The US Mine Safety and Health Administration has approved the company’s low-profile reader, one-port reader and backup power unit.

“The addition of the [three] to our original MSHA approval provides unmatched ease of use, lower cost to the operator, and control over power and battery components in both production and post-accident conditions,” Matrix president Aric Pryor said.

“We believe the ongoing development of additional components for our system is key to providing simple, integrated, cost-effective safety and productivity tools for our operators across the US.”

Designed to reduce clearance issues at working sections and in low coal, the METS low-profile reader extends only 2 inches off the roof in a configuration for power cable and 4 inches off the roof for battery-power situations.

The one-port reader was introduced as a cost-effective option for a system that is MINER Act compliant and, with a single port antenna, covers areas of a mine where a redundant multi-port reader isn’t necessary.

Finally, the BPU product permits monitoring and remote control of the charge, manage and condition functions for the batteries used to power hubs underground or at remote surface locations. Any METSView station can show crews incoming voltage, charging status, individual battery condition, and auxiliary relay outputs and analogue input status at any time.

Matrix received approval for its 2WC-T two-way text communicator in late May. The battery-powered unit features a mine-duty case and a full QWERTY keyboard, and can transmit and receive text messages using Matrix’s METS wired or wireless nodes.

Matrix said at the time that a jump in installation demand in the West Virginia region had led to a decision to open a new office in Wheeling. The new facility will provide more local support to operators and distributors, including engineering and automation support.

The company also received federal approval for the wireless node and atmospheric monitoring components of the METS 2.1 system in May and, in late February, received IS approval for one of its other devices, the Matrix Miner Monitor proximity detection system.