologies to further improve its offerings. Since introducing its Innovation Centre in Canada ten years ago, Kal Tire has made exceptional strides in revolutionising tyre management functions.

Whether robots will ever fully replace technicians remain to be seen. Tyre technicians have specialised knowledge of tyre maintenance, including managing specific brand needs, pressure settings, wear patterns, and even responding to irregularities that robots might not immediately recognise.

While humans can adapt to complex, unforeseen circumstances, robots might struggle without the right programming or real-time adaptability. The one thing it will do though is to remove humans from a hazardous working environment.

Reducing risk for tyre technicians

According to Martin using robots in the danger zone doesn’t necessarily mean that technicians become redundant. “Technicians could transition to roles focused on managing and maintaining the robots, and overseeing the automation process,” he says.

Working close to mining’s biggest tyres, is not for the faint hearted. According to Kal Tire’s most recent white paper titled “Under pressure: Innovation is key to safer mining tire service work” there were more than a dozen fatalities related to servicing mining tyres between 2018 and 2023.

Martin says that collaborative research and development of tools, practices and systems are needed to reduce risk for mining technicians.

The sheer weight and size of earthmover tyres—combined with operating temperatures and pressures—means even basic tasks, such as inspections and rotations, are inherently dangerous.

Steps have been taken in the past to improve safety in tyre service work. For example, through the introduction of tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), and tyre technician competency requirements in countries such as Australia. But the risks are evolving quickly.

Some of the most serious hazards that tyre technicians face is associated with the energy that’s stored within tyres during operation. If the tyre-hardware assembly is incorrectly installed, or the lock ring which secures the assembly fails, this can result in a catastrophic release of energy, separating the tyre and its components into the trajectory zone where technicians could be located.

The danger of lock ring failure

A lock ring is a critical component of a multi-piece wheel used in heavy-duty mining trucks. The wheel assembly consists of several parts, including the tyre, rim, and lock ring. The lock ring’s primary role is to hold the tyre securely onto the rim and prevent separation.

The lock ring sits in a groove on the rim, holding the tyre bead firmly in place, ensuring the tyre does not dislodge during operation. The assembly also typically has a bead seat band that works alongside the lock ring to help keep the tyre’s bead (the edge of the tyre that fits onto the rim) in position.

When a tyre technician works on a tyre and the lock ring fails during the process, it can be extremely dangerous for the technician and damaging to the equipment.

The technician could face severe injury or death from flying debris, exploding tyres, or sudden detachment. These events highlight the importance of using proper safety equipment (like inflation cages), following safety protocols, and conducting thorough inspections of the tyre assembly to prevent lock ring failure. Proper training and adherence to safety standards are critical to minimising the risks involved.

Important safety improvements and developments 

Mechanisation and advances in tooling have provided important safety improvements. Noteworthy developments include tyre handlers, lock ring support tools, tyre preparation stands, automatic inflation/deflation units, ram drivers, bead breakers and jacking solutions.

However, many tyre service tools/machines have changed little since their inception, and to be effective, they must be properly applied, inspected and maintained.

In mining, time is money, and for technicians who are under pressure to get machines back into service, there’s often a potential conflict between doing a job quickly and doing it safely.

While technologies, tools and training each have a part to play in keeping technicians safe, to be truly effective, they must be implemented and focused on in the manner of a hierarchy.

According to Dan Allan, Senior VP of Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group, implementing high level controls tends to be more effective than those at the lower end of the control hierarchy.

“Frequently in mining, rules or personal protective equipment (PPE) are used for mitigating hazards, but these aren’t enough. It’s time to think about eliminating hazards through new processes, or using engineering controls, like innovative tooling, to guard against hazards more effectively,” says Allan.

Ongoing investment in innovation

“Rather than just focusing on PPE, it’s time to rethink our approach and look to eliminate risk, either through a different process or through innovation. While administrative controls and PPE will always be a key part of safe working, these are simple controls, and the onus is on technicians to apply them consistently.

Allan believes that ongoing investment in innovation is critical to eliminate tyre service hazards, rather than working around them. An example is Kal Tire’s GATR (Gravity Assist Tooling Rig) which was developed through feedback from the company’s technicians.

Anti-gravity tools like GATR ease the physical burden for technicians by supporting the weight of tools.

“They’re essential in reducing finger pinches, fatigue and strain when mounting OTR tires, especially ultra-class models,” says Allan.

Kal Tire uses a web-based safety tracking system to record incidents, injuries and near misses for its global operations. This information informs the development of new safety solutions and helps quantify their effectiveness, such as reduced pinched fingers across all sites since adopting a new tool for the removal of spring locks, for example.

In the future, insights generated by tyre data management systems could be used to optimise the planning and execution of tyre service work against different business drivers, including safety, and to quantify the impact of these activities.

As automated systems become more economical and feasible, there are so many opportunities to use automation in the tyre service space to eliminate hazards and risk,” says Allan.

“The only limit to the applications of these automated systems is our own imagination.”

Will robots rule the high-risk areas?