As safety and connectivity continue to be an increasingly important operating parameter for hazardous area mining, servicing and monitoring underground equipment from the surface can be more efficient and minimise the danger to human workers who might otherwise head underground to complete these labour intensive and hazardous tasks.
In mines where the Spitfire® BPLM (Broadband Powerline Modem) is in use for communications and data transfer, the Spitfire® Wingman enables remote monitoring, upgrade, and configuration of the network structure of all Spitfire® BPLMs from the surface. It can measure the performance of each BPLM that operates in the system by measuring signal strength, SNR ratio, and bandwidth used for sending and receiving internet packets.
The Wingman is the only tool that can “talk” to Spitfire® BPLMs and can help reduce some of the problems associated with servicing and monitoring equipment by allowing the assessment to be done from the surface.
The basic Spitfire® solution includes:
Spitfire® BPLM, which creates a reliable network connection across multiple machines to transmit data between equipment and the surface
Super Spitfire®, which extends the communication network to work over longer distances
Wingman, which enables remote monitoring, upgrade, and configuration of the network structure of all Spitfire® BPLMs underground
For more information about the Spitfire range of underground communications products, email
