TECHNOLOGY: Cat and FTP partner to boost mine network performance

PEORIA, Ill. – Caterpillar and FTP Solutions have developed a co-operative agreement to deliver proactive monitoring and management of mining technology applications and the networks that these products depend on. FTP Solutions, based in Perth, Western Australia, currently offers products and services for monitoring and supporting site communications. [caption id="attachment_1003721190" align="alignleft" width="344"] Caterpillar’s new partnership will bring FTP Solutions technology into the MineStar system.[/caption] The collaborative work will make best use of the proprietary technology developed by each company to deliver best-in-class site solutions for mining customers. The integrated solutions will be offered as part of Cat's MineStar system. “Through this partnership, Caterpillar and FTP Solutions are instituting means to enable mines to move close to enterprise network availability in their operational technology,” said Sean McGinnis, product manager within Caterpillar’s mining technology group. “When Cat MineStar products are installed with FTP Solutions’ integrated management system, the mining operation has full vision of office and mobile applications across their manual and automated MineStar sites. This insight provides the means to enhance network availability.” “The partnership enables us to create a single operational view to provide the most reliable critical networking environment possible,” said Lachlan McMahon, managing director of FTP Solutions. “Providing this type of data transparency in real-time across an operational site will also deliver business benefits beyond existing support functions.” In practice, Caterpillar and FTP Solutions have been working together to optimize wireless networks at mine sites running Cat Command, a capability set within Cat MineStar system, and will now apply these solutions to the networks installed at sites running other MineStar applications – fleet, terrain and detect. The effectiveness of the monitoring system and the collaborative effort is expected to deliver an improvement in the effort required to manage and maintain site networks. The sum of the efficiencies gained are expected to lower cost per tonne. Caterpillar and FTP Solutions started offering their joint services in Australia in 2017 and are expanding to all mining regions in 2018. Learn more about MineStar at www.Cat.com/en_US/by-industry/mining/mining-solutions/technology-new.html.