Smart Sensors for Safer Mineral Processing & Dust Control
Discover a smart IoT sensor system designed to eliminate hazardous silica dust, prevent silicosis, and automate quality control in mineral processing units.
Design Thinking | Amgeen Minerals
We are making mineral processing SAFER, SMARTER, and CLEANER — for workers, for business, for the planet.
Transforming hazardous dust into zero-leakage precision through a Smart Self-Adjusting Sensor System
Group A05 | MBA-FT (2025-27) | Institute of Management, Nirma University
Submitted to Dr. Rohit Swarup & Prof. Romita Swarup | 24 March 2026
02
The Organization
Amgeen Minerals, Ahmedabad
Manufacturing (Secondary Economic Sector)
Micronizing — grinding minerals into ultra-fine powder
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Mid-sized industrial mineral processing unit
GPCB (Gujarat Pollution Control Board)
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The Discovery
How We Found the Problem
STEP 1 — OBSERVE
Field Observation (AEIOU)
Fine white dust on machinery & vegetation. Workers lifting heavy bags. Visual quality checks by intuition.
STEP 2 — EMPATHIZE
Stakeholder Interviews (5W1H)
3 Key Insights: Poor WiFi for digital logging. Invoice vs dispatch discrepancies. Workers feared silica dust but had no monitoring tools.
STEP 3 — ANALYZE
PESTEL Analysis
Rising GPCB norms. No Industry 4.0 adoption. Silicosis health risk among workforce.
Routine acceptance of harsh conditions = the biggest barrier to excellence.
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Problem Definition
How Might We...?
How might we redesign the micronizing process to eliminate hazardous dust and human error while ensuring consistent, verifiable mineral quality for B2B clients within the next 4 months?
Insights / Pains
Health & Safety Crisis
Workers spend 8-hour shifts in high-noise, high-dust zones
Fine Silica Dust causes Silicosis — a life-threatening lung disease
No real-time automated dust monitoring tools available
Cognitive empathy: operators rely on "years of intuition" not data
Operational & Business Errors
Manual visual inspection = subjective, inconsistent mineral quality
Invoice vs. dispatched quantity discrepancies causing B2B conflicts
Poor WiFi prevents digital logging of production data
Manual data entry leads to billing and quality errors
Group A05 | MBA-FT (2025-27) | Institute of Management, Nirma University
Submitted to Dr. Rohit Swarup & Prof. Romita Swarup | 24 March 2026
The Solution
Smart Self-Adjusting Sensor System
What It Does
A closed-loop Smart Sensor Box integrated into the micronizing process that:
Replaces manual visual inspection with precision sensors
Auto-adjusts grinding settings via feedback loop
Seals dust in a closed collection chamber (zero leakage)
Connects machinery to a digital management dashboard via IoT
Eliminates manual data entry — reducing billing and quality errors
Sensor-based precision + IoT feedback loop — first in mid-sized mineral units
Can be deployed across multiple plant sections and factories
Reduces dust pollution, aligns with GPCB norms & Viksit Bharat 2047
Pilot cost ~₹30,000 | 4-month implementation cycle
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Prototype I
From Idea to Paper Sketch
Prototype Level I — Paper Concept
Initial hand-drawn sketches of a closed-loop sensor system
Validated the concept with the operations team at Amgeen
WHAT'S UNIQUE
First time the factory's process was visualized end-to-end with sensor integration points mapped
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Prototype II
From Paper to 3D Physical Model
Prototype Level II — Physical Model
Group A05 | MBA-FT (2025-27) | Institute of Management, Nirma University
Submitted to Dr. Rohit Swarup & Prof. Romita Swarup | 24 March 2026
- iot
- industrial-safety
- mineral-processing
- design-thinking
- smart-sensors
- occupational-health
- industry-4.0
- sustainability