Altair Case Studies Optimizing Dragline Performance and Productivity at VR Steel with Altair EDEM™
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Optimizing Dragline Performance and Productivity at VR Steel with Altair EDEM™

Altair
Analytics & Modeling - Virtual & Augmented Reality Software
Wearables - Virtual Reality Glasses, Headsets & Controllers
Metals
Mining
Product Research & Development
Quality Assurance
Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing
Virtual Reality
Testing & Certification
VR Steel, a company that designs, builds, and repairs fabricated mining equipment attachments, was faced with the challenge of optimizing dragline bucket performance and productivity for a wide range of media and mining conditions globally. They needed to develop a new, optimized bucket design that balanced efficiency, capacity, durability, and projected O&M costs. The company wanted to streamline the design process and provide their customers with design solutions that were guaranteed to fill easily and empty completely, operate at maximum capacity, boost wear protection, reduce operating costs, and improve overall efficiency.
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VR Steel (Pty) Ltd is a company that designs, builds, and repairs fabricated mining equipment attachments. Their clients include major players in the mining industry such as Anglo Coal, Arch Coal, BHP Billiton, BMA Coal, Coal India, CRM, and Xstrata. VR Steel has dragline bucket customers in the US, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, and India. The company is committed to providing innovative solutions that enhance productivity and efficiency in the mining sector.
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To address this challenge, VR Steel utilized EDEM, in conjunction with multibody dynamics simulation software, to simulate both the bulk soil dynamics and the dynamics of the bucket and lifting gear. This innovative, integrated particle-machine dynamics solution successfully modeled the transient particle-structure interaction, simulating the complete digging cycle of a dragline bucket. This virtual performance testing predicted the prototype bucket's mode and rate of fill, transient loading of bucket and gear, and wear patterns and rates. The use of EDEM virtual prototypes allowed VR Steel to field-test new design options, create custom designs for specific users, build fewer physical prototypes, shorten the design cycle, and increase customers’ productivity.
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The use of EDEM’s simulation capabilities led to significant engineering improvements in VR Steel's dragline bucket designs. The company benefited from improved bucket design, which resulted in the need for only one physical prototype. This allowed for repetitive virtual testing under the same operating conditions, leading to faster convergence to the best design. The ability to accurately simulate the performance of the prototype bucket designs and wear packages not only enhanced the efficiency of the design process but also boosted the overall productivity of the company.
Increase in fill level of the bucket
Shorter filling cycle for the bucket
Reduction in bucket mass
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