Future engineers from KuzSTU presented innovative solutions

It should be recalled that case solving took place in five directions, one of them, which, in fact, was the beginning of the engineering CASE-IN championship at KuzSTU - Mining.

The strategic partner of the miners is ALROSA - the world leader of the diamond mining industry.

The referral case is dedicated to the topic: "Cost reduction in tunneling operations at the Aikhal underground mine. The participants had to analyze the processes and indicators of sinking operations at the mine and propose solutions for their optimization and cost reduction, taking into account the provisions of the lean manufacturing concept.

The Aikhal mine is located in Yakutia, which is characterized by difficult climatic and geological conditions. This introduces its own specifics into the management of underground mining: the extraction of ore mass is carried out by drilling and blasting; the work is complicated by groundwater, which is aggressive towards metal and concrete supports; the rock mass consists of hard rocks.  

The participants of the case offered various interesting options for improving complex production processes. But the best, according to experts, were the solutions of the Anthracite 1 team. The guys are Kirill Moskalenko, Valeria Glinskikh, Ksenia Komarcheva, Kristina Apasova and Sergey Meluzov is a fifth-year student at the Mining Institute of KuzSTU, studying in the same group in the field of "surveying and geology".

The team proposed three solutions for different blocks of rather significant problems at once.

To control the deformation of the array and the condition of the support, install a reference sensor with remote transmission of the received data to the dispatcher's workplace.  

Another problem is the efficiency of drilling and blasting operations and underloading/overloading of dump trucks transporting rock mass to the ore launch.

And the third solution, which was very interested in by a member of the expert commission from ALROSA, is the installation of a frequency converter on shaft fans. It automatically regulates the power of the fans, which are often idle.

"It was the first time we all participated in the "CASE-IN". It was difficult: there was very little time to prepare the case, only ten days, and the tasks were more than serious, requiring deep study, technical and economic calculations. It was an intense team effort. But we quickly got involved, because such scientific and practical activities are very interesting, and we gained tremendous experience.", - Captain Kirill Moskalenko shares his impressions.

And here Elizaveta Fil is the captain of the MILA team, which won 1st place in the field of Petrochemistry, and a regular participant in the championship: "This is the fourth time I have participated in the CASE-IN (twice in the autumn cup and the second time in the spring cup). Last fall, our team reached the semi-finals for remote defense, and I had a rough idea of what the solution should look like. For me, an example is the guys from the Institute of Energy, who have been solving cases for a long time. And the fact that I was part of one of those cool (in my opinion) teams helped me. It's hard enough to find a solution: you had to come up with something really useful and not trivial. A lot of ideas were born, but we decided to focus on the one we presented at the defense."

The task assigned to the participants by SIBUR Holding is to prepare solutions to improve the efficiency of business processes of a petrochemical enterprise using lean manufacturing tools.

The MILA team, which includes, in addition to Lisa, KuzSTU students Alena Piven, Irina Dotsenko and Mikhail Luzin, took over the development of SIBUR's enterprise Kazanorgsintez. It is the domestic leader in the synthesis of polyethylene, the only producer of savylene, polycarbonates and bisphenol in Russia.  

The guys proposed to Kazanorgsintez PJSC a concept for the development of a new production facility: the development and production of low-tonnage petrochemical products from products that the company already produces, as well as the development of new compounds that are needed on the market in connection with the import substitution program.      

"I was satisfied with the championship, but I would like to see more and more students participating in the cases every year. Because competition helps to develop. We also express our great gratitude to the scientific supervisors who are always ready to support our crazy ideas and believe in us - Anastasia Vladimirovna Tikhomirova and Ivan Nikolaevich Paskar.", - This is Elizabeth Fil.

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