Written by Karly Winfield, Technical Sales Consultant at Provix Inc.
Although fatality incidence rates and the total number of mine worker fatalities have trended downward during the past 20 years across North America, collisions continue to pose a significant threat to the safety of mines. Ensuring worker safety near machines is a challenging problem and, in many cases, it is an industry-accepted practice to allow workers near moving machinery in order to perform their jobs. Proximity-monitoring and detection solutions have been proven to significantly limit these risks.
The Provix RealTrac Proximity detection and CAS system provides positioning, localization, alert notification, and for the tracking of people, equipment and other objects in underground and in open areas wherever the use of global navigation systems is impossible or inefficient. In addition, the RealTrac system is scalable to provide voice communication and data transmission between monitored objects as well as between system managers. Complete back and front office application software, site mapping, and AI and IOT functionality is fully enabled. Implemented at underground mines, open pits and industrial sites; RealTrac uses UWB Ultra-Wide band and UHF technology to provide positioning accuracy to within ten centimetres. Two-way tag communication enables operator awareness and pedestrian notification of equipment proximity.
The Benefits of RealTrac Collision Avoidance
- Long range – typically 50 to 100 metres and not line-of-sight dependent
- 360 degrees of protection at any visibility
- Dynamic safety zones, fully mine configurable
- Intelligent warnings, operator friendly
- Two-way warnings to pedestrians and operators
- Includes black box recording
- Apart of an overall, consistent CAS/Monitoring/IoT system
- vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-person (V2P)
The Safety Zone Concept
1. Improve Safety:
Staff Monitoring – Always Know Where Staff and Equipment is Located:
- Know location for urgency or emergency; and
- Assure correct evacuation.
Collision Avoidance- Proximity Detection and Collision Avoidance:
- Vehicle-to-Person (V2P) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) protection;
- Operator alert for proximity and danger; and
- Equipment Slow-Down or stop in case of emergency.
Victim Localization Provides a More Efficient Victim Search:
- Last known position; and
- Tag signal search assistance.
2. Increase Efficiency:
- Equipment utilization Key Performance Indicators (KPI);
- Traffic management;
- Equipment remote control; and
- Time reduction to locate assets and equipment.
3. Realtrac’s Proven Results:
- Implemented at more than 50 sites (both Underground and Surface);
- Over 7,000 Tags in operation; and
- Ten-Year Operational History.
About Karly Winfield
Karly is a Technical sales consultant at Provix Inc. She has worked in the mining industry for the last twelve years and been underground at more than 50 mines. Karly is an honours graduate of the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Management Economics and Finance. She also holds a Level l Infrared Thermography Certification.
Karly was named ‘Top 10 under 40’ by Rock to Road magazine in 2015 for leading the next generation of safety in mining and aggregates. She is recognized by the Ministry of Labour in Ontario as a go-to resource on the subject of vision enhancement and reducing interactions between equipment and personnel; Karly has presented information seminars to industry participants from coast to coast to coast. She also sits on the board of directors of MSTA Canada.
At Provix, Karly works full time on supplying and providing technical advice on the service/support of mobile safety systems such as cameras, lighting, proximity detection, and remote video systems to increase safety and production efficiency.
She also works with mining engineers to analyze operations for the purpose of determining specific requiremets for designing and deploying custom video systems throughout North America. In addition, she has worked with mobile equipment departments at both surface and underground mining operations to enhance safety and productivity on heavy equipment.
Karly has participated in studies with Laurentian University covering a variety of types of heavy equipment for the purpose of identifying blind spots, no go zones, and enhancing operator sight lines for safer operations and greater productivity.
About Provix
Provix Inc. is a progressive and forward-thinking organization that specializes in finding and providing logical solutions to many types of problems and issues.
Provix specializes in vision enhancement and video camera systems with rugged capabilities that provide the functionality required for the task at hand. From thermal imaging in the oil sands, to FireWatch cameras for heat detection, to police and fire service use, to temperature sensing for industrial and health care applications, the company develops cost-effective solutions to meet the challenges of modern day life. Provix solutions increase productivity, make workplaces safer and provide peace of mind to workers and management around the globe.
Contact Karly Winfield at +1 (519) 803 5805 / karly@provix.net.
We look forward to assisting you!
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