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Metals and Minerals Processing News
News Release from: Newtrax Technologies | Subject: VOD
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 27 February 2008
Ventilation-On-Demand for underground
mines
VOD solutions improve mine productivity, reduce ventilation energy costs, decrease the skilled labour workload, improve miner safety and reduce carbon emissions
Jannatec Radio Technologies, Newtrax Technologies and Simsmart Technologies announce that they have entered into a strategic partnership agreement to provide an optimised Ventilation-On-Demand (VOD) solution for underground mines Ventilation currently accounts for 35-50% of an underground mine energy consumption
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 30 Jun 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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For large mines, this can represent up to USD20-30M per year.
By integrating their leading edge and proven technologies, Jannatec, Newtrax and Simsmart have developed a VOD system that enables optimal energy management of mine ventilation based on automated real-time tracking of diesel equipment and personnel combined with dynamic modeling, simulation and optimisation of air mass flows.
Underground mines with this type of real-time optimised VOD system will benefit from a 20-50% reduction in ventilation energy costs, improved mine productivity, decrease of skilled labour workload, improved miner safety and reduced carbon emissions.
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The VOD system is composed of a battery-powered wireless communication infrastructure from Newtrax that connects hundreds of sensors, diesel equipment and mining personnel equipped with Johnny Light cap lamps from Jannatec to the Simsmart OM-VOD system.
"Simsmart is a worldwide standard in the naval military industry and their dynamic modeling and simulation based technology is orders of magnitude better than scheduling based solutions currently being offered in the marketplace.
We've been collaborating closely in the past year to present an integrated solution for VOD in underground mines and Simsmart technology is a perfect fit with the Newtrax battery-powered wireless mesh network," said Alexandre Cervinka, Founder and CEO of Newtrax.
The Simsmart advanced dynamic modeling and simulation tool continuously calculates optimal ventilation settings for all components of the ventilation system based on diesel equipment location and operating status, personnel location, government regulations and user-defined guidelines.
The optimised set points are fed back to the fans and air flow regulators through the Newtrax network, or through any existing PLC network.
The mine ventilation optimisation system comes with a complete control panel software allowing mine operators to visualise the behaviour of the optimiser and monitor system status.
At any time, the operator may override automatic control of fans and gain full manual control of individual fans and air flow regulators.
The personnel tracking component of the real-time optimised VOD solution is a result of a close collaboration between Newtrax and Jannatec.
"Jannatec thrives on adding innovative features to its Johnny Light line of products" said Wayne Ablitt, President of Jannatec Radio Technologies.
"By partnering with Newtrax to integrate their wireless technology module in our cap lamps, we can offer the most reliable and cost effective personnel tracking and safety system to our clients".
Installation, extension and maintenance of the Newtrax tracking and communication infrastructure is simple, quick and low-cost.
Newtrax battery-powered wireless infrastructure nodes, which act as both tag readers and mesh routers, are completely self-contained and can last up to 10 years on batteries.
Existing communication infrastructure, including leaky feeder, Ethernet or fiber communication backbones, can be leveraged to interconnect isolated Newtrax networks, and as a backhaul link to surface.
Typical applications include pervasive on-line tracking, monitoring, control and messaging.
"The Simsmart Optimised Mine VOD software (OM-VOD) depends on reliable real-time tracking, monitoring and control of hundreds of terminal devices connected to diesel machinery, personnel, sensors, and actuators underground.
Simsmart evaluated several different tracking technologies and Newtrax is clearly the most reliable and cost-effective option to fill the gap between standard telecom infrastructure and the requirements of real-time Optimised Mine VOD," said Michel Masse, President of Simsmart.
A technical session about this innovative solution was held at the Maintenance Engineering / Mine Operator Conference (MEMO) held in Val-d'Or, Quebec, on 26 February 2008.
Pilot projects are also underway at Canadian underground mining sites to showcase the potential of this optimised VOD solution.
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