safety on mines
feature
47
06.13
“
B
ased on the mining industry’s highly suc-
cessful uptake of our visual warning prod-
ucts, a single management solution was the
obvious next step for our corporate offering,” com-
ments Anton Lourens, MD of Booyco Electronics.
“The new system, which has been under develop-
ment for the past 12 months, offers better control,
accountability and a single point of contact for the
customer, effectively addressing an emerging trend
in the industry.
“BEAMS has been designed to be adaptable to the
information and infrastructure environment. The sys-
tem is able to interface with a mine’s own IT system
and its components are adaptable to existing equip-
ment. Everything on the surface is largely controlled
and managed by passive technology and underground
management is based on our collision warning VLF
technology.”
The heart of the system is Booyco Electronics’
state-of-the-art underground collision warning sys-
tem (CWS) technology. A CWS consists of a sensing
device that detects the presence of an object, an inter-
face that provides an audible and/or visual alarm to
the equipment operator and wiring between the two.
These systems warn both vehicle operators and pe-
booyco Asset management
solution
optimises
safety
destrians of potential col-
lisions and danger. Warn-
ing zones are stable and
predictable and can be
adjusted to mine-specific
zone requirements and
standardised to a particu-
lar type of equipment.
“CWS technology makes
it possible to locate pedes-
trians and vehicles under-
ground, which enhances
production efficiencies and facilitates emergency lo-
cating,” says Lourens. “The system warns pedestrians
when they enter the outer danger zone of approaching
and moving machinery and warns operators when a
pedestrian has entered the inner danger zone in close
proximity to the vehicle.
“What differentiates our CWS technology in the
current marketplace is the fact that it works equally
well on electrically-driven and diesel-powered ve-
hicles. We are the first to have achieved this capa-
bility and, with more than half of the trackless or
mechanised mining equipment presently in use in
the industry being diesel powered, this is a critical
requirement.”
Another key element of BEAMS is the lamp room
management system that ensures legal compliance to
South African mining industry lamp room require-
ments and allows for asset locating of the mine’s
safety equipment such as lamps, self-contained self-
rescuers, gas cylinders and gas instrumentation. The
system effectively eliminates the paper trail and re-
stricts human intervention in the management of the
monitored assets.
BEAMS also introduces an early warning notifica-
tion capability communicated from a central control
room that uses an LCD display on the miners’ lamps.
Lourens comments that because the successful im-
plementation of the paging system depends on the
mine’s underground infrastructure, BEAMS is able to
accommodate the mine’s existing underground infra-
structure either via a leaky feeder voice communica-
tion system or a fibre-optic backbone.
Booyco Electronics owns fibre optic splicing and
testing equipment and has access to trained and
skilled fibre optic technicians through its black-
owned subsidiary Booyco Ya Batho. This subsidiary
is able to assist with installation of the BEAMS un-
derground network, allowing the entire system to
be implemented within the Booyco Group which,
Lourens says, ensures uniformity of quality and
controls costs.
The heart of the system is Booyco
Electronics’ state-of-the-art under-
ground collision warning system
(CWS) technology.
Booyco Electronics has become one of the first local companies to respond to the
mining industry’s requirement for a single, full asset management solution de-
signed to optimise mine safety. BEAMS – Booyco Electronics Asset Management
System – combines several safety building blocks into a single software system
with full database history reporting capability.
Anton Lourens ... “a single management
solution was the obvious next step for our
corporate offering.”
