While still with Boliden, Bengt and the hoisting team installed the first ABB computer-controlled mine hoist, in 1984 at the Boliden G1A shaft in Sweden, where the automatic cage hoist had 15 landing levels. This can be seen as the beginning of the computer age of hoisting technology.
To us sitting in 2023, it seems obvious that computer controls would make hoisting systems safer and more efficient. But being at the forefront of any new technology – particularly when lives are literally on the line – requires a special kind of dedication and disposition.
“Introducing computer controls to the hoist was a big step,” says Bengt. “There were problems and challenges just to convince people it was safe, and to satisfy all the regulations. Of course, it showed that it was even more safe than relays-based controls, and today everything is computerized.”
Bengt says around the same time, the drive systems on hoists were also being transformed by digital technology. “There were a lot of new implementations in hoists through the 1980s and ’90s,” he says. “Drive systems had also been analogue before and were at that time digital drive systems to control the motor of the hoist were coming in.”
“Safety is the focus,” says Bengt. “For the most part, hoists are bringing up ore, but they also move people. We can have hundreds of people inside the cage, so it goes without saying that safety is very, very important.”
ABB has more than 130 years of inventing and improving mine hoisting technologies and has commissioned across more than 1000 hoisting solutions around the world and is the only company to provide the complete systems.
Through Bengt’s career, numerous ABB-invented solutions to enhance safety have been implemented, including
ABB Ability™ Safety Plus, a suite of world-leading mine-hoist safety products. “As well as bringing in new safety products, it’s also very important to train our own people to a very high level with a lot of knowledge,” says Bengt. “It’s nice to see young people develop themselves. During the last few years, we have updated our training center in Sweden with the latest safety technology where we can also offer trainings to our customers.”
Safety is always first, but efficiency is of course important to every miner, particularly in the challenging underground environment. As well as being a brilliant technologist, Bengt is known for listening to customers. He has traveled the world to do so, and so and became Global Service Manager for ABB Hoisting Service, leading the successful implementation of Hoisting Service global strategy.
He also oversaw the coming together of hoisting teams from other countries to form the global team. Previously, ABB hoisting teams in each country operated quite independently. “Over the past 10 years we have worked to cooperate much more and work together and share resources”, says Bengt.
The result is a global network
ABB Collaborative Operations Centers, dedicated to the mining industry have brought a new way of working with customers, with ABB experts monitoring and analyzing operational data remotely and connecting with customers in real time to identify, prevent and resolve issues. “We know our systems and we can support our customers remotely via the whole world instead of just one team in Sweden,” he says. “Now we follow the sun to offer 24/7 support.”