Realtime data means more time at the face
Realtime data means more time at the face
Written by Shannon Katary, Director of Marketing and Communications, Maestro Digital Mine
As mines continue to go deeper underground and embrace new digital technologies, the primary goal is to ensure the safety of the underground miners.
Maestro Digital Mine manufacturers Internet of Things (IoT) measurement and control instrumentation for the optimization of underground mine ventilation and underground digital networks for last mile of communication.
Maestro designs and manufactures products exclusively for the underground mine automation, IT and ventilation sector that delivers energy savings and productivity improvements while meeting the highest health and safety standards.
We quickly realized that our customers faced significant challenges to obtain real time data at the face both in terms of simplicity, cost and the ability to advance the network using any tradesperson or development miner.
Therefore, our vision is changing the way that underground mines communicate and to strip out complexity in automation jobs and make configuration flexible and easy.
We make the complex, simple!
Underground mines have challenging environmental conditions, including toxic gases from drill & blast operations or gases given off by the surrounding strata rock. Protecting miners from acute or chronic gas related health conditions is paramount for any responsible mining company.
Underground mines have challenging environmental conditions, including toxic gases from drill & blast operations or gases given off by the surrounding strata rock. Protecting miners from acute or chronic gas related health conditions is paramount for any responsible mining company.
To help ensure this, a variety of sensors transmit real time data from the underground workings to the surface control rooms. The use of these sensors allows miners to return safely to their working areas more quickly, allowing significant productivity increases.
However, the sensors are sensitive and require frequent maintenance and calibration, to maintain accurate measurements. The previous technology required underground calibrations at each individual location using test gases.
However, several physical and environmental challenges prevented accurate and repeatable calibrations of the sensors.
Vigilante AQS allows confidence
Maestro tackled this vital, life-saving application through the design and development of the Vigilante AQS™, a digital gas sensor that can be calibrated on surface in a stable controlled environment. The digital sensors then can be “hot swapped” by a ventilation technician without the requirement of any sort of underground calibration.
Built upon the IoT, the digital sensors have a complete suite of diagnostics to help to determine the health of the complete system and provide maximum system uptime.
This innovation has allowed our Vigilante AQS™ environmental stations to be installed in some of the deepest mines on the planet! Prior to this innovation, the underground miners lacked the confidence of the gas readings since there was no practical method of calibrating the sensors or understanding if the sensors were even working.
The IoT digital sensors allow this to become a reality. This will result in major productivity improvements by getting the miners safely back to the face quicker.
The Vigilante AQS™ is a third generation underground mine air quality monitoring station designed with an improved communication platform. The modular design provides extremely flexible integration to any SCADA, PLC, DCS, PLS or HMI system. Whether it is Modbus TCP/IP, EtherNet/IP or RS485 serial based, the Vigilante AQS™ is efficient.
An IP address makes this system quick, simple and economical to match to any Ethernet based network. Simply plug the Vigilante AQS™ into a network switch, configure the settings via the built-in web pages and start measuring. The register maps can easily be paired to most current or legacy monitoring platforms.
Maestro works in collaboration with its mining company clients and continues to build upon their critical feedback and guidance as we develop new products.
The Vigilante AQS™ was created to solve 100 per cent of the applications for mine ventilation monitoring and controlling, however solving all the applications with a single device adds extra costs for most of the simpler requirements.
The Vigilante’s baby brother
This is why, in 2019, Maestro launched the Zephyr AQS™; a compact, low cost environmental air quality monitoring station for underground mines.
The Zephyr AQS™ is an IoT device that connects directly to an industrial network without the requirement of adding an expensive and complex programmable logic controller (PLCs) and several analog based instruments.
Since it is a digital device, not only are the real time environmental conditions reported back to surface via a single Ethernet connection, but all the advanced diagnostic data is available too, assuring maximum uptime.
The Zephyr AQS™ is considered the baby brother of the Vigilante AQS™. Both provide plug and play sensors and both are fully digital. However, the Vigilante AQS™ supports seven plug and play ports vs. three for the Zephyr AQS™.
The Vigilante AQS™ also provides four complete PID (Proportional – Integral – Derivative) control loops to allow it to run autonomously in the event of network failure. It can also integrate up to 24 RTD sensors used in primary fan and booster fan applications.
The Zephyr AQS™ was developed to satisfy 75 per cent of all the air monitoring requirements of a modern mine. Airflow rate, airflow direction, gas levels, barometric pressure and wet/dry bulb temperatures can be measured in real time and now affordably.
The Zephyr AQS™ is designed for any mine aiming to increase production, improve miner worker safety and reduce energy by monitoring and controlling ventilation air in an underground operation.
The first step of working to control ventilation is the requirement of measurement. Only then can you start to understand and drive value to increasing production by getting the miners back to the face quicker and safer. Or reducing the energy demand by providing enough ventilation air to the areas of the mine that need it and reducing air to the non-working areas of the mine.
Plug and play technology
Like all Maestro’s solutions, the Zephyr AQS™ is fully digital solution that can be plugged into a network switch without the requirement of an expensive PLCs, PLC cabinets, or all of the associated wiring, terminations, software, and complex labour for integration into the network. Based on direct customer feedback, Maestro’s digital products save mining companies on average 40-60 per cent of CAPEX compared to conventional monitoring solutions. All Maestro solutions are provided with lifetime, free firmware updates. The full savings to mining clients is in the range of 70-80 per cent over the full life cycle with no hidden hooks or costs to bear in the OPEX maintenance cycle.
The new Zephyr AQS™ air quality station features three fully configurable sensor inputs that can be freely mixed and matched according to the customer’s requirements. Like the Vigilante AQS™, the Zephyr AQS™ will be configured through built-in web pages similar to that of a home network router.
All the sensors are connected to the Zephyr AQS™ electronics digitally supported by the way that the Zephyr AQS™ communicates over the mine’s network using standard network protocols. Maestro fully supports both of the two most popular network communication protocols – Modbus TCP/IP and EtherNet/IP™.
Alternately, the Zephyr AQS™ offers on-board analog outputs (3 x 4-20 mA) and two relay outputs to tie into legacy systems.
To date, Maestro’s Vigilante AQS™, Zephyr AQS™ air quality & control systems and Maestro Flex regulators are used in over 120 mines globally as part of a ventilation monitoring and control system. Working with some of the largest mining companies in the world, such as Vale, Mosaic, Nutrien, Glencore, Newmont Goldcorp, Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold and BHP, Maestro has developed ventilation solutions that reduce downtime and enable miners to return to the face faster and safer.
To find out more, visit www.maestrodigitalmine.com.
About this Author
Shannon Katary is the Director of Marketing and Communications for Maestro Digital Mine. Shannon is responsible for the creation and implementation of the Marketing and Communications Strategy. As a senior member of the team, she manages and develops the strategic branding, technical writing (internal and external messaging), builds and strengthens community and client relations, event coordination, photography, media and public relations for Maestro’s digital solutions. Shannon previously, held the position of Vice President of Marketing & Communications for CEMI – Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation and the Ultra Deep Mining Network (UDMN).
In her 13 years – and counting – with the mining industry, she has communicated, inspired and connected the world to the importance of mining. For Shannon, accelerating the Canadian mining innovation advantage is a lifetime career and volunteer path where she gets to use her “superpowers” to communicate ideas into tangible commercially viable products and services for the global mining industry. She is, at her core, a storyteller who brings the story to life!
Shannon is also a keynote speaker at various mining events, including the Women in Mining Northern Ontario Chapter. She serves on a various other volunteer organizations in her community such as MMTS – Modern Mining & Technology Sudbury and Dynamic Earth’s Go Deeper. In 2009, she received the Civic Award for Volunteerism from the City of Greater Sudbury. In 2013, Shannon was awarded the Top 40 Under 40 Sudbury by Northern Ontario Business. In 2019, Shannon won the prestigious CIM – Bedford Canadian Young Leaders in Mining Award.
The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of Canadian Mining Magazine / Matrix Group Publishing Inc.