To increase safety and to reduce harmful gas emissions in the mining industry, safety equipment manufacturer Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) Africa added the Altair 4X Mining gas detector to its Altair range of multigas detectors in June last year.

The Altair 4X Mining, which monitors the exposure of the atmosphere to harmful gases, was developed at the MSA head office in the US, in 2009.

MSA Africa regional product manager for portable instruments Tshepo Lebona says the product is used for personal protection to ensure that the air breathed by mine employees is not harmful.

He adds that most gases are not only harmful to humans but also to the environment. Therefore, the early detection of harmful gases ensures that action can be taken to reduce or eliminate the gas source, where possible.

The multigas detectors also monitor the atmosphere for combustive gases, which, if ignited, can lead to fires, causing damage.

It monitors carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, oxygen and the low explosive limit of combustible gases.

Further, the Altair 4X Mining, which is suitable for all types of mining operations, is fitted with MSA XCell sensors that have a typical life of more than four years.

“The sensors are engineered with MSA’s proprietary application-specific integrated circuit. “The XCell sensors are a breakthrough in chemical and mechanical sensor design, as they enable faster response and span calibration times. With less time spent on calibration and bump tests, mines save on calibration gas, maintenance costs and, in turn money,” Lebona says.

Other features of the Altair 4X Mining include MotionAlert and InstantAlert for confined-space entries. The MotionAlert sensor activates when a user becomes disabled or motionless and alerts others to the user’s location, while the InstantAlert enables users to manually alert others to potentially hazardous situations.

The device cannot be switched off manually and is always on, which ensures that, while in the working environment, the user is not exposed to harmful gases.

According to Lebona, the Altair 4X Mining, which is glove-friendly, can survive a 6 m fall, as it has a rugged housing for durability.

The detector, which weighs 224 g, has a liquid-crystal display, four gas- alarm light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a charge status LED, as well as an audible and vibrating alarm.

Its lithium polymer battery requires about four hours of charging and lasts 24 hours in temperatures of 25 ºC.

The Altair 4X Mining is charged in the Galaxy GX2 automated test system that includes a gas-cylinder holder, a test stand and a four-way charge rack.

These individual parts are modules that can be connected or used sepa- rately; additional modules can also be added, depending on the customer’s requirements.

Once the device has been charged and removed from the charger, it auto- matically switches on and runs a self- diagnostics to ensure all systems are functioning.

The Altair 4X Mining is then moved to the GX2 test station, where it is put through an automatic bump test to ensure the device’s sensors and alarms are functioning by briefly exposing it to gas.

The touch screen on the Galaxy GX2 indicates either a pass or a fail.

Data from the Altair 4X Mining can also be downloaded while on the test stand. The device and test stand communicate using infrared to download the data.

Using MSA’s Link Pro software application, together with the Galaxy GX2, fleet data from the Altair range of gas detectors can be managed.

The Link Pro application allows for the remote control of distributed test stands throughout a facility; the creation of portable document format and Excel reports; filtering, to isolate specific gas- detector alarms; as well as visual and email notifications of overdue device tests and alarm conditions.

Meanwhile, Lebona points out that the Altair 4X Mining has also been approved by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) to ensure the cus- tomer that it is a good quality product.

He states that the Altair 4X Mining is currently the only gas detector that carries the SABS mark in the market.

“It also makes it easier for safety managers at the mines when they report to auditing authorities, such as the Depart- ment of Mineral Resources, because they can provide the SABS certificate for the device,” he says.

MSA also carries the Altair 4X, which is for general industry use, with the same quality and performance.