Coal Age

AUG 2016

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54 www.coalage.com August 2016 haul road technology ErgoMine App Helps Identify Hazards by donna schmidt, field editor "Work Safe." While an important state- ment, it is one heard so often that its im- pact can get lost in the repetition. The gravity of the reminder, and how crucial working safe is to every worker and their peers, can become more hollow over time in even the most receptive ear. That is in part why the idea of the safety initia- tive was born; safety through behavioral changes, self- and peer-reporting and even award programs and incentivizing safety carries much more weight and action be- hind it than just telling someone to make sure their work day is safe. Putting that responsibility of in- creased safety in the hands of those on the front lines has been a goal for a team of researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which recently released the newest way for any mine to identify and record ergonomic deficiencies in the workplace and mitigate risks for everyone: the ErgoMine app. ErgoMine, an audit tool available for Android that the research group released in April of this year, was designed specif- ically for mining and, in addition to col- lecting data on how future health and safe- ty-related problems can be avoided, it can help mines to conduct audits before and after changes are made to its processes to see the true impact in real-time. While the word audit has a connota- tion of complexity, the app basically works by asking the user questions about their task, how it is being done, and the condi- tions in which they are working. Once the input is received, ErgoMine can then pro- duce recommendations for improvement and a report can be forwarded as needed for review. The app's user-friendly modules include bagging and maintenance/repair as well as a dedicated segment for haul truck operations. A Comprehensive Look at Hauling From training and policy, the haul road design itself and the mine pit, to inspec- tions, ingress/egress, driving habits, cab design, and loading/dumping, ErgoMine's eight-module Haul Truck Audit segment includes nearly every aspect of the ma- chine and its environment. Each section contains anywhere from a few to more than a dozen questions to help the appli- cation's algorithms process the specific sit- uation. Some questions include: • What topics are covered in your mine's haul truck driver task training? • Are speed limits posted on the dash of the haul truck? • Have employees reported the presence of excessive dust clouds that reduce driver visibility on haul roads? • Are road grades greater than 10% present? • Is there a standard form to document the preshift inspection of the haul truck? • Are you, as the driver, provided with adequate time to perform a compre- hensive preshift inspection? Some questions may require just one's physical inspection or best memory, while others may require additional tools such as a tape measure to record distances. After completing the questionnaire, the user may receive a response similar to this example: "You indicated that road grades are not designed to accommodate the equipment with the least braking capability or you do not know how the road grades are designed. Regarding grade or steepness of a road, it is important to have compatibility between road conditions and equipment capability. A critical concern for haul truck safety is the ability of the brakes to function effectively on downgrades to avoid loss of control of the vehicle. Different equipment with dif- fering performance characteristics will use the haul roads. Thus, roadway design must accommodate the equipment with the least, or the most critical, braking capabil- ity, which are usually large haul trucks." With one of many responses such as the above will be the opportunity to share the results of the audit recommendations via a report document. The user can then share it with others, or safety personnel can use the re- sults to distribute important details to miners Operations can access existing audits anytime via the ErgoMine app. Operations can access existing audits anytime via the ErgoMine app. Technology now makes haul truck and maintenance/repairs audits easier The audit action menu provides a number of options for the user.

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