For the last two years, NLT’s engineering team has been quietly working to complete a bold assignment: create an innovative cap lamp technology that meets the lighting needs of most all miners, no matter where they work or what type of job they do. In September 2021, NLT unveiled its new development at MINExpo: Dual-Beam in the Polaris Plus cap lamp.

Dual-Beam features three distinct beam pattern settings: Focused Spot – NLT’s traditional beam pattern; Wide-Angle Flood Light – a flat, even light that is ideal for close-up work; and Dual-Beam – a combination of both beam patterns to provide a center spot with great peripheral lighting. It also has a Low-Light Setting and an added feature, Dynamic Turbo Bright, which enables each of the three settings to have its light output increased by almost 40%. The multiple settings allow miners to select the exact beam pattern and brightness that works best for them and adjust it to meet the requirements of the specific job they are doing.

Polaris Plus, the new Dual-Beam version of its award-winning Polaris (the top selling cap lamp in the mining industry with over 100,000 lamps sold) was on display at MINExpo. NLT is currently accepting orders for the new Polaris Plus cap lamp. In Q4 2022, Dual-Beam will be available in all of NLT’s cap lamps, including its Smart Lamps, which hold tracking and/or proximity tags.

Consistent with the NLT Lighting Solutions suite of products, the new Dual-Beam lamps will offer the highest-quality, most cost-effective replaceable battery and cap lamp on the market. Each NLT lamp lasts an average of 5 years and has an inexpensive replacement kit available that can renew it for another 5 years, lowering the total cost of ownership.

To learn more about NLT’s Dual-Beam Cap Lamps, contact Rich Humber at 416-886-9774 or rhumber@nltinc.com.

Who would have thought that the humble cap lamp would become a hub of technological innovation and safety in mining? Today, Smart Cap Lamps are helping enable the digital transformation of underground mines and providing innovative solutions.

Below is a countdown of the Top 5 Reasons progressive mines are adopting Smart Lamps into their operations:

FIRST – WHAT IS A SMART CAP LAMP?

It’s an IoT-enabled underground mining cap lamp that incorporates tracking and/or proximity tags. It is designed in partnership with 3rd-party solution providers (tracking and prox companies) and may also enable evacuation & proximity warnings, lone worker alerts and two-way communication.

Top Reason #5

MORE & BETTER DATA

As data collection and analysis has become more sophisticated, it is being increasingly mined to identify opportunities for increased productivity. For example, tracking enables problems like processing backlogs or poor allocation of staff resources to be quickly identified and remedied.

Financial benefit: Increased productivity means a better bottom line.

Top Reason #4

MINE CAN USE ITS RESOURCES BETTER

A tracking solution is like lifting the lid of a mine and allowing management to see in real time what is going on. With tracking tags in cap lamps, mines can manage resources better, like being able to quickly locate and direct the closest specialists, such as an electrician or a mechanic, to fix a situation in the mine.

Financial benefit: Saved time and efficient resource allocation resulting in fewer – and shorter – shutdowns provide huge financial payback.

Top Reason #3

ONE CHARGER – ONE RECHARGEABLE BATTERY

The mine doesn’t have to worry about non-rechargeable batteries failing, changing batteries or replacing lamps when the batteries die. Miners don’t have to fret about putting multiple devices on charging stations to ensure they work. If the lamp is on, the tag(s) are powered and working. Additionally, by powering off of cap lamps, a mine can increase the beaconing frequency and tracking accuracy without jeopardizing the amount of time the battery will last.

Financial benefit: Depending on the beaconing rate, tag batteries will need to be replaced every 6-9 months, which involves significant out-of-pocket cost and staff time to do the replacement. By using the rechargeable battery, it completely eliminates the need for disposable batteries for the life of the tag.

Top Reason #2

MINERS PINPOINTED IN AN EMERGENCY

Should an event occur in the mine, a tracking solution can help expedite the evacuation of personnel and help prioritize rescue efforts by pinpointing the locations of miners that might require assistance or identifying occupancy and capacity of refuge chambers.

Financial benefit: No price can be put on the value of a human life.

Top Reason #1

TAG IS ALWAYS ON THE MINER

This is the primary reason mines purchase Smart Lamps!

The tracking and proximity solutions are only as good as the tags, so for mines, it’s critical to make sure they are on the miner at all times. Tags can be forgotten, lost, dropped or set aside, and if miners don’t have the tags on them, the systems fail. One of the major causes of death and injury in a mine are miners getting pinched/crushed by equipment in tight spaces. When miners are wearing their tags, proximity awareness solutions greatly reduce this type of injury.

Financial benefits: 1) Replacing lost tags is expensive. Many tracking tags run $100-$300 and proximity tags cost hundreds of dollars. 2) Any incident involving injury or deaths results in huge costs to the mine – a safer mine reduces likelihood of incidents. 3) Mines can be sure miners are where they are supposed to be, doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Smart Cap Lamps

NLT pioneered the concept of the “Smart Cap Lamp” in 2012 with the introduction of Genesis, the world’s first cordless cap lamp to accommodate a built-in tracking tag (Genesis is MSHA-approved with the Extronics AeroScout tag).

In 2018, NLT raised the bar yet again with the introduction of the semi-corded Eagle and corded Falcon lamps, capable of accommodating not only a tracking tag but also a proximity awareness tag.

Today, we have partnerships with most of the world’s major tracking and proximity providers. To learn more about Smart Cap Lamps, read our blog posts: Interested in the Future of Mining? Then You’ll Want to Know About Smart Cap Lamps and Three Factors Driving the Increase in Mine Tracking.

NLT offers the highest-quality, most cost-effective replaceable battery and cap lamp on the market. Each NLT lamp lasts an average of 5 years and has an inexpensive replacement kit available that can renew it for another 5 years. Compare that to the cost of a throw-away lamp that is good for only about 2 years.

To learn more about NLT’s Smart Cap Lamps, contact Rich Humber at 416-886-9774 or rhumber@nltinc.com.

In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, NLT is now manufacturing certified three-ply disposable medical-grade face masks in Canada. These hypoallergenic and water-repellent masks provide more than 99% bacterial and particulate filtration efficiency. They are designed for use in the medical industry and exceed criteria for the recent Public Health Agency of Canada’s recommendation that residents wear masks that have three layers and a filter, making them appropriate for all uses.

With a metal core nose bridge that assures a better fit, the 175mm x 95mm mask is latex- and fiberglass-free. Its three-ply design features an external layer that is completely water-repellent, a middle one composed of a polypropylene meltblown filter for high-level filtration efficiency and an inside layer that is soft and gentle for face contact.

The Northern Light medical face mask has an ASTM F2100:2019 (Level 2 and Level 3) certification, which is the standard specification for the performance of materials used in medical face masks, and is manufactured in an ISO 8 clean room facility. It is also currently in the certification process for the European Standard EN14683 Type IIR.

NLT combines high-level quality controls and systems to create these Canadian-made masks appropriate for healthcare workers, long-term care professionals and first responders. They may also be preferred by members of the general public wanting higher-grade, certified masks. Recent studies reported by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) demonstrate that multi-layer masks can block up to 50-70% of fine droplets and particles, limiting forward spread and also reducing the wearer’s exposure to infection droplets through filtration.

Northern Light medical face masks are available by emailing info@nltinc.com or contacting our Canadian distributer, Levitt-Safety, at 1-888-4LEVITT.

Visit our medical face masks page.

The Rise of Tracking Technologies
Recently, NLT has seen a significant increase in mines installing new tracking solutions as well as upgrading their systems with new technologies like LTE.

The three factors driving this increased interest in tracking are:
1) Safety: key personnel with access to the mine’s network can see at a glance who’s in and out of the mine at any given time. Should an “event” occur in the mine, a tracking solution can help expedite the evacuation of personnel and help prioritize rescue efforts by providing the last known locations of miners requiring assistance. Tracking solutions can also be used to monitor restricted areas within the mine, ensuring unauthorized personnel do not enter. Newer tracking solutions are additionally starting to offer bidirectional communication, allowing a miner in trouble to send an alert to a command center.

2) Financial: any incident involving injury or deaths results in huge costs to the mine. Tracking solutions help keep miners out of harm’s way and, when trouble occurs, expedites evacuation and rescue. Tracking solutions contribute to a significantly safer work environment for miners.

3) Productivity: a tracking solution helps ensure that miners and equipment are where they are supposed to be, doing what they are supposed to be doing. A tracking solution provides unprecedented insight into the workings of a mine. It is like being able to lift the lid off the mine, allowing key decision makers to see in real-time what is going on. It also allows management to manage resources better, for example, they can quickly locate and direct specialists, such as mechanics or electricians, to fix a situation in the mine.

Why Put Tracking Tags in a Cap Lamp?
With a traditional tracking solution, tags can be easily forgotten or lost. At $100-300 per tag, this can represent a significant expense for a mine. By installing the tag in the miner’s cap lamps, it is protected from impact and moisture by the lamp’s housing, and it assures the tag is always with the miner. Powering the tag off the lamp’s rechargeable battery also eliminates the hassle of monitoring its life and replacing costly single-use batteries. (Depending on the beaconing rate, single-use batteries in a standalone tag will need to be replaced every 6-12 months.) By allowing miners to charge all elements uniformly on one charger, their tags stay functional. And with tags in their lamps, they are always accessible to management, which is critical in the event of an emergency.

Smart Cap Lamps
NLT pioneered the concept of the “Smart Lamp” in 2012 with the introduction of Genesis, the world’s first cordless cap lamp to accommodate a built-in tracking tag. In 2018, NLT raised the bar yet again with the introduction of the semi-cordless Eagle and corded Falcon lamps, capable of accommodating not only a tracking tag but also a proximity awareness tag. Today, we have partnerships with most of the world’s major tracking and proximity providers. To learn more about Smart Cap Lamps, read our blog: Interested in the Future of Mining? Then You’ll Want to Know About Smart Cap Lamps.

NLT is always looking for new ways to make our lamps lighter, smaller, brighter and more cost-effective. To learn more about NLT’s Smart Cap Lamps, contact Rich Humber at 416-886-9774 or rhumber@nltinc.com.

Location: LaRonde, Goldex, Meliadine mines

Mineral: Gold

Scope: Design, manufacture and distribute an IoT-enabled cap lamp

Application: A semi-corded cap lamp that could support collision avoidance and personnel tracking

Highlights:
Developed a semi-corded IoT-enabled cap lamp in partnership with Agnico Eagle
Worked with third-party proximity warning/collision avoidance vendors to insert their tag into an NLT cap lamp
Worked with third-party personnel tracking vendors to insert their tag into our lamp

Site Information:
Agnico Eagle is a Canadian senior gold mining company with operations in Canada, Finland and Mexico. They have exploration activities in each of these countries as well as the United States and Sweden. The company uses its three pillars – performance, pipeline and people – to form the basis of its business strategy while operating in a safe and socially/environmentally responsible manner. LaRonde, Goldex and Meliadine are Agnico Eagle’s three underground mines in Canada. These mines together produced approximately 735,000 ounces of gold in 2019. Agnico Eagle continues to view investing in the safety, security and productivity of its personnel through technology as a sound strategy to maintain their success in the future.

Project Details:
Agnico Eagle wanted a new cap lamp for its underground mines. They were satisfied with the helmet-mounted, all-in-one form factor of the Northern Light® Polaris and wanted to use this brand of cap lamp to enable their IoT efforts. The cap lamp would need to power and house a third-party collision avoidance and personnel tracking solution while keeping with the same or better light output of the Polaris. Agnico Eagle was willing to work with a cap lamp manufacturer and invest in the product development of an all-new IoT-enabled cap lamp.

Solution:
After working extensively with Agnico Eagle, and several of its third-party technology partners, NLT delivered the Northern Light® Eagle Integrated Lamp System (ILS). The Eagle ILS is an IP67, Proximity Warning-ready and Wi-Fi tag-enabled semi-corded cap lamp with best-in-class LED and lithium-ion battery technology. The Eagle ILS has a three-button headpiece connected via a lamp cord to a high-powered battery pack that is mounted on the back of the hard hat. The NLT charging infrastructure at Agnico Eagle’s underground mine sites was also retrofitted to accommodate the new Eagle ILS.

Capturing the Voice of the Customer:
This was the first time that NLT worked with a mine as the initial client, providing an unprecedented opportunity to listen to the voice of the customer. From concept design to manufacturing to deployment, NLT worked with Agnico Eagle to deliver an ILS that met the end-user’s needs. After NLT had won the contract with Agnico Eagle, they began to work closely with Agnico’s key personnel to develop a concept design for a helmet-mounted cap lamp. The design transitioned from an initial all-in-one cap lamp to a helmet-mounted semi-corded design to accommodate the two IoT technology tags. As the design progressed, comfort, function, integration and serviceability were all considered.

The mine’s personnel would be working for 12 hours with this lamp on their head, so the comfort of the end-user would need to be taken into account. The weight distribution of the lamp and how it balanced were tested extensively to avoid neck strain. The three-button solution was a functional design change to accommodate the third-party IoT tag company’s self-initiated emergency alarm solution. Finally, to enhance the serviceability, NLT made a choice to “stack” the LED board and Collison Avoidance tags onto one another. This design strategy would ensure that the future iterations of the lamp would be third-party agnostic and allow NLT to work with other technology providers.

NLT worked extensively with Agnico Eagle’s third-party partners to deliver the Northern Light® Eagle. Partners from the IoT companies to the hard hat manufacturers would advise on key design considerations. NLT had to work on the PCB design with the IoT companies to ensure that both boards fit into the two enclosures. Testing procedures were developed by NLT to ensure each tag operated effectively. NLT designed and advised on the two hard hat mounts with feedback from the manufacturer. This feedback would be crucial to designing an ergonomic solution.

After the Eagle was delivered, the mine’s personnel began to provide further feedback as to how the lamp could be improved. Those improvements were incorporated into the Northern Light® Eagle ILS that NLT offers today.

What are Smart Cap Lamps?
These technologically advanced lamps have been designed to incorporate proximity and/or tracking tags through partnerships with 3rd-party solution providers. In addition to basic tracking functionality, these lamps are also capable of bi-directional communication, enabling evacuation warnings, lone worker alerts and other two-way communications. If the future of mining matters to you, understanding how Smart Lamps factor into mining innovations will be key.

NLT pioneered the concept of the “Smart Lamp” in 2012, with the introduction of Genesis, the world’s first cordless cap lamp to accommodate a built-in tracking tag. In 2018, NLT raised the bar yet again with the introduction of the semi-cordless Eagle and corded Falcon lamps, capable of accommodating not only a tracking tag but also a proximity awareness tag. What separates NLT’s Smart Lamps from the competition is our commitment to accommodating most of the tag options available in the marketplace. Other lamp manufacturers’ platforms are typically designed around a single 3rd-party solution provider’s tag. The platform is more than just a tag holder, however. Only advanced and specialized engineering development allows each tag to be integrated into the lamp.

Partnerships
NLT provides by far the largest selection of the smartest and most versatile cap lamps on the market today. We currently have partnerships with most of the world’s major tracking and proximity providers. Our 3rd-party partnerships include: AeroScout, Ambra LTE, AiRISTA Flow, Meglab-Imagine, Mobilaris, Newtrax, NLT Digital’s N-Connex and Strata. Ambra, in fact, is the first LTE cellular network providing tracking. And all of their lamps can be adapted to the uses described above. We also recently partnered with Mobilaris on the first bi-directional tracking solution, allowing a command center to flash the light on an individual cap lamp, or all cap lamps, in a mine and have the miner acknowledge receipt of the message. Of course, the lamps can be customized for multiple flashing sequences to indicate different messages.

These Smart Lamps also provide additional benefits for mines, such as ensuring workers are actually wearing their tags (especially important with proximity), providing rechargeable (and not costly replaceable) batteries, allowing miners to charge all elements uniformly on one charger, and making miners always accessible to management, which is critical in the event of an emergency.

Recently, NLT has seen a significant increase in mines installing new tracking solutions as well as upgrading their systems with new technologies like LTE. To learn more about the rise of tracking technologies, read our blog: Three Factors Driving the Increase in Mine Tracking

Innovation & Continual Improvement
NLT is constantly striving to improve the quality and performance of our lamps. Since its introduction in 2012, through improvements in gasket material and design as well as the application of a marine grade sealant, we have improved Genesis’ initial IP 67 rating (water/dust resistance/waterproofing), to a level that now exceeds IP68 rating. To improve the lamp’s light output, we are currently in the process of upgrading our batteries from 2.6mA to 3.2mA. Combined with advancements in LED technology, we’ve been able to increase the LUX output by almost 50%.

NLT has been a leader in cap lamp innovation since its founding in 1984. We have a long list of firsts, including introducing the first dry-cell battery with intelligent charging technology in a cap lamp and the first MSHA-approved cordless cap lamp with a single lithium-ion battery.

A Global Trend
Increasing operational costs are forcing mines to improve efficiencies through the introduction of technologies such as tracking and proximity awareness solutions. These technologies are only effective if used properly. NLT Smart Cap Lamps help mines get the most out of these technologies by ensuring their workers have the solution provider’s tags with them at all times. As a result NLT’s Smart lamps are in use around the world. All of the Nutrien potash mines, formally PCS, use Genesis. Some are transitioning to NLT’s Eagle to incorporate not only tracking but also proximity. Agnico Eagle’s mines are using NLT’s Eagle lamp to accommodate tracking and proximity tags from a number of different solutions providers. Boliden’s Tara mine in Ireland has been using Genesis for years and is now upgrading their Mobilaris tracking tags to the bi-directional tag. All of Cargill Salt’s mines use Genesis with AeroScout tags. To date, we have sold over 10,000 Genesis lamps. Feedback from mines using the lamps has been unanimously positive. With less than 1% warrantee repairs, mine operators and miners know that they can rely on NLT’s lamps

Into the Future
As technologies advance, and new technologies are introduced, Smart Lamps will only get smarter. The tracking and proximity tags are getting progressively more stable, reliable and offering more features. In sync with these innovations, NLT is ready to incorporate them into our Eagle, Genesis and Falcon cap lamps. We provide two cavities of specific dimensions that will accommodate a tag and collaborate with the providers to customize it for each product. The proximity feature of Smart Cap Lamps will be particularly key when autonomous equipment becomes more broadly adopted.

We have new technology coming out in 2021, and we are consistently looking for new ways to make our lamps lighter, smaller, brighter and more cost-effective. To learn more about NLT’s Smart Cap Lamps, contact Rich Humber at 416-886-9774 or rhumber@nltinc.com.