Hardened Ethernet Switches Support Mine Safety

By Control Engineering Staff. As seen in Control Engineering, February 2009. Click here to download this article as a pdf file (168k).

Mines require rigorous safety programs such as gas detection monitoring systems. If the monitoring network is inoperative there are only two alternatives: shut down a section of the mine or reassign miners from production teams to manually take readings in the area.

Conspec Controls designs and manufactures mine safety systems, and uses hardened communications equipment, including hardened managed Ethernet switches, to ensure reliability and availability. Rob Albinger of Conspec knows that the systems they provide require switches that are sealed against the dirt, dust, and moisture that are ever present in mines, and that their networks should be set up to operate as redundant rings, providing fail-over communications for customers such as Patriot Coal, Charleston, WV. Because of the bandwidth inherent in Ethernet deployments, Patriot was able to install a new gas detection monitoring system and address a second management initiative, which was to provide more visibility into the mines. [... continues ...]

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