NEW DELHI (India CSR): RUSAL, one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, has introduced two significant Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies into its production processes, enhancing efficiency and improving product quality.
The Russia-headquartered company, with global operations, has implemented machine hearing and machine vision technologies to enhance alumina production and aluminium melt preparation, respectively.
The Company has implemented a machine hearing technology that utilizes mathematical algorithms to analyze acoustic vibrations from mill operations, enabling the optimization of bauxite ore loading, reducing equipment wear, and lowering energy consumption.
The algorithm is trained to recognize the exact relationship between sound patterns and mill loading while ignoring irrelevant noise. Maintaining optimal mill loading is crucial for energy efficiency, grinding quality, and equipment safety. Underloading the mill wastes electricity, and grinding balls strike the mill lining instead of the ore, resulting in wear.
Overloading, on the other hand, produces coarse, low-quality grinding, which reduces the efficiency of the subsequent leaching process and lowers alumina yield. Prolonged overload can also increase the frequency of mill repairs.
In alloy production, RUSAL is applying AI to monitor the complex process of aluminium melt preparation, which involves up to 20 sequential operations. RUSAL has developed a system, consisting a specially trained neural network, for monitoring melt preparation using machine vision. This technology helps the operator to achieve the necessary alloy chemistry and reduce the risk of producing low-quality metal.
Mikhail Grinishin, Director of Production Automation at RUSAL Engineering and Technology Centre, said “the system, which operates using machine vision, reduces the impact of human error as it helps the operator not to miss key moments during alloy preparation, and to better identify the areas of dross on the hot melt surface to improve the efficiency of its cleaning.”
RUSAL continues to actively implement digital solutions based on artificial intelligence, many of which are developed in-house. These technologies span a wide range of business functions, from smelter sealing and electrolysis control to quality analysis of raw materials and finished products, as well as logistics management.
(India CSR)
