Wireless networking solutions provider Rajant Corp announced that its BreadCrumb wireless system has been approved and listed by the West Virginia Office of Miner’s Health, Safety and Training for use by mining-permit holders.
The mesh-networking system connects laptops and voice-over-IP telephones up to 3,200 feet from the mine communications center. Battery-powered wireless access nodes enable voice and data communications across a meshed, self-healing network and communicate with other IP-based client devices such as sensors, video cameras, laptops and satellite terminals, according to the company.
Rajant components generate ad hoc, self-forming networks. Each node in the network comes in a rugged black box that weighs just over two pounds. Placed in buildings, in trucks or on the ground, the nodes can support a network over an area of 10 miles or more. The network “self-heals,” so a loss of power or function in one node won’t take down the rest of the network.
The mine tragedy in Utah that killed 6 people is prompting legislators to call for further investigations and hearings to determine what went wrong at the Crandall Canyon mine and to question if the state of mine safety in the United States has improved since passage of the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act of 2006.
Meanwhile, two brothers in China who were given up for dead at a coal mine collapse in China emerged from the pit over five days later, in what the press hailed as a “miracle” survival story. Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou finally clawed their way to the surface after nearly six days underground – a rare tale of survival in China’s coal mines, the world’s deadliest, where an average of 13 workers are killed every day.
Rescuers in northeastern China’s Shandong province are trying to reach 181 miners trapped in two flooded coal shafts. Officials said Tuesday they had not given up hope even though the workers’ chances of survival were dim after 11 days.
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