Rajant’s facility in Morehead, Kentucky, is right in the middle of coal country. It’s one of the reasons why the work we do for mining operations feels so close to home for us. Many of our families, friends, and colleagues are touched by the mining industry in some way—and our technologies help more miners return safely to their families.
Kinetic Mesh® Wireless Networks Mean Safer Shaft Operations
Our work with shaft operations began a few years ago when a mine contracting company searched for an alternative communications system for shaft sinking to enable wireless video and high-speed data transmission without conveyance speed and connectivity issues.
Clear communication and video in a shaft are a necessity. If slack rope resulted when the conveyance was chaired or equipment was lowered down the shaft and was hung up, damage to the shaft infrastructure could result in a loss of the mine’s production for possibly months of shaft rehab work.
Rajant’s solution for shaft operations places cameras on each level of the galloway, and having data from safety interlocks improves safety and working conditions. Miners in charge of shaft inspections have a separate, encrypted voice channel with other shaft personnel—another best practice that Rajant makes possible.
Our Kinetic Mesh wireless networks offer close-to-fiber speeds that power various shaft operations, such as seismic sensors, geotechnical sensors, slack rope detection, gas monitoring, and air quality monitoring. Miners can initiate blasts wirelessly and receive real-time telemetry from the shaft jumbo and any other IoT sensors installed in the shaft. Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh wireless networks are used in at least ten shafts worldwide.
Other Mining Operations
Rajant’s wireless technologies are built to withstand even the roughest conditions—including those that miners face on the job.
Kinetic Mesh was built on redundancy and reliability. Whether miners work in open-pit or underground environments, they can easily introduce, relocate, or remove network infrastructure—all without downtime. Kinetic Mesh empowers miners to track personnel and equipment, optimize ramps and traffic control, have real-time telemetry from mobile equipment, track production, and waste ore levels, and conduct emergency and fire drills.
Rajant’s Canada Sales Director, Darrell Gillis, has been involved in mining and mining automation projects for (4) decades, installing communication/automation technologies in over a hundred Mines. He said, “Rajant is by far the best solution for moving critical data, video, and voice in difficult and harsh conditions. Rajant is also one of the few solutions that enables you to use your existing infrastructure, whether it be LTE, Fiber, or even Leaky Feeder.”
To date, Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh networks can be found in more than 300 of the largest open-pit and underground mines based in more than 80 countries. Rajant BreadCrumbs® provide 5x greater throughput, 5x lower latency, and 5x lower cost compared to LTE.
See Rajant’s technology in action by watching the video below.
