Digital Transformation of Steel

Mountains, rocks, unmanned vehicles… these elements that appear on the moon in science fiction movies are now playing out in Shougang Mining’s scenes under the new quality of productivity. At Shougang Mining’s Shuichang Iron Mine, 10 mining trucks are operating safely and orderly along the established routes, but there is no one in the cockpit.

Since its commissioning in November 2024, the mining electric unmanned wide-body mining truck has received widespread attention from the media. Why do so many national media continue to pay attention and visit the mining front line many times? The answer is that mining unmanned mining trucks have been applied on a large scale in building materials production lines, and transportation has been automated, intelligent, and low-carbon. “Unmanned driving” is becoming a new quality of productivity for high-quality development.

Digital transformation enables high-quality change. Shougang Mining is one step ahead and makes driverless driving a reality. 18 mining truck drivers put down their steering wheels and switched to become maintenance personnel for driverless mining trucks. When the reporter walked into the production command center, he saw the centralized control worker click the mouse and monitor the on-site driverless mining trucks through the integrated comprehensive management and control platform on the computer.

In the past, I had to hold the steering wheel all the time outdoors, but now I can dispatch the entire fleet in the air-conditioned room. “After working as a mine car driver for 14 years, he suddenly put down the steering wheel and “played” on the computer, and changed his job to become an operation and maintenance personnel. He lamented the efficiency and convenience brought by digitalization. The vehicle information, route, real-time road images, etc. on the computer screen are clear at a glance. By setting it on the computer, the route of the unmanned mine car can be changed. Zhang Chunliang, a transformed employee who is also a mine car driver, said: “We front-line employees are the most direct beneficiaries of the company’s digital transformation. In the past, our mine car drivers drove manually in the field every day, but now they can complete their tasks sitting in a spacious and bright production command center. The environment is better and the labor intensity is much reduced. “

“They are more ‘competent’ than our employees. They don’t need to change shifts or rest, and they can work as usual in heavy rain and dense fog.” said the person in charge of the iron ore truck operation area of ​​Shougang Mining Water Plant. The original intention of promoting unmanned driving is to free the drivers of mining trucks from heavy driving and realize “safety without drivers”. “In the past, what we were most worried about was the safety of drivers. Drivers tend to get sleepy when driving at night, and the bad road conditions in rainy and snowy weather make people even more worried. Now we don’t have to worry about these problems anymore.” At present, the comprehensive efficiency and production capacity of unmanned mining trucks have reached expectations, and they can achieve uninterrupted operation around the clock.

The mining industry insists on technological innovation to lead the creation of competitive advantages and accelerate the iterative upgrade of intelligent mine construction. Relying on modern information technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, unmanned mining trucks have realized the smooth and orderly operation of unmanned driving in the entire process of transportation, loading, unloading, and start-stopping around the clock, providing strong support and better intelligent transformation and upgrading solutions for the green development of the metallurgical mining industry.