Key Takeaways

  • Orica FRAGTrack uses AI plus stereoscopic 2D/3D imaging for automated post-blast fragmentation analysis — no manual sieving or scaled photos required.
  • It ships in multiple deployment forms: FRAGTrack Conveyor, FRAGTrack Crusher, FRAGTrack GeoSpatial, and a newer excavator-mounted variant — covering everything from the dig face to the crusher.
  • WipWare WipFrag and Split-Desktop are the long-standing image-analysis alternatives if you want a lower-cost or desktop-based option.
  • Binocular/stereoscopic camera capture is what lets these systems handle variable lighting and material color/texture without needing a fixed reference scale in every shot.

TL;DR

Fragmentation analysis is done today with AI-driven stereoscopic image analysis — Orica’s FRAGTrack is the current market-leading deployed system, with WipFrag and Split-Desktop as established, lower-friction alternatives for teams not ready for a full sensor-network rollout.

How Do I Monitor Fragmentation With AI?

Fragmentation measurement used to mean manual photo capture with a scale reference, or physical screening — both slow and disruptive to operations. Orica’s FRAGTrack replaces that with binocular stereoscopic cameras and AI-based image analysis that automatically detects scale and estimates particle size distribution (PSD) from the captured images, without needing a physical reference object in frame or interrupting the load-and-haul cycle. The product line is deployment-flexible: FRAGTrack Conveyor triggers automatically on passing material for continuous PSD monitoring feeding into comminution/throughput tracking; FRAGTrack Crusher analyzes truck-by-truck fragmentation as material dumps at the crusher; FRAGTrack GeoSpatial georeferences each fragmentation sample so you can correlate blast design and orebody data directly against blast performance; and a newer excavator-mounted version pushes measurement all the way back to the dig face.

If you’re not ready for a fixed sensor-network deployment, WipWare’s WipFrag — the original commercial optical granulometry tool, in continuous development since 1986 — lets you capture images from a phone, tablet, drone, or camera and get PSD and rock-quality-designation estimates without scales, screens, or sieves; it auto-detects scale and slope from the image itself. Split-Desktop is the other well-established alternative in the same category. Both are lighter-weight entry points than a full FRAGTrack rollout, useful if you want fragmentation analysis on an ad-hoc or single-site basis rather than integrated into a continuous digital pipeline.

The common thread across all three tools is that the actual measurement work — detecting particle boundaries, estimating scale, computing size distribution — is handled by computer-vision image analysis rather than manual sieving, and the differentiator between products is mainly deployment automation and integration depth rather than the underlying AI technique.

Try It With Geocluster

Fragmentation data is most valuable when it’s reconciled against your blast design parameters and geotechnical model, not viewed in isolation. Geocluster helps you bring data like this into a single research harness alongside the rest of your geological and mining data. Check it out on GitHub.