COMPANY INSIGHT
Sponsored by: Coolon
Lighting as a Conduit for Technological Disruption
The seamless, efficient and cost-effective way to digitize the fixed plant with Coolon Brilliant Connected Lights.
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igitisation is the ultimate goal of the rapidly evolving and seemingly limitless world of IoT. Each new technology brings game-changing value to the table and disrupts the industry. Explore how you the fixed plant can be digitized and future-proofed through basic prerequisite – lighting.
Lighting as a Conduit for Technological Disruption
Mine sites invest in digital transformation in pursuit of cost reductions, productivity gains and safety improvement. The front of the mine has already been heavily transformed – mining pits long had autonomous trucks and shovels, the connectivity has allowed the movement of ore to be closely monitored and choreographed remotely. The back of the mine is also heavily automated with the help of robotic trains and connected ports. But surprisingly, the fixed part of the plant is still not as monitored. Much of the processing happens here, there are many vital machines and hundreds of people moving around day and night. The potential to unlock here is limitless, so why it is still not done then?
This is likely because the fixed plant is one of the most difficult areas to digitize in a conventional way – running cables is not a cost-effective option and setting up a Wi-Fi coverage around here is challenging to say the least. From a radio signal propagation perspective, most of the plant consists of massive steel and concrete superstructures that are designed to house the electric motors and pumps, generating an immense amount of electromagnetic noise. Setting up and maintaining a Wi-Fi network requires a team of highly specialized professionals that are rarely present on site. So it’s safe to say that rolling out your IoT in this way is going to be expensive and is likely to end up in a too hard basket or in some other engineering to-do wish list for some other time.
That’s why Coolon’s lights now come fitted with smart wireless mesh networking nodes inside.
Coolon Brilliant Connected Lights are built with a smart connectivity module, which enables almost “plug-and-play” capability, offering immediate and effortless digitization for mining and industrial sites, regardless of the size or complexity of the infrastructure.
Lighting is naturally positioned to provide the best radio coverage, by being mounted in elevated positions, constantly powered, located throughout the site, routinely inspected and essential to any facility. For the last 19 years Coolon has been developing and locally manufacturing robust light fittings specifically for the harsh conditions of mining sites. With a proven track record of flawless, uninterrupted operation of over 10 years, the sophisticated electronics and virtually indestructible Coolon fittings provide the perfect host for innovative IoT nodes.
Coolon smart lights contain nodes inside the fittings, which enables almost “plug-and-play” capability, offering immediate and effortless digitization for mining and industrial sites, regardless of the size or complexity of the infrastructure. Once installed, the lights can automatically create a wireless mesh network that covers the whole site, solving connectivity challenges: one node only needs to service a limited area around itself and pass the data onto its neighbour for re-transmission.
Once installed, the lights will automatically connect and form a robust wireless mesh network across the site: one smart node only needs to service a limited area around itself and pass the data onto its neighbour for re-transmission.
Coolon Brilliant Connected Lights do not only represent IoT innovation but provide a backbone for thousands of emerging IoT-dependent services and technologies to be implemented on a mine site. Customers have access to an ecosystem of technologies that can seamlessly piggy-back on Coolon’s mesh network, without the need for complex installations. Coolon took an approach to create an AppStore like environment for various IoT service providers operating in the same ecosystem to roll out their services without the need to worry about physical challenges of connectivity.
For example, you could deploy an asset tracking service to instantly locate tagged equipment anywhere on site or choose personnel locating technology that will allow you to monitor everyone on-site in real-time and send help directly to those in need. Or perhaps you could deploy a machine condition monitoring service, constantly overseeing the performance over any critical equipment and scheduling maintenance in advance before any costly failures take place. You could easily roll out a whole array of sensors to monitor noise, pollution, air quality and other conditions in real-time in any area around the site.
Our ecosystem partner network is growing rapidly, as new types of sensors and devices are being created for a variety of purposes all over the world. These services unlock endless possibilities but they all require the deployment of a mesh network to operate on. Such a network would get automatically deployed across your site if you were simply choosing Coolon’s Brilliant Connected range of lights throughout the plant. This can be done progressively, as part of routine lighting maintenance, without the need for networking experts on site. No extra effort. No extra cost.
This is how Coolon smart connected lights will enable you to reap the benefits of IoT & accelerate the digital transformation journey starting right now.
