Space travel inspires
new mining gear
As miners travel deeper beneath the sur-
face of the Earth, they fight against obsta-
cles such as intense heat, lack of fresh air,
contaminants,communication and navigation,
all the while strapped with hard hats and bat-
teries to the hip. The Centre of Excellence in
Mining Innovation (CEMI) is designing equip-
ment for miners which can be formidable
against the realities of deep mining environ-
ments.
Deltion Innovations Ltd. In Sudbury, Ont. Is
one of the several industry partners working
to develop new tools for the next generation
of integrated personal protective equipment
(IPPE). The IPPE suits and helmets provide
controls such as thermal and air supply as well
as intricate communications and heads-up dis-
play capabilities. The functionalities will allow
the worker with abilities such as filter, cool,
protect and monitor vital signs, all the while
providing lighting, power supply and recording
functions.
The issue began with financial unpredict-
ability and risk of funding and developing new
mines in recent economy. Due to such fac-
tor, there is an increasing emphasis on dig-
ging deeper in existing mines. Current protec-
tive methods are not equipped to handle the
harsh environments of a deep mine, and are
incapable of providing adequate support to
the miner.
The new design proposals are inspired by
two distinct sources; the suit and the helmet.
The suit is addressing similar issues as those
currently in space. Sensors for measuring bio-
metrics have been developed by the Canadian
Space Agency. As for cooling the core temper-
ature, suits consists of cooling systems com-
bined with unique breathing system from Ken-
nedy Space Station. The helmets take many
inspirational sources. Their built-in breathing
and filtering apparatus is currently used in
firefighting and their video and camera capa-
bilities are inspired by motocross display sys-
tems, as well as their built in display and noise
cancellation.
Existing technologies will provide miners
the ability to dig deeper under the surface the
Earth, which is the most preferred option in
the current mining industry as it faces an eco-
nomical challenge.
JULY 2014
H
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