CDE showcasing SmartTech telemetry at Hillhead
CDE, a leader in the design and engineering of sand and aggregate wet processing solutions for the waste recycling and natural minerals processing sectors, are showcasing their SmartTech plant-management app at Hillhead and demonstrating how real-time Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) data is driving consistent tonnes per hour, every hour for customers.
CDE SmartTech enables customers to understand their plant’s performance, schedule maintenance, and easily order parts. It equips operators, managers, and owners with real-time data and insights to facilitate informed decision-making that can increase productivity, improve operational efficiency, and maximize uptime.
Chris McKeown, director of customer solutions at CDE, said: ‘This technology is all about ensuring our customers are achieving their target tonnes per hour, every hour. It’s not about the best performing hour that day, but how plant performance is monitored and optimized in real time to sustainably maintain that tonnage over the long term: per day, per week, and per year. This is where return on investment is made.’
Sensors fitted to a plant provide up to 300 precise data points and continuously stream real-time, in-depth performance reports. Providing a full and transparent overview of the health of a plant, this live feed is accessible 24/7 to customers through a handy mobile app, and CDE also have dedicated staff remotely monitoring OEE data to identify trends, provide proactive maintenance, and advise on plant optimization.
Norman Kane, head of global support at CDE, said: ‘We’re able to respond in a very agile way, analysing data in the moment to improve results for our customers. With SmartTech, we can identify irregularities and intervene before a major downtime event occurs. In February this year, one of our customers who operates a 375 tonnes/h plant, 24h a day, seven days a week, achieved this throughput for 92% of their total operating hours. This is just one example of the consistent high performance that we’re able to monitor through this innovative technology.’
Available globally, CDE SmartTech can be installed in new equipment or retrofitted to an existing wash plant.
Fife Silica, a subsidiary of Scottish building materials producer Paterson Quarries, had CDE SmartTech integrated in their new silica sand wash plant when it was commissioned in March 2024. After seeing the benefits, the business invested in having SmartTech retrofitted to an existing construction and demolition waste recycling plant.
Managing director Tom Paterson said: ‘The data and insights we are getting from this technology are invaluable. Once we saw this in action on our silica plant it was a foregone conclusion that we’d move to retrofit our existing plant. It’s great to see CDE SmartTech up and running across both of our sites and we’re looking forward to seeing the impact over the coming years.’