ICCL Cap Lamp Approved by MSHA

ICCL with is approved for use with Koehler Mark V Headpiece

Mine Site Technologies is pleased to announce the Integrated Communications Cap Lamp has received approval from Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) in the United States allowing its use in underground coal mines.

Importantly, the Integrated Communications Cap Lamp (ICCL) is based on Lithium-Ion battery technology and is approved for use in a number of configurations, such as:

• With an RFID Tag; which is integrated into the lamps internal circuitry at mines where tracking is required.
• With a PED pager to receiver text messages from the through-the-earth PED Transmission System
• With both RFID Tag and PED Pager
• Just a cap lamp only for those mines wanting a lightweight, long life lamp.

The ICCL is approved with Koehler?s commonly used Mark V headpiece, making the installation at many mine sites straight forward, with only minor electrical modifications required to some of the existing charging racks.  The ICCL is compatible with existing PED systems allowing simple upgrades.

Chuck Edwards of CSE Corporation, that supplies the PED System and ICCL?s to eastern US coal mines, and our Manager of North American operations, Mike Foletti, are very excited about the approval coming through on the ICCL, as it offers mines an excellent option to meet their responsibilities under the new Miners Act.

The response we have with the introduction of the ICCL in the Australian coal industry, certainly makes us encouraged that the US operators will give it serious consideration to be part of their solution to providing emergency communication & tracking systems at their mines.

Additional to the tracking & communication modules available now, on-going developments will see the release this year of an approved version of the radio ICCL.  This unit will allow the ICCL to be upgraded to also include an IS Radio module to use with leaky feeder radio systems.  After this an additional upgrade option will become available, being the two-way PED module, allowing through-the-earth signaling between the miner underground and the surface. 

We are confident that this complementary set of communication systems being available, and the inherent redundancy they achieve, should ensure very high quality emergency communications at any mine that chooses to install the ICCL units.

Some more information on the ICCL can be viewed at:
http://www.minesite.com.au/download/iccl_brochure.pdf