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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hank2010 who wrote (67923)	11/7/2009 2:38:38 AM
From: E. Charters	Respond to of 78408

I think they need a better hoist communication system, as well as a cable tension meter with a bit of AI on it. Alarm devices for water levels at the sump could use fail-safe backup devices that record their self-failure giving at least silent visual alarm when they fail. Flow meters and water level alarms/ sump pump switches should have Sangamo type charts that are easily readable. You should not need a magnifying glass or have to crane your neck to see water level records for the sump. All underground info of any importance should have a time record for levels of all critical data that is permanent and does not depend on having to reboot a windows computer. (Westray for instance probably did not have a central station that collated and presented graphical representations of methane, colours showing the Standard Deviations or excursions above and below mean.) Hoists still have 1930 style signalling devices and lilly switches for stopping ascent. Granted the bell signals are quick and robust, but they are 1930's. Voice would not improve things much, even given that a cage is not that noisy an environment, as most people's diction and training for voice is poor. Army radio comm trains operators to be understood by exaggerating diction especially for numbers and letters that people mix, like P, B and D. Signals are at least quick, but lack vocabulary for full info and questions are hard to ask. What a cage tender needs is feedback on travelling conditions that is instantaneous and not dependent on an operator. Travelling phones based on leaky feeder lines are easy today, They had to be cable connected and were much less reliable back then. A prejudice about using radio in areas of electrical blasting caps has prevailed, but cell systems just don't have the wattage to blow caps. Few people realize cages have always been made of titanium. Same metal as Bren Gun Carriers. They don't rust. I noted that with wonder when I saw an old cage in a dump near a mine long ago. I was not ferrous anywhere but a dull brownish colour. They still use cable attached loose-engage leaf springs to cause dogs to swign around and catch the wooden guide beams on cable failure. The old problem still exists. The dogs can spring around 180 degrees upon a cable break, and jam in a downward facing position past their catching point. The cage guides, being water-soaked at lower levels more, can also be stripped continuously by the dogs and not stop the cage at all. Since at drop tests they change out the test beams, they never get to see what would happen with an older, water soaked beam. The cage sometimes don't stop. Experiments have shown this. A better system and one that has never failed Otis Elevator is the steel beam brake-guide system with multiple cage support cables going over pulleys. Much less likely you would break two or three cables, than one. It has been suggested to use a steel guide which would be engaged by penetrating stopping dogs on cable failure. A little harder to engineer, and steel guides would rust unless protected. Clearances on gear engaged steel would take some engineering and probably not be practical with ground movement a constant threat. Sliders that clamped zinced or aluminized steel beams would not always be assured of stoppage. Rollers would need a sideways acting suspension to constantly engage the beam regardless of riding/brake system. EC<:-}