Pit & Quarry, August 2017
DRONES PROFILE lUck STonE by KEVIN YANIK E very viable technology has early adopters and laggards In the aggregate industry count Luck Stone among the producing companies that are traditionally on the cutting edge of innovation Luck Stone has a history of innovation says John Blackmore survey and mapping supervisor at Luck Stone We were among the first in the industry to automate a lot of our plant conveyors and crushing equipment In the 11 years Ive been here weve worked on a lot of different projects that have had an innovation component Luck Stones investment in unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs is no different The company ventured into UAVs more than three years ago when it first purchased a UAV Now Luck Stone has four UAVs in a f leet of its own including DJIs Phantom 3 Phantom 4 and Inspire as well as senseFlys eBee Plus with RTK Luck Stone uses the different aircrafts for various purposes including safety inspections mapping and high resolution photography and video Luck Stone also has an employee completely dedicated to piloting drones and managing the data those drones collect Luck Stone has always been supportive of creativity and innovation Blackmore says Even though there can be costs associated with exploring and sometimes not succeeding in a new method or pursuit our privately held company makes room for the introduction of new technologies Eric Warinner who serves Luck Stone as chief UAV pilot agrees and adds that company leaders continuously support their employees in the pursuit of innovation At Luck Stone we accept the failures along with the successes Warinner says I believe one thing that has set us apart from other mining companies is our leaders commitment to the innovation process With innovation we understand that there is a healthy process we need to go through that leads us to discovering the most impactful solutions EvolvIng wITh InnovATIon Luck Stone took a next step in its utilization of drones this year by establishing a partnership with Airware a global provider of commercial enterprise solutions for capturing and analyzing aerial data Luck Stone was introduced to Airware through its longstanding relationship with Caterpillar whose dealerships now sell Airware products The biggest draw to Airware was that the analysis and features they provide in their web browser are tasks that our engineering staff were already doing such as ramp slope analysis and haul road width analysis says Blackmore whose role at Luck Stone involves managing the companys UAV and GIS geographic Luck Stone has always been supportive of creativity and innovation John Blackmore luck Stone S10 PIT QUARRY August 2017 pitandquarry com Photos courtesy of luck stone The family owned producer is again on technologys cutting edge with its approach to UAVs Luck Stone ventured into unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs three years ago The producer now operates four UAVs
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