FKC-Lake Shore, in collaboration with Technogrid (Pty) Ltd and Horne Conveyance Safety Ltd., has finalized a significant advancement in underground mine conveyance safety. The Sentinel Safety Catch for mine cages was developed, modeled, manufactured, and comprehensively tested over a two-year period. Now available commercially, Sentinel has the potential to reduce the risk of injury to miners in the event of a safety dog activation resulting from a rope severance or slack rope occurrence..
Some benefits of Sentinel include:
- Safer deceleration forces for miners in the event of a rope break or slack rope condition (vs conventional safety mechanisms on steel guides)
- Deceleration rates exceed the most stringent free fall test requirements in the world, including Ontario mining regulations
- More forgiving on the conveyance and shaft guides in an arrestment event
- Mechanical system with few moving parts
- Does not rely on friction; removing an uncertain variable in wet and dirty environments
- Low-maintenance
- Used with single or multi-rope systems on steel guides. Replacing costly and ever more difficult to procure wood guides
We are extraordinarily proud of the team that developed, tested, and labored to bring this product to market. Together we’ve developed a product capable of improving the safety performance of our clients, but foremost we’ve delivered a system that will increase the odds of sending our industry’s most important asset – our miners – home safely at the end of each day.
Sentinel: Keeping watch. Ready if needed.
