Coal Age

MAR 2013

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VDMA Enhancing Safety in the Workplace No one will dispute the need for safety to be at the top of any mining operation's agenda. The industry has unquestionably come a long way in improving its safety performance, through better training, management and equipment. Here too, companies in Germany are helping the industry to achieve even higher safety standards, with technology to support the human element in day-to-day operations and during emergencies. Making Underground Mining Safer While the hazards associated with mobile equipment, such as LHDs and mine trucks, is well-recognized, longwalls and room-and-pillar operations are also high-risk areas for personal injury. To help address this, Caterpillar has developed Cat® Detect Personnel: a personnel proximity-detection package that forms part of the Detect capability set within the company's Cat MineStar™ system. Using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags worn by each individual, and detection units mounted on the mining machines, Cat Detect Personnel identifies where people are and transmits their location information to the machine control system. This then takes the appropriate action—such as inhibiting machine movement and providing warning signals—when necessary, to avoid potentially unsafe situations. For longwall operations, the system involves equipping each roof support with a detection unit that transmits data to the control system governing automated roof-support advance. Where Caterpillar's PMC-R electro-hydraulic control system is in use, Cat Detect Personnel would delay roof-support advance when people are detected in the affected area. The PMC-R controls have both a warning light and an acoustic alarm to show pending roof-support movement, the company says. Each personal RFID tag incorporates a battery-powered transponder, as well as an identifier that can be configured to provide additional information such as the wearer's job title and specialized skills. This information could be transmitted to the longwall gate ends or to a mine office for use in scheduling and the assignment of personnel. Both the tags and readers are small and intrinsically safe. The tags are easy to wear, the readers are easy to install on equipment, and both have very low power consumption. Most important, Caterpillar points out, the system is highly accurate, and since each roof support controller acts as the local controller, the system has no delay, unlike those that rely on communications via gateend controls to process the data. Caterpillar reports that Cat Detect Personnel for longwalls has been tested in underground operations in the U.S. The system for continuous miners—which detects the presence of people within a certain distance of the machine and in potentially unsafe locations—is under development. (SCSR), refuge station and aided rescue, are commonly used in the mining industry across the globe. However, SCSRs are designed to enable a person to escape to a place of safety in an emergency— and users may put their lives at risk by attempting to provide assistance to others or to try to fight a fire. Dräger says that a new emergency escape philosophy can be created by integrating self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and a refill station into a conventional SCSR self-escape system. Recent experience in several underground mines in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, has shown that an integrated system like this can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of a self-escape system, as well as improving the chance of quickly containing and controlling an emergency underground. Building on its experience in other industries such as tunnelling and oil and gas, Dräger introduced its ChargeAir System to the Australian mining industry more than 10 years ago. Comprising a ChargeAir Station and Dräger SCBA sets, the system allows users to recharge up to five SCBA sets in minutes, the company says. Given a defined maximum travel distance from a fresh-air base, the SCBA set could allow trained personnel to undertake emergency interventions right away, such as containing a small- to medium-sized fire, or helping casualties. In this way, for example, a fire could be contained and an incident brought under control before surface-based rescue teams arrive. During firefighting in particular, Dräger's SCBA set not only provides breathing protection against smoke and heat, but also offers the possibility of communication among the team. Once the air pressure in the set gets low, the response team can top up their cylinders at the ChargeAir Station, then continue with their response activities. The company points out that integrating such a system into an emergency escape procedure obviously entails detailed risk assessment and cautious planning. After this, the location and number of SCBA sets and ChargeAir Stations need to be defined, together with deployment procedures, the number of competent persons required and the content and frequency of training. Nonetheless, Dräger notes, recent events clearly show that effective mine-specific emergency escape strategies are becoming even more important within the mining industry. Enhancing Escape and Emergency Intervention Founded in 1889, and with its world headquarters in Lübeck, Dräger is an international leader in the fields of medical and safety technology. Present in more than 190 countries, the Dräger group generated revenues of around €2.26 billion in 2011. The company notes that conventional emergency escape systems, centered on self-escape with a self-contained self-rescuer VDMA 48 Using a Dräger ChargeAir station to recharge a SCBA set. VDMA MINING SUPPLEMENT • 2013

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