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Nautilus International Proximity Protection
Nautilus International
Proximity Dectection
In 2002, Massey Energy expressed a desire to work with MSHA to develop a system that could be incorporated on their continuous mining machines to prevent remote control related accidents and improve safety at their operations. MSHA determined that a system manufactured by Nautilus, International was most applicable to continuous mining operations. Massey Energy committed to providing the necessary machines and mine sites to develop and test the proximity protection system. Nautilus International committed to adapt non-permissible system for continuous miners and to design a permissible system. MSHA coordinated the project, and provided technical assistance in the development of the permissible proximity protection system.

A successful field test of the system was completed on April 13, 2006 at Massey Energy's Spirit Mine near Madison, WV. During the field test, the system provided consistent warning and shutdown commands and effectively prevented an operator wearing the proximity beltpack unit from entering hazardous areas around the machine. A 360 degree protection zone around the entire machine was provided by a single machine mounted magnetic field antenna.

The original system components are approved by MSHA as complying with the applicable provisions of Title 30 Code of Federal Regulations (30 CFR) Part 18.

Nautilus is currently working on a revision to their product to incorporate the beltpack unit into a cap lamp battery. The revised configuration has not yet received MSHA approval.



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