Is anyone here an underground miner?

[protein_man]

Hello, I work in an underground mine and since buying various led lights for personal use I'd like to know if anyone here knows any company that manufactures explosion proof, led mining headlamps along with battery pack?

The current ones in use have a very large battery pack that sit on the belt and a crappy incan and a back-up flood light.

 

[TigerhawkT3]

I think the product that most closely matches your description is the Stenlight S7.

 

[protein_man]

Nice light, miners only need one setting and a light that can be clipped from helmet to helmet with ease. Ideally the light would need to last ~12-14 hours on a charge too.

 

[ringzero]

Hello, I work in an underground mine and since buying various led lights for personal use I'd like to know if anyone here knows any company that manufactures explosion proof, led mining headlamps along with battery pack?

This might work: http://www.foxfury.com/products/performance_series/intrinsic_fire/intrinsic_fire.htm

Looking just at safety rated headlamps limits your choices.

.

 

[uk_caver]

There are Chinese-made LED mining headlamps with a small lithium belt-mounted battery, which seem to be rated for coal-mine use.
See:
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=2012731#post2012731
or search on:
'wisdom kl5m'

 

[half-watt]

Hello, I work in an underground mine and since buying various led lights for personal use I'd like to know if anyone here knows any company that manufactures explosion proof, led mining headlamps along with battery pack?

The current ones in use have a very large battery pack that sit on the belt and a crappy incan and a back-up flood light.

Petzl (http://en.petzl.com/petzl/LampesCriteres?Critere=62) makes industrial quality headlamps for at least Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 21 use.

 

[crislight01]

The light must comply to the ATEX norm (explosive atmosphere), the stenlight isnt ATEX certified, the DUO ATEX LED 5 is a lamp from Petzl wich isnt particularly tough but it is certified ATEX (Certification : Ex II 2 GD, Eex ia IIC T3, Ex iaD 21 T200°C ), yes there are also many chinesse companies who build Explosion proof lamps and finally you could go with a Oldham, btw is there Oldham website?

 

[Lynx_Arc]

The only thing I can think of is the UK4AA ELED with a helmet clip I *think* they are rated form explosive area use and the original runs about 8 hours if you can get it... buy two and get 16 hours runtime

 

[protein_man]

Thanks for your responses guys, I dont think I could sell the boss on those chinese lanterns! At this point I'm thinking on making my own dropin-regulator so we can use all our existing charging stations/batteries or modifying someone elses!

 

[doc_felixander]

There's a module for upgrading Oldham lamps:
http://www.mineexplorer.org.uk/ledlighting.htm

I'm not sure how that would affect the Ex rating of the host. You might ask your safety guys about that.

 

[uk_caver]

>>"I'm not sure how that would affect the Ex rating of the host. You might ask your safety guys about that."

I also make LED inserts for mining-lamp headsets for caving use, but even though there's no obvious (to me) failure mechanism that would cause greater risk than a headset containing incan bulbs running at rather higher currents, I'm not a safety engineer, and the safety rating side of things could be something else.

btw is there Oldham website?

Oldham production seems to have shifted to South Africa (that's where the UK caving distributor apparently gets spares from these days).

 

[half-watt]

>>"I'm not sure how that would affect the Ex rating of the host. You might ask your safety guys about that."

I also make LED inserts for mining-lamp headsets for caving use, but even though there's no obvious (to me) failure mechanism that would cause greater risk than a headset containing incan bulbs running at rather higher currents, I'm not a safety engineer, and the safety rating side of things could be something else.

Oldham production seems to have shifted to South Africa (that's where the UK caving distributor apparently gets spares from these days).

thought SPARK from, let's say "switch contacts" is a primary issue. putting an LED in place of incand., without changing anything else sounds 'ok' to me, but again, you're right the rules are the rules and besides, maybe there is some other safety aspect i'm neglectin'???

 

[crislight01]

>>"I'm not sure how that would affect the Ex rating of the host. You might ask your safety guys about that."

I also make LED inserts for mining-lamp headsets for caving use, but even though there's no obvious (to me) failure mechanism that would cause greater risk than a headset containing incan bulbs running at rather higher currents, I'm not a safety engineer, and the safety rating side of things could be something else.

Oldham production seems to have shifted to South Africa (that's where the UK caving distributor apparently gets spares from these days).

i just got a terralux and it fits perfectly in my miner caplamp, do you a site where you can get the specs of oldham lamp, i am quite interested in buying a used one since the lead acid batts have 16 Ah but i like to get info on them so i can first find a charger.does the lead acid batt works on 4.1V? at 16Ah?

 

[Valolammas]

How about a MICA HL-800?

It has a halogen main bulb, but it also has a "high power LED" and it's ATEX classified. I don't have one, but I've heard this company makes good, tough lights. Pretty expensive, too.

 

[PeLu]

thought SPARK from, let's say "switch contacts" is a primary issue. putting an LED in place of incand., without changing anything else sounds 'ok' to me

Even an Ex-proof light may cause a spark on the switch. It is even possible that explosive gases enter the lamp, ignite and destroy the lamp inside. It just must not ignite anything outside.
But in practical life, it is much more a legal issue than a technical. All the Ex proof lamps I have use this triangular bolt heads to prevent people tampering with it. So changing the inards will void the Ex-proofness. (I had to learn the regulations in the 70ies but forgot them more or less)

 

[uk_caver]

i just got a terralux and it fits perfectly in my miner caplamp, do you a site where you can get the specs of oldham lamp, i am quite interested in buying a used one since the lead acid batts have 16 Ah but i like to get info on them so i can first find a charger.does the lead acid batt works on 4.1V? at 16Ah?

I'm not an expert on Oldham batteries (most of my experience is just re-using headsets).
They are 2-cell batteries, so around 4V. The chargers I've seen, and the couple of old ones I have kicking around in my salvage gear pile, have been pretty unsophisticated - basically a taper charge with a roughly constant voltage source (ie transformer) and a series resistor, and sometimes a rough moving-iron ammeter for assessing charge rate. Home-making something suitable wouldn't be difficult, apart from the system for through-the-headset charging.
It's possible that more recent batteries are more SLA-like, maybe needing a bit more care in charging, but the ones I've come across have used wet cells, so there is the potential for acid leakage, but also the ability to top them up with water if leaving them on charge too long starts to electrolyse the electrolyte.

Though most cavers over here have moved away from Oldhams, if you wanted to know more, the equipment section on http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php has some regulars who likely know rather more about them than I do.