Smiths Interconnect Connectors for Digital Mining Operating in Arduous Environmental Conditions and for Extreme Applications
Introduction
The mine of the future is being built on the connectivity of data and automation. The benefits of Industry 4.0 through the digitalization of data from connected assets in the mining industry are profound. To enable near-real time decision, a digital mine needs to bring together data from across its assets distributed within its value chain. If done correctly, it rewards the industry with increasing uptime of critical assets, reducing costs and operational risks.
The application
Drill and blast operations are the first steps which are complex and safety-critical parts of mining operations. In addition, mining operators are challenged with compressed cycle times, increased price pressure, and knowledge attrition. All this is happening while the backdrop of rising commodity demand from advancing energy transition drilling activity is continuing its upward trend.
Operators are working closely with mining equipment manufacturers to install instruments to collect raw data to carry out diagnostics of any failures and then build on that dataset to predict what will happen to optimize its operations. For example, mining equipment manufacturers are gathering data on the rock mass surrounding the tunnel to get actionable insight that affects probe drilling, grouting rock reinforcement, and most importantly safety. Among various parameters being recorded by instruments installed close to the drill cutter, are feed pressure, rotation pressure, and rotation speed to name a few.
Connectors are critical components in ensuring reliable transmission of data from the instruments. However, given instruments need to operate in arduous environmental conditions along with extreme operating conditions like high vibration where connectors are often the most delicate link, as they frequently fail thus introducing inefficiency in the system. Connectors equipped with hyperboloid contacts provide a high number of linear contact paths as they are formed by hyperbolically arranged contact wires, which align themselves elastically as contact lines around the pin. Under high vibration, this feature helps avoid large deformation or stress on contact material leading to fatigue, wear leading to removal of plating material. Consequently, it leads to a decrease in contact resistance. The surrounding environment of the connector contains pollutants including sulphides, chlorides, nitrates, hydroxides, or ammonium salt. Most atmospheric corrosions follow electrochemical mechanisms in nature and involve the interaction of absorbed moisture with various atmospheric gases at the metal surface will lead to fretting corrosion on the contact surface.
The position & angle of the wires in a hyperboloid geometry surround the mating pin. Each wire wraps itself around the pin, providing lines of contact along the pin (as opposed to a few discrete points of contact). Hyperboloid contact wires are designed to stretch elastically when the male pin is inserted (without plastic irreversible deformation), so they return to the original state after the pin is removed – leading to long contact life in high shock and vibration applications.
Hyperboloid Contact Technology
The Hyperboloid contact technology has a large surface area which provides low contact resistance and higher current ratings. The mating pin also acts as a heat sink to keep wires cool, it extends the whole length to prevent wires from overheating in higher power contacts.
M12 Connectors
Smiths Interconnect offers robust M12 connectors with cable harnessed. They are suited for the digital mining industry, for instance, to be mounted on rock drill sledges. Even after 100s of hours, the connector can function as expected. Smiths Interconnect’s M12 connector is designed to IP67 with 360° EMI shielding and is compliant with fire and smoke standards.
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