Published in Australia's Longwalls

The mines rescue vehicle stage two project is being carried out by the Safety in Mines Testing and Research Station (SIMTARS) under the auspices of the Queensland Mines Rescue Service. The project is now physically testing engines to ascertain the effects of different gas mixtures on three diesel engines currently used in mine personnel transport vehicles.

This involves operating an engine in low oxygen, high methane and high carbon dioxide atmospheres, similar to those which may be present following an underground coal mine fire or explosion.

Inlet and exhausted gas monitoring will be carried out using the SIMTARS mobile gas laboratory which has been temporarily relocated from Mackay. A dynamometer has been hired from CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and has been installed at SIMTARS to facilitate this testing process.

SIMTARS has also sourced a high-speed methane analyser from South Africa which will be used on the modified vehicle to provide rapid methane analysis while the vehicle is operating in potentially hazardous atmospheres.

A small sonar device currently used by the blind to navigate around obstacles has also been trialled. Early indications suggest that this device appears to have significant potential in assisting underground miners escape from a smoke-filled mine either on foot or in a vehicle.

The current project is due to be finalised in September 2004 and will provide a blueprint for the modification of existing mine personnel transport vehicles to enable them to operate in a variety of hostile atmospheres.