Funkwerk and Rohill team to introduce innovative solution for hazardous mining environments

German two-way radio manufacturer Funkwerk Security Communications and critical network specialist Rohill have released their solution for use in hazardous underground mining and tunneling environments.

The rugged handheld FT4 S Ex, already approved for hazardous gas and dust environments, is now also IECEx- and ATEX-certified for M2 mining. “Not only is this the only TETRA radio on the market that offers mining certification, but also the world’s only radio that integrates enhanced personal emergency features in combination with indoor localization,” stated Thorsten Flügge, TETRA product manager of Funkwerk.
“What’s more, the intrinsically safe models in our product range are not only technically suitable but also legal for use in hazardous working environments. We have the unique capability to bring the many benefits that TETRA has to offer to the hazardous underground mining and tunneling industries.”

Rohill’s TETRA infrastructure solution TetraNode uses standard hardware and software components to create the most economical and powerful system currently available on the market. TetraNode’s flat network architecture based on nodes challenges the traditional hierarchical way of building networks. The principles of IP-networking are adopted in order to generate flexible network designs. Rohill and Funkwerk’s communication solution is designed to significantly improve modern-day mining methods and to provide operators with unrivalled communication and security.

Beside enhanced personal emergency and safety functions the solution also offers features such as tagging and the ability to count miners in especially hazardous zones. Instant system-wide broadcast messaging and reliable, precise detection of personnel and vehicles using LF magnetic fields come at little or no extra cost - adding up to a highly attractive value proposition for the market.

TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) communication standard is widely used and deployed for mission and business critical voice communications. TETRA provides significant advantages compared to other radio systems, such as the voice quality, the communication features (trunking, priority/preemption, encryption, recording, etc.) and its interoperability capabilities. Private Mobile Radio (PMR) network users increasingly would like to utilize critical communications-specific broadband applications to improve quality of response and to improve efficiency.

Source: Rohill