Alternatives to using flame retardant belts in underground workings: a case study at Impala Platinum

摘要

Due to the high cost of fire retardant conveyor belts and their associated reduced durability, Impala Platinum investigated alternatives to using fire retardant conveyor belts in their underground operations. A solution was to use non-fire retardant conveyor belts in parallel with a conveyor belt fire suppressions system. Impala Platinum identified a commercially available system that could potentially be applied as a conveyor belt fire suppression system. This system is widely used to protect important facilities and equipment in enclosed spaces where static environments exist. In order to deploy this system underground the system had to be evaluated to ensure that it is capable of extinguishing a conveyor belt fire in a safe and effective way in the dynamic underground environment. CSIR Miningtek's Kloppersbos test facility was approached by Impala Platinum to develop an accepted test protocol to evaluate the effectiveness of the system in suppressing belt fires in the dynamic underground environment. This paper describes the risk assessment process followed to identify the requirements for an underground conveyor belt fire suppression system at Impala Platinum, the test protocol developed to evaluate the 1 ire suppressions system, the test gallery preparation and testing of the system, the findings and recommendations from the tests, and the underground trial implementation of the fire suppression system.