Slack rope detection device for shaft sinking winders and bucket elevators
Challenge:
For many years the mining industry used one of Leveltec’s dual contact mercury tilt switches (LP042) to monitor slack ropes in mine shaft winders and bucket elevators.
Changes in safety and functional performance requirements lead to the development and manufacture of a new tilt switch fit for purpose.
Solution:
The functional requirement of the switch was to perform on a single axis, robust and compact, extremely fast positive break switching and handle well in high vibration environments.
The development process required Levetlec and the OEM to work together sharing feedback and industry knowledge to deliver the best possible solution.
Initial trails of a mercury solution performed extremely well in theory and bench tests but suffered from the high vibration environment and caused nuisance tripping ruling this out for a long term solution.
Further developments on this concept lead to the uses of positive brake contacts allowing extremely fast switching through mechanical drive mechanisms and great stability in the vertical state with magnets.
The VTS tilt switch is now in operation and used as a slack rope switch for shaft sinking winders and bucket elevators.
