Background
Moly Cop is a division of Arrium, an international mining and materials company with around 10,000 employees and annual sales of almost $7 billion. Moly-Cop produces grinding media and wire ropes for the mining industry and railway wheels and axles for the transport industry. The company's grinding media mill is located in Newcastle, New South Wales. It is the largest supplier of grinding media in the world, with a nominal capacity of 250,000 tonnes per annum.
Customer Demands
Moly Cop's Newcastle had a 20-year-old analog radio system that was becoming difficult to maintain and did not provide coverage in important areas of its plant. They have a foundry plant called the “ballroom” where they make metal balls the size of cannon balls for the grinding media business. They never had radio coverage in the ballroom, due to the microwave furnaces. After Hytera DMR units were installed, it just belted them out of the park.
In addition, Moly Cop needed every single radio had its own unique programming like call authority, group, individual, encryption code and etc. Moreover, every single radio should belong to multiple but different groups. Under analog technology, radio had to scan between the scan group lists which caused huge delay and power consumption.
Besides improved coverage on site and secure communications via encryption, Moly Cop also required GPS location function on portables and needed a correct and robust emergency response system.
Solutions
Radio Industries, a dealer of Hytera in Australia, recommended a mixture of around 100 Hytera DMR terminals, three base stations and Hytera dispatch system console, which now provides better, clearer, more reliable communications, enhancing efficiency and safety.
The basic portable used is the PD702. For supervisors, there is a higher-level portable with a screen, the PD782, from which they can also make and receive phone calls. The MD782 is for use in forklifts and trucks around the plant; it's also used at the Hytera dispatch system console. All the units have GPS built in. The three base stations are RD982s, which have telephone interconnects installed.
The DMR digital solution not only met the management team's budgetary requirements, but also enabled MOLY COP to utilize the Hytera dispatch software for GPS tracking of staff to monitor and record conversations and most importantly, respond to emergencies when they arise in a timely manner.
Coverage over the entire site was also extremely important and was achieved with Hytera RD98XS Repeaters installed.
Key Benefits
- Respond time is shorten with GPS location and emergency alert is more efficiently with Hytera smart dispatch system
- Multi priority and authority level make management much more easier
- Improved coverage over the entire site
- Robust terminal ( MIL-STD & IP67)
- Crystal and clear voice communication with background noise cancelling technology
Voice from customer
“Physically, it took around five days to install the system. The radios were all programmed onsite. We sat around in a big room - Hytera, us and the client - and did all of the programming together. We had complete compliance with the customer, 100% from top to bottom, and they had total compliance with us. It was probably the easiest large installation I'd had for years.”
—— Bob Selby-Wood, Radio Industries
