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22 www.coalage.com July/August 2017 longwall mining continued the massive amount of effort and com- mitment at all levels to make this system a success. "The operators truly took own- ership from day one," Colaw said. "It was a challenge leading up to it, but once they saw this was the direction we were headed, they all jumped on board." Production foremen are also key. "On their first examination of the face to the tailgate, they will call the remote operator and tell them the condition of the tail- gate — whether it's pitched up or pitched down, the height and any adjustments they need to make, which the operators will adjust remotely," Colaw said. Maintenance personnel took on ad- ditional responsibilities maintaining net- works, cameras, lights, cowl encoders, etc. Everyone developed a great understand- ing of the system and how to quickly trou- bleshoot issues. "Two of our shearer operators had never used a computer prior to automa- tion," Colaw said. "We had to teach them how to use computers, like things as sim- ple as how to double-click on an icon. Some caught on more quickly than others, but everyone is doing great now." Colaw does not consider all of the visu- als in the command center as information overload. In fact, he believes just the op- posite. "It's difficult to convey how much we use all this information," Colaw said. "I think we use every camera angle and screen to run the system the way they do now." No matter what's happening in the background, Colaw explained that the main iwtwireless.com Innovative Wireless Technologies, Inc. 1100 Main Street | Lynchburg, VA 24504 | (434) 316.5230 Move mountains of data. HIGH DATA RATE SOLUTIONS HIGH DATA RATE SOLUTIONS No strings attached. Is the data you want tough to get? Cut loose your data potential with IWT's High Data Rate solution – all the information you want from wherever, whenever you need it – wirelessly. Don't just mine the coal. MINE the DATA™ . The Run Screen provides the operators with an overview of the longwall status.