Severočeské doly

Westermo improve monitoring capabilities for Czech Republic's largest mining company

Application: Network for control and monitoring system for substation PLCs as well as video monitoring
Owner: Severočeské doly a.s.
Location: Czech Republic

Cost-effective and future-proof network solution using Wolverine Ethernet Extenders improves the ability to control and monitor mining equipment for the Czech Republic's largest mining company.

Severočeské doly a.s. is the largest producer of brown coal in the Czech Republic. The company’s line of business involves mining, processing and selling coal products. The Bílina Mines is their largest mine where more than 10 million tons of coal are extracted each year. To recover that amount of coal it is required that more than 53 million square metres of overlying soil is removed. High productivity is critical for the business to be profitable. For a number of years now solutions from Westermo have contributed to increased efficiency.

Mining operations in large open pits come with many challenges putting great demands on data communications solutions. A system was in place based on a custom SHDSL modem that had a large and bulky form factor. A major concern about this solution however was that there were no guarantees for future delivery, maintenance or service. A standard solution with a long life time, high performance and robustness was required by the customer.

Westermo has delivered industrial communications solutions for many years where values like long term product support are the norm. Even today, Westermo can deliver solutions that are compatible with products sold more than 30 years ago. In addition, the WeOS operating system used in all new networking products has been developed with the future in mind. Network functionality can be duplicated over a range of platforms, both current and future giving peace of mind to the customer.

By simply replacing the previous devices with the Wolverine Managed Ethernet Extender DDW-225, a future-proof network solution that also delivers a much higher performance and transmission capacity could be achieved. The Wolverines can form a network over any type of copper cables, which made it possible to create a very cost effective solution using the pre-existing telecom cables. The Westermo Operative System is developed for “Made Easy” configuration and management which made the upgrade easy and problem free.

The network is mainly used to provide communication between the central office and a variety of substation PLCs throughout the mine, but since the Wolverine can deliver data rates up to 15.3 Mbit/s, a video surveillance system could also be created on the same network. The customer has reported that the network is very stable and reliable, and the quality that can be achieved on the video streams are surprisingly high.

Westermo solutions are primarily about solving data communications problems for customers. When such a solution is applied properly, the benefits will become visible immediately. It is our mission to provide the digital infrastructure that a customer needs to be able to focus on their core mission. In this case, Severočeské doly a.s. has applied a solution that eliminates several communication concerns as well as improving the functionality of the network.