Finnish industrial machinery company Metso has opened its first performance centre in Santiago, Chile, to boost its remote-monitoring capabilities for the mining industry.
The opening of this facility will be followed by a second performance centre in Changsha, China.
Metso plans to open additional centres in major mining regions during 2020-2021.
The new Metso performance centres have been designed to offer continuous automated monitoring and predictive maintenance services for the customers’ mineral processing equipment, components and parts, as well as other processes.
They offer services that are built on the capabilities of Metso’s connecting equipment, processes, people and technology worldwide.
Metso chief digital officer Jani Puroranta said: “Metso performance centres are hubs for all our remote digital services. They integrate Metso Metrics support, gearless mill drive monitoring, and remote process optimisation experts into a new collaborative environment.”
Until now, the company operates nearly 800 active and connected crushers and has implemented more than 600 Advanced Process Control and automation projects.
It has also undertaken more than 315 installations of specialised process optimisation instrumentation.
Metso’s first performance centre has started its temporary operations in Santiago and is expected to soon move to new customised premises. It employs experts who analyse data and derive insights to help customers to safely optimise their processes remotely.
For both Metso and non-Metso equipment, the centre provides vendor-agnostic services.
It uses new remote monitoring capabilities for gearless mill drives, obtained as part of Metso’s acquisition of HighService Service, a mining services provider in Chile.
All products and services from Metso’s remote services division will be leveraged as an integral part of the company’s global digital services offering.
Metso Performance Solutions Process Optimisation vice-president Johanna Newcomb said: “They will allow us to better service the mining industry by enabling new innovative commercial offerings, like Performance Solutions and remote expert support.”
In July, Metso Minerals and Outotec signed an agreement to create a new leading entity in process technology and services for the mineral and metal industries.
