Power Electronics Systems; Reliability & Power Quality; Electrical &Electronics Systems for Mineral Processing; High-Power Gearless Mill Drives

NEIM, Millennium Nucleus Industrial Electronics, Mechatronis and Process Control, with participation of researcher groups from UTFSM and PUC, has received two times the recognition from the Program of Excellence Millennium Scientific Initiative regarding two 3-year terms (2005-2009) and (2010-2012). NEIM has considered and motivated young researchers as the key for sustainability. Enhancement of the joint work with industrial sector is needed to open the way for new learning and access to practical know-how. Meetings and activities to expose young researchers to the current challenges of the industry and the development of capability to effective field working is being gradually increasing. Facing this challenges are our missions to accomplish focus in development of highly qualified human resources in science and technology related to Industrial Electronics. In this way we are achieved in the past years finish 16 undergraduate, 5 master and 1 doctoral theses in the field oriented to practical industrial applications.
Jorge Pontt as Director of NEIM has conducted the guidance of following works, with impact on human capital training, innovation and entrepreneurship:
In the year 2010 was finished 7 undergraduate and 2 master theses keeping in course 5 undergraduate, 2 master and 3 Physic Doctoral works.
In the year 2011 was finished 3 undergraduate degree theses, keeping in course 6 undergraduate, 2 masters and 3 Physic Doctoral works.
Last in 2012 was finished 6 undergraduate, 3 master and 1 physic doctoral theses keeping in course 4 undergraduate, 2 master and 2 physic doctoral works.

4 patents granted from 2010 to 2012 and others 9 applied waiting to defend those appliances (four of them international).
Chilean Patent nº48356 in energy mining sector granted in 2012, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for preventing faults in electrical / electronic industrial systems on mining environments in high altitudes, through the use of certain sensing variables such as current, whether input and ground voltages, operating temperature, impacts and abnormal vibration, pressure and humidity.
Chilean patent nº47667 in mining sector granted in 2011, the invention specify a system and method for monitoring and measuring the ring gap motors present in mineral grinding mills, giving and extra info to develop maintenance program cutting downtime due to unscheduled stops mineral grinding mills.
Chilean patent nº46971 for general industry sector granted in 2010, the invention specify a system and method for measuring conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) to allow a diagnosis of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) according to international norms on equipment under test (EUT) three-phase industrial power.
Chilean patent nº46824 for mining industry sector granted in 2010, the invention specify a system and method for measurement and classification of impacts inside a rotary mill and its operative control in a mineral grinding process, giving extra data of the operating condition of the mill to establish a better operation point improving the efficiency of the mill.
Also in the last 3 years we have development several seminars, in the field of power electronics and energy processing and renewable energy generation such as photovoltaic and oceanic generating with waves, current and tide. It allows students to present research works in these seminars, being a the first step to encourage them to apply to more advanced scientific research publications and presentations in international conferences.
In previous years and in collaboration with the funding of Millennium Nucleus program we generated efforts to give secondary education tools to motivate students in the field or power electronics, one of this examples is the giving of power electronics modules to schools of the region and a set of exercises to test those.
Mining
Previously in year 2007, NEIM has supported the creation of CASIM, Center for Automation and Supervision of Mining Industry at UTFSM, with the aim of broadening the networking with productive sector. In the last years 2010-2012, increasing activities with applied R&D as well as consulting to the industry has been supported, giving synergy between basic and applied R&D, with fueling innovation and entrepreneurship.
During 2012 NEIM has also supported a new “Diploma Program for New Technologies in the mining” for improving the training of professionals around current challenges, problems, technologies and trends in Energy, Mining and Technology issues.
Energy
In year 2008, NEIM conducted a study for determining the potentials of Energy Efficiency and Renewable energies (NCRE) to be injected to the Chilean Central Interconnected System SIC in the year 2025. The study had a powerful participation, interaction and discussions among researchers of NEIM, UTFSM, U. de Chile, ONG’s, Enterprises, Institutional sector and consulters. The impact was very important to show potentials and critical factors to be overcome. After this study, NCRE has gained a stronger perception in the community. One of the result was, the development of a simplified methodology to do the assessment for Levelized Cost of Energy, in order to have a common tool for evaluation of NCRE potential under different scenarios. Other important result was the estimation that, from 40.000 GWH energy demand (2008), in year 2025, the demand would be ca. 106.000 GWH in the SIC, and 40% of the added demand could be fed by NCRE. Other impact was highlighting the need of an actualized energy policy for clean energy and environmental issues and technical and legal framework. One corner stone for the development of energy sector is the human capital training in hard technologies, power engineering and smart systems for energy processing.

Minera Los Pelambres received the prize Benjamín Teplizky 2012
It is interesting to highlight that Minera Los Pelambres received the prize “Benjamín Teplizky 2012” for the project “Energy generation with mineral transportation belt system”, that injects ca. 22 MW in the power grid employing the braking energy of the downhill conveyor from Crusher at the mine to the Concentrator plant. At the time of the engineering phase, the director of NEIM was the consulter on drives and power electronics regarding the technical topics and issues for this recognized innovation.