Rajant, the pioneer of Kinetic Mesh Networks, and Becker Wholesale Mine Supply (WMS), which claims to be “the leading supplier of mining electrical products and services in the Western Hemisphere” and a subsidiary of Becker Mining America, have established a strategic partnership. Becker WMS now offers Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh technology to help solve its mining customers broadband communication network challenges worldwide. Sabine surface coal mine has selected the partners to install a high bandwidth kinetic mesh network to improve operational logistics and enhance safety.
Becker WMS also reports it is “the world’s largest supplier of underground mining communication systems, and had been looking for additional solutions to fit growing demand for high availability, rugged and flexible broadband network solutions for surface applications. “
“During the past 18 months, we’ve seen a significant uptick in the number of customer requests for rugged, highly scalable broadband communication solutions that can be rapidly deployed across multiple moving assets in surface mine operations,” said Bill Hensler, President of Becker WMS. “Since we were familiar with Rajant and their field-proven line of ultra-reliable, flexible kinetic mesh networking solutions, this partnership just seemed like a natural fit. We look forward to growing this partnership and exceeding the expectations of our customers.”
The strategic partnership is already delivering results as Rajant and Becker WMS were recently selected to deploy Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh Network in North American Coal Corp’s Sabine mine. The previous network installation needed to be replaced and the Sabine team was looking for a unified approach that delivered not only a reliable, scalable wireless network but also a robust support team.
“It is critically important to our long-term success that we partner with distributors and resellers who share the same commitment to providing top-tier communication network solutions as well as superior customer service and support,” said Bob Schena, President and CEO of Rajant Corp. “This shared vision with Becker WMS, was crucial in being selected by Sabine mine. Not only did our technology excel, but Becker WMS and Rajant were able to offer a high-level of onsite support to get the network up and running in a matter of hours, assuring the mine that they made the right choice.”
“The manufacturer and distributor reps were extremely helpful in the initial rollout of the Rajant equipment—they went above and beyond what I have ever seen,” said Matt Hampton, Electrical Supervisor at Sabine. “The product support, not that we’ve needed much, has also been second to none since. The Rajant gear and software is easy to learn and use.”
Like many of Rajant’s successful surface mine installations, Sabine is spread out over a very large area. It has two active pits with four draglines, and consists of multiple vehicles, equipment and personnel dispersed over rugged terrain. This created a critical need for a highly flexible, self-configuring network that could establish and maintain a secure connection across multiple moving assets with no down time.
“The Rajant mesh system can be summed up in just a few words – It works, and it is easy to setup,” said Jason Murray, Manager of Information Technology at Sabine. “I think those properties should be the first thing you are looking for in field equipment. You don’t want to spend a lot of time troubleshooting equipment (who has time for that?). The Rajant system took just a few days to roll out, and it worked from day one. It has been working without issues since we installed it. I would recommend it to any location that needs a new wireless mesh system in the field.”
Since the original installation at Sabine, the company has continued to expand its Rajant network, by adding 10 more nodes across the second pit.
Becker WMS is based in the western Pennsylvania community of North Huntingdon with additional location in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada and is North American source for mining communications from leaky feeder systems to the latest in Wi-Fi technology and more. It currently boasts over 500 systems in North America as well as nearly three decades of experience servicing the needs of mining and tunnelling operations all over the world. The products are complete turnkey solutions from design to test and termination. MSHA Part 23 approved, they are also easy to install and backed up by the best warranty in the business.
Rajant Corp enables secure communications-on-the-move through a portable meshed wireless network that can rapidly reconfigure and adapt in real-time. Rajant’s BreadCrumb® Wireless solutions provide networks for mining and provide voice and data communications across a meshed, self-healing network. Rajant’s BreadCrumb network nodes communicate with IP based client devices such as laptops, PDAs, video cameras, satellite terminals, networked radios, RFIDs and sensor devices.
