Highlights
- NIOSH has been giving the Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award every year since 2012.
- Innovators in the coal, metal, industrial minerals, and stone, sand and gravel sectors are recognized by this award.
- Summaries of past awards are offered to inspire others to innovate.
Recent winners
2024
Ergonomic Risk Awareness and Prevention (Industrial MineralsCovia Holdings partnered with Soter Analytics to identify and implement sensor technologies to help workers become aware of their movements while working. They also used a video tool to analyze video recordings of workers performing tasks to assess for ergonomic risks. Once Covia rolled out the technology at their operations and began collecting and monitoring data, they saw an improvement rate of more than 44 percent, indicating that employees are effectively changing their behavior in response to the feedback.
Air Cannons for Haul and Rail Loading Bins (Stone, Sand & Gravel)As one of two awards in the SSG category, the North Branford Quarry of Tilcon Connecticut Inc. worked with Martin Engineering for the first winning submission. Tilcon Connecticut added a series of Martin Engineering air cannons to large aggregate bins to clean dust material buildup and eliminate the hazards that came with employees having to regularly enter the bins to clean them manually. The dust cannons now keep employees from having to enter the bins, and free up 16 working hours a week for the maintenance team.
VIA Safety Solution for Heavy Equipment (Stone, Sand & Gravel)The second award in the SSG category goes to VIA Technologies for its innovative technical systems for advanced hazard detection, fleet management, and incident recording to reduce blind spots and other heavy equipment hazards. VIA developed a suite of sensor, video, and cloud-based systems to increase situational awareness, simplify fleet management, and enhance training.
Full Deposit Robotic Copper Cathode Stripping Machine (Metal)Freeport-McMoRan implemented an innovative robotic technology for cathode sampling and labeling at their Safford Operations. By using this full deposit robotic copper cathode stripping machine, operator exposure to the stripping and sampling process is reduced, while reliability is increased. Previously, workers were exposed to the potential of being struck by moving tools while removing cathodes in hard-to-reach areas, and the hazard of possible physical strains and sprains during sampling. The robotic process removes workers from these hazards.
Sentinel System for Wireless Communication and Monitoring (Coal)As one of two awards in the coal category, Allegheny Metallurgical worked with Innovative Wireless Technologies to deploy the Sentinel System at their Longview Mine. The system offers wireless communication, monitoring, and tracking for faster and safer response to heating events.
Electronic Mine Examination Information Collection Tool (Coal)For the second award in the coal category, CONSOL Energy partnered with KGC Solutions to incorporate an innovative recordkeeping system for improved hazard communication, analysis of root causes, and accident prevention. The KGC Solutions system replaced the manual process of documenting mine examination findings on a paper form and then needing to "call out" that report to the surface.
Past winners
Musculoskeletal Disorder Prevention (Industrial Minerals)
Imerys installed multiple lift assist devices and redesigned a packing station to include numerous features to eliminate repetitive shoulder, arm, and wrist twisting, as well as shoulder and back lifting of bottles and boxes. The improvements also boosted production.
Underground Closed Bench Mining Method (Metal)
Hecla developed the innovative Underhand Closed Bench (UCB) mining method for proactive control of fault-slip seismicity in deep, high-stress, narrow-vein mining. The UCB method has significantly improved safety, reducing the Lucky Friday all-injury frequency rate by more than 50 percent.
Wireless Gas Monitor (Coal)
Innovative Wireless Technologies developed a next-generation Wireless Gas Monitor (WGM) using a multi-sensor platform. Deployed at Arch Resources' Leer Mine, the rapidly deployable system provides real-time situational awareness and visibility of atmospheric conditions.