Trusted partnership with Twoday is powering Sandvik’s next-generation mining machines
Sandvik Group is an international high-technology industrial company whose solutions improve the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of customers’ operations in the manufacturing, mining, and infrastructure sectors.
We are a long-term R&D partner to Sandvik in the software development of control systems for mining machines. Our developers work as an integrated part of Sandvik’s software development team.
Client: Sandvik Group
Industry: Industrials and manufacturing
The Challenge: High demand for new machine models increases the need for specialized expertise in embedded systems
The demand for mining machines is currently high due to the strong demand and price of ores. Megatrends such as digitalization and global political instability further accelerate demand. Pressure for more sustainable mining practices is also growing. Sandvik’s goal is to extract ores from the ground more efficiently and in a more environmentally friendly way.
This trend is visible at Sandvik both in the demand for existing machine models and in the need to develop new ones. Meeting customer needs requires a significant number of new employees in software development and across the organization. At the Turku factory, software development currently faces the challenge of many parallel new product projects and a growing need for new talent and specialized expertise. To support its in-house development team, Sandvik relies on our developers with strong embedded systems expertise.
Sandvik is driven by a passion to innovate smarter solutions and create meaningful change. The company aims to maintain its strong position as a manufacturer of underground mining equipment and develop new types of machines and models. Sandvik introduces machines with electric drivelines and diesel engines and offers battery-powered machines that have a lower environmental impact than traditional diesel ones. New models are developed in a customer-centric way, listening closely to user needs.
The Solution: Our specialists help develop reliable and safe software for mining machines
The Load and Haul unit in Turku, part of Sandvik’s Mining business, manufactures mining machines whose software has been developed in-house since 2017.
- Our developers are building software for underground loaders and dump trucks that can be operated remotely. The work involves creating software for entirely new machine models, as well as performing maintenance tasks for older models, including programming new features. Our collaboration has been going on for almost ten years.
- We help design mining machines that meet demanding safety and environmental requirements. The mining machines must meet specific safety standards that also affect software requirements. Starting and maintaining mining operations is extremely costly, and the machines themselves are major investments. Therefore, the machines and their software must operate safely and reliably in all possible situations.
- We deliver software that is always fully finalized and works reliably. Software failures that immobilize a machine or compromise safety are not tolerated in the mining business. For this reason, all new machines and software undergo extensive multi-phase testing before commissioning. To ensure product safety, updates cannot be performed remotely. Instead, updates are done manually by an employee with elevated access rights. This means that all software versions must be fully final and complete.
- The machines are equipped with a data collection device that sends operational data to the cloud. Based on this data, machine owners can monitor efficiency and optimize production processes. Sandvik also uses data to track machine utilization, maintenance needs, and TCO (total cost of ownership).
The Results: The next generation of smart, reliable, efficient and more sustainable mining machines
Our long-term collaboration with Sandvik has strengthened the company’s ability to deliver the next generation of underground mining machines that are smart, reliable, efficient, safe, and more sustainable.
With our embedded systems specialists working seamlessly as part of the in-house team, Sandvik has been able to advance key product development projects. We help Sandvik to secure their position as leading innovator in underground mining business.
The Collaboration: A long-term partnership built on trust, flexibility, and high expertise
Sandvik values reliability, flexibility, and high professionalism in its partners. Software development for mining machines requires specialists who can quickly absorb new information and understand large, complex systems.
The long collaboration with Twoday has been smooth, built on trust, flexibility, and the strong expertise of developers.
“Our collaboration with Twoday has worked extremely well, and they are an important partner for us. The experts have fulfilled their roles and are extremely professional, competent, and skilled. They have exactly the qualities needed for this work. I can recommend working with Twoday. Collaboration with them is effortless, and communication is smooth.” - Juha Keihäs, R&D Manager, Sandvik
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