LIGHTING
Performance
LED market
The Danger Light™ from
Phoenix is a heavy duty
LED fixture that leaves a
distinct red beam around
the shovel perimeter,
clearly marking the area
that should remain clear to
avoid a truck-shovel impact
Paul Moore talked to leading players in the provision of
both mobile and fixed lighting solutions for mining,
finding out why LEDs have come to dominate so much
he lighting market in mining has changed
markedly in recent years with the
increasing dominance of LED lighting. And
one of the companies leading the way is
Phoenix Products, which was formerly focussed
on traditional lighting solutions like High-
Intensity Discharge (HID) but which is now
seeing LEDs dominate its business in mining.
Managing Director Nate Klieve told IM that
there are other reasons for LED dominance in
mining aside from just the reduced maintenance
and energy costs. “First they have a very
different light source render and contrast
meaning that in some cases they can allow
shovel operators to read the orebody, such as
where there are distinct seams, better by eye
and therefore make loading more efficient. This
is due to LED light being very high on the CRI or
colour rendering index. In addition, different
light sources produce different types of lumens,
in that LEDs help the human eye pick up depth
perception and colour contrast much better than
traditional light sources.”
He adds: “Secondly, from a practical point of
view, traditional HID lamps take a while to cool
down when turned off, and vice versa, a while to
heat up again to full illumination, up to 15
minutes. Because of this, in mining, HID lights
are often just left on all the time to avoid this.
LEDs offer instant full brightness, therefore are
turned on and off as needed increasing both
safety and productivity.”
While in recent years a lot of LED lighting has
been installed in new mines, increasingly, in the
last 12-18 months, a lot of existing mines have
been retrofitting existing equipment with LEDs,
and in some cases these are mines with less than
ten years to run in mine life, such are the potential
T
22 International Mining | DECEMBER 2018
LED benefits. LED lighting is definitely much
higher up on minesite priority lists than it was.
The approach to lighting in terms of sourcing
depends on the application. For a new mine, the
EPCM contractor may specify the lighting
requirements, though sometimes the mine
owner may do so, such as fixed lights for
conveyors. While LED is usually specified for
truck and shovel fleets now, most of these
machines now come with LED lighting as part of
their standard package anyway. Things are
moving slower in more remote mining regions
such as parts of Africa and Central Asia but the
desire to switch to LED lighting is certainly
there, and tenders for LED solutions are coming
out of mining nations like Kazakhstan which
were not even two years ago.
Phoenix – from HID to LED
For Phoenix as a company, traditionally its
market was on HID AC lighting solutions for
cabled shovels, drills and draglines. However,
LED is now a large part of its market through non
tethered equipment and infrastructure lighting
and its product lines such as the new Sturdilite ®
E-DC Series consisting of 15W, 36W, 56W or 90W
LED floodlights delivering up to 7,100 lumen on
mobile equipment; as well as the ModCom® 2
Heavy Duty LED floodlight, “an extremely
durable, yet compact LED floodlight that delivers
up to 42,000 lumens to the world's harshest
environments.” With the Sturdilite product, a big
part of the market has been retrofitting older
haul trucks with LEDs that had traditional lights.
But LEDs are now also being put on dozers and
graders and all the DC powered equipment that
support the AC machines.
It has changed as a company that prior to
2010 was traditional lighting focussed with the
vast majority of its market in North America to
following LED introduction in 2010 having a
much more global reach. Even AC equipment in
some cases is switching to LED through power
diverted to the LEDs. Yes LEDs remain more
expensive, but Klieve said that the relative
difference has come down as the LED volumes
in mining are increasing. Conversely as less
traditional lighting is being made, its relative
cost is going up. There are still a few
applications where traditional lighting remains a
better choice, such as where there are very high
ambient temperatures like in metallurgy plants
etc, but in most application areas in mining, LED
in a much better solution.
The latest offering from Phoenix is The
Danger Light™. This heavy duty LED fixture
leaves a distinct red beam around the shovel
perimeter, clearly marking the area that should
remain clear to avoid a truck-shovel impact.
“Human error is to blame for 93% of equipment
accidents on a mine site. In an environment
where safety is paramount, the Danger Light is
taking the uncertainty out of this traditional
mining hazard.” The 42W fixture provides 2,100
lumens of efficient, LED light and maintenance-
free operation. The adjustable harp allows for
aiming versatility with many equipment models.
“The components of the Danger Light follow the
same standards of durability that Phoenix is
known for, including fully potted drivers, impact-
resistant lenses and conformally coated circuit
boards.” The Danger Light is designed,
engineered and manufactured in the USA and
has a five-year limited warranty.
Dialight elevates High Bay lighting
Dialight, a global leader in industrial LED
lighting technology, recently launched its new
72,000 lumen Vigilant ® High Output High Bay
fixture, designed to deliver optimum
illumination at mounting heights above 18 m.
The fixture is the first Dialight product to
feature the company’s new custom-designed
remote power supply that can be mounted up to
200 ft away from the fixture. This results in a
much smaller fixture profile, making it easy to
mount even where limited ceiling space is
available. The power supply can also be located
safely outside of the lighted environment for
maximum installation flexibility.
The new High Output LED fixture expands on
Dialight’s existing 45,000- and 60,000-lumen
high-output products with 19% greater lumen
efficiency, now up to 149 lumens/watt, to
provide high-efficient lighting for large mineral
processing plants, mining equipment
maintenance shops and other mining
applications with extremely high mounting
height requirements.