NTTC Looking for Ways To Make Coal Miners Safer

The National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling Jesuit University is working to identify technologies that could improve safety for the nation’s coal miners.

The center is focused on identifying potential development partners, as well as technologies that could be adapted for a next- generation Self Contained Self Rescuer (SCSR) system being developed by the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. NIOSH conducts scientific research and makes recommendations for preventing work-related injuries and illnesses.

The federal agency is trying to develop a respiratory device that is “smaller, lighter and has more oxygen capacity than today’s model,” said Michelle Dougherty, NTTC’s director of Technology and Partnership Development.

SCSRs, required equipment for coal miners, currently must have a rated duration of one hour.

J. Davitt McAteer, vice president for sponsored programs at Wheeling Jesuit, said while plenty of attention has been given to developing technologies that boost mining production during the past century, miner safety largely has been unchanged. McAteer is former assistant secretary of labor, mine safety and health administration.

“This gives us the opportunity to look at it … technologies developed for other purposes, whether for NASA, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Navy, and apply them to an underground or surface mining setting,” he said.

The NTTC initially will focus on collecting information on advanced efficient technologies for the development of the new system, identifying new and alternative technologies that can be applied to SCSR development as well as potential development partners.

The NTTC also will conduct workshops and meetings with stakeholders and technology developers to discuss SCSR user needs and development, and also to analyze the data to determine which technologies and partnerships have the greatest potential for meeting the goals of the development program.

McAteer said the NTTC is well-suited to this initiative.

“This program is essentially about marrying science with technology and facilitating the development of new-age research to identify solutions for coal mining safety problems,” he said.

“The NTTC is in a unique position to understand these challenges and recognize opportunities that draw upon all our resources to drive product development for the betterment of the coal mining industry.”

McAteer said there’s always been a “great impetus to do innovative technologies on the production side because that’s where the dollars are. Miner health and safety typically lagged behind.”

“We’re not saying we have the answers,” he added, “The answers come when we connect these new technologies with folks in the mining industry who can make the applications work. That’s the exciting part.”

NTTC, established in 1989, offers services that make federally funded innovation available to private industry and finds new applications for new inventions, technologies and products.

Copyright State Journal Corporation May 20, 2005