Coal Age Magazine - For more than 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.
Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/718122
August 2016 www.coalage.com 69 product news continued offers," Rose said. "We thoroughly tested these units during the past several years and we are preparing to introduce them to the market in September." "We have performed 200% loading testing on our brakes," Heater said. "We're pushing a million cycles at 100% of their maximum force or more on these brakes, and we know the failure points and how long these brakes will physically operate." Because of the harsh environment and extremely high loads, most mines push their braking systems to their limits. Even- tually the seals begin to leak, and then the brakes fail. "We want to eliminate these cata- strophic failures," Kallenborn said. "We have implemented several modifications to im- prove maintenance. These new systems are interchangeable with the old systems. The mounting configurations and the footprint are the same. The arm kits replace the 'left' and 'right' arms with one standardized arm. The changeover can be implemented quick- ly." And, quicker repairs mean less downtime for maintenance, he explained. The product development and testing process took time, but Hilliard is confident these new systems will appeal to mining operations. "The most exciting aspect of this is that we are now able to control our own fate with these brakes," Heater said. "We know how these brakes are made and what applications they can handle. We are standing behind 'our own' product." Hil- liard said it has invested in its manufactur- ing capacity in order to reduce lead time and it can custom design a braking system for any application the mining industry needs. www.hilliardcorp.com Drone Detection App DeTect recently released the free public version of the DroneWatcher app that turns smartphones and tablets using the Android operating system into detectors for unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. The DroneWatcher app detects, tracks, alerts and records information on 95% of commercially available drones using ad- vanced signals intelligence technology developed by DeTect. The app alerts the user when a drone is detected within ¼ to ½ mile, recording the drone type and ID, which can be used to document incursions and support apprehension and prosecu- tion by local law enforcement if needed. In addition to privacy protection, the DroneWatcher app can be used for drone control and security. Combined with De- Tect's RF and HARRIER Drone Surveillance Radar, the technology provides the most comprehensive level of drone protection and interdiction available on the market. www.dronewatcher.com Mobile Wireless Router Siemens has expanded its cellular rout- er portfolio by adding the Ruggedcom RM1224 as an entry level device. With its 4G LTE worldwide connectivity and au- tomatic fallback to 3G UMTS or EVDO cellular networks, it is ideally suited for providing data communication to and from remote locations. Thanks to its high bandwidths and performance capabil- ities, the mobile wireless router can be deployed in a diverse range of applica- tions: from the integration of remote sub- stations and feeder devices to rail way- side applications and mobile Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), as well as remote video surveillance. The router comes with an integrated four-port switch, which can be used to connect up to four Ethernet devices. In addition, it comes with two antenna con- nections, making it possible for operators to use multiple receivers and transmit paths (antenna diversity) and thus in- crease both signal quality and bandwidth. It has one digital IO (input and output) for applications like setting up secured VPN connections upon user button push. Fur- thermore, the device is equipped with its own redundant power supply for bridging short-term power failures. www.siemens. com/global/en/home.html.com