WRITTEN BY DON CAMPBELL

There is an old saying that action is better than re-action and this couldn’t be truer whenever it comes to mine safety. Across the board, mining is an industry relying on heavy machinery that is often gargantuan in size that nevertheless needs to be manoeuvred with an incredible level of precision and skill on a minute by minute basis. An accident, even a small one can trigger a domino effect that can halt or stop production, destroy important machinery and worse cost lives.

STAYING UP

Mining employees are some of the most skilled people in

the world, and their tasks range from miners working

hands on in the mines to the transport and logistic

drivers who transport the raw product to processing plants. Long

hours, with often monotonous routine is a mainstay of their position

and one of the leading causes of mining accidents is driver fatigue.

We spoke with Jacob Khumbane regarding the manner in which

Guardvant is looking to stem this problem at its source to keep mine

workers safe.

“Today more than ever our lives are impacting our sleep patterns,”

Jacob explains, “Via the internet we have access to information,

communication and entertainment at all hours of the day. This also

brings the reality of longer working hours. The average person sleeps

one hour less than they did ten years ago which is an hour we need,”

When considered, an hour less a night adds up to over thirty hours

a month that should be used for the mind to recuperate. Combine

this with longer working hours, rotating shifts, longer commutes to

the site and the stress brought about by sleep deprivation, that can,

ironically, disrupt sleeping patterns further and anyone would find it

difficult to stay alert throughout the day and night.

Long haul truck operators are of course at risk of fatigue during any

time of their shift, however research has shown that the majority of

fatigue-events are likely to occur during the long periods of inactivity

and driving during long hauls and during the naturally occurring low

periods of brain activity that occur over a twenty four hour period.

In the Western world, falling asleep can sometimes be considered

a sign of weakness, especially by employers and people would rather

GUARDVANT

In situations like this, prevention is far better than cure, and with the industry providing state of the art machinery and equipment the preventative measures have to be levied around the one element that cannot be replaced but does not evolve as fast as the equipment they use. People.

try to push through rather than take a moment to rest, “However,

when you’re on the clock and have a deadline to reach this is often

simply not possible and micro-sleeps, when a person may lose

consciousness for only a handful of seconds, can occur at any period

and are beyond the control of the driver, fatigue management is finally

being addressed as a critical part of mine safety.”

Guardvant is the leading source of fatigue management solutions

and have found that an important part is making use of available

technology to monitor operators for signs of fatigue and distracted

driving.

“For our operator fatigue monitoring and collision avoidance

systems we make use of the most advanced technologies to help

improve operator performance, creating a more productive working

environment, and protect the assets of our clients,” Jacob says.

He goes on to add that their impressive record of successful

system design, implementation and support in the mining industry can

be credited to their customer-centric approach that allows them to

deliver specific products that are right for their goals and objectives.

These products, like OpGuard is a non-intrusive operator fatigue

and distracted driving monitoring system that can integrate with

ProxGuard, a collision avoidance system that uses radar, cameras and

GPS for proximity awareness and object detection. This technology is

“ We make use of the most advanced technologies to help improve operator performance, creating a more productive working environment, and protect the assets of our clients.”

not new but Guardvant has adopted it innovatively to address unique

mining challenges with advance functionalities, “By integrating

OpGuard and ProxGuard addresses two leading causes of accidents

in one, operator fatigue and blind spots.”

With a mission to create innovative solutions to improve

productivity, safety and security at mining, plant and port operations,

anywhere that operators in charge of machinery may suffer from

fatigue or distraction, these products are continuously adapting and

evolving as monitoring technology improves.

Acting like an ever present driver’s friend, the GuardvantOpGuard

system is designed to awaken the operator, alert supervisors and

provide managers data to implement their fatigue prevention

programs. Prevention is better than cure and the immediate benefit

of these systems is that operators avoid accidents and get to go home

safely; it also reduces costs of accidents and damage repairs. Fewer

accidents and incidents will increase operational efficiency, cut down

on shutdown time and the time taken to investigate accidents.

How Does It Work?Using non-intrusive technology that monitors head and facial

movements in 3D, PERCLOS (percentage eyelide-closure) and

micro sleeps that are the main red flags of fatigue and tiredness, the

GuardvantOpGuardhas been well received from clients and drivers

alike.

“If the OpGuard algorithm detects fatigue or distracted-driving

events,” Jacob says, “The system provides an alert to the operator, and

at the same time sends event notifications in real-time to the mine

control room where oversight and management of risk takes effect.”

These personnel may include the mine site dispatcher or

supervisor, who are notified through an exception notice to the fleet

management system (FMS) display in the dispatch office, or via SMS

or email. The dispatcher or supervisor is then in the position to contact

the operator according to the mine’s procedures for addressing

fatigue or distracted-driving events.

“The result of this preventative action is clear,” he adds.

A rapidly growing number of mines have a “zero harm” safety goal

and Guardvant’s approach is to create safety and security systems

that are not to monitor for the sake of penalizing, but ardently to

improve operator performance and create better productivity.

Keeping mine employees safe is the number one priority for

all mine managers and by removing the damaging effects of fatigue

and fatigue related accidents and stress has made systems such as

OpGuard a valuable tool to any mine’s safety program.

“We tailor systems to meet the unique performance metrics and

safety goals for mines,” Jacob says, “And augment our technologies

with training, education and change management programs to make

sure that the systems are in place for continuous safety and security

improvement.”

The PeopleA deep understanding of mining and the accompanying operational

challenges is required to develop safety and security systems that

work and the success of their product can be credited back to the

team of engineers at Guardvant Inc based in Arizona Tucson USA

who bring decades of mining industry knowledge and expertise in the

development and deployment of innovative mine systems.

On site technicians are on hand to offer support to the clients as

well as training throughout the system installation to ensure that the

systems work properly and will continue to do so for the long term.

“Thanks to the contributions to the industry in terms of new

technologies, software and systems that our engineers have designed,”

Jacob says, “Mines have been able to instigate improvements to their

management of safety and operations.”

With applications not only in the mining sector the proficiency of

Guardvant’s systems is such that one can see them being implemented

in all driver reliant machinery until vehicles across the globe have

OpGuard protecting all drivers as standard.

Preventing accidents may not be dramatic, however when

considering the damage that can occur during the five or six seconds

that a driver may nod off during a micro-sleep you can appreciate the

importance of the system looking after you.

“We tailor systems to meet the unique performance metrics and safety goals for mines and augment our technologies with training, education and change management programs to make sure that the systems are in place for continuous safety and security improvement.”

GUARDVANT

www.littlegatepublishing.com

GUARDVANT

0027 783 875 534

WWW.GUARDVANT.COM