The system detects people in close proximity to moving machinery and brings it to a halt if people are too close.
The machines generate an electromagnetic field, which is picked up by transponders in miners' caplamps, Leibbrandt says. As soon as people are at an unsafe distance from a moving machine, there is first a warning beep and if they come closer than two metres, the machine automatically applies the braking system and stops dead, preventing people from being run over. Sasol Mining developed the system in conjunction with US firm Frederick Mining Controls.
Five years ago, Sasol Mining realised that its major accidents were machinery-related and in particular involved people being injured by moving machinery. A worldwide survey showed that there were no systems available to prevent people being run over underground and Frederick Mining Controls undertook to develop the technology and refine it through trials. Results were so impressive, Sasol Mining MD Hermann Wenhold says, that the mining industry "is taking this (the technology) on. We've had legislators from the US actually visiting us, we believe, with the aim of making this compulsory in the US," he told Mining Weekly Online.
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