Product Application Use

• Underground mining has several unique requirements that need to be considered when looking at mobile lighting. Coal mining there is the potential for some aluminium alloys to cause a spark when struck by another hard object. This is caused because certain lower grades of aluminium have a high content of manganese or magnesium. The Australian Standards allow for aluminium to be used underground if it contains less than 5% combined total of Manganese and Magnesium. SLB fittings have less than 0.05% of these minerals combined. Sturdy Light fittings are extremely robust and purpose built to work longer and harder in the most extreme conditions.

• Correct choice for fittings is paramount, Sturdy Light have lighting engineers that can assist in choosing the correct fitting for the application. These recommendations will be based on the available power, the type of material being mined, the visual effects on the environment (i.e. reducing disability glare) and reducing fatigue for operators by installing specific task lighting and peripheral lighting.

• LED’s and electronics in general can be susceptible to problems from overheating because the lights on mobile fleet are on 24hours per day, 7 days a week. To overcome the heat every fixture in the SLB range has an active thermal management system in its circuitry, this will step dim the lights to prolong the life of the components within the fixture. (i.e. less power in the circuit means less heat being generated). In underground applications with no daylight solar gain on the body it very unlikely for the SLB range to dim down. There are multiple protective aspects to the fitting design to ensure the LED’s will continue to operate and maintain safety in underground applications. The ambient thermal rating of the SLB range is -30°C to +50°C it is very unlikely that overheating of a fitting will occur.

• EMI (i.e. Electro Magnetic Interference) is a major problem with lesser quality LED fixtures, this is occurs when manufacturers do not build in the filtering required. Normally this reduces price or the manufacturer is unaware of these requirements the effects of EMI. The Sturdy light range has the appropriate filtering designed and installed, and this is especially relevant to underground mining as most sites will have a leaky feeder communication set up and this will be effected by fixtures without appropriate EMI filtering. This can be a safety risk and must be carefully reviewed and considered in light fitting selection.

• Many machines work with transient power supplies with alternators that can put out a wide range of voltages from 16-16vDC cranking through to 27vDC and above when running. The circuitry inbuilt into the drivers in the fittings allows for this variation.

• Transient spike protection is built into every SLB fitting.

Power spikes are fast, short duration electrical transients in voltage (i.e. voltage spikes), current (i.e. current spikes), or transferred energy (i.e. energy spikes) in an electrical circuit.

Fast, short duration electrical transients (i.e. over voltages) in the electric potential of a circuit are typically caused by:

1. Lightning strikes
2. Power outages
3. Tripped circuit breakers
4. Short circuits
5. Power transitions in other large equipment on the same power line
6. Malfunctions caused by the power company
7. Inductive spikes

• Reverse polarity protection is installed in all fixtures in the Sturdy Light range.

• The SLB9, SLB39 and SLB95 fittings are supplied in 24vDC they can be installed buy staff that do not need Electrical certificates to work on mains powered installations. Technically HV (i.e. high voltage) 36-watt and 70-watt metal halide lights require registered electricians to change the lamps as they have HV ignitors in their circuits.

Environmental conditions can be detrimental to light fittings, The SLB range of fittings have many inbuilt features such as IK09 impact resistant ultra violet resistant polycarbonate lenses, multiple protective coatings on the housing to make them resistant to acid and alkali splashing on the fixtures and stainless steel hardware such as screws nuts and bolts.