Kick off with Atlas Copco

Last Jan 21st, I had my kick off with Atlas Copco in Örebro; My chat with Alex Liebert (chief designer) was basically to touch base and talk more about my intentions for this project, here some important points:


- Would be great to visit a real mine in Sweden specially Kiruna because my design is going to be for swedish mines which have one of the highest safety standards.
- My past visits to the mexicans mines I will consider as a reference but not as a standards or mine's focus for this project.
- I will define what type of mine I will work for? as there's many types of mine and most part of them are different (with different accidents) would be easy to get lost with much information and don´t concentrate in a real problem.
- Atlas Copco does not work with any type of product for coal mines (when it's required they got an external assistance).
- If during my research I can´t find a relevant problem I will consider to change my direction and work in something related with the main topic, an example could be: safety in mines.
- It´s important to define that: "mines rescue" also implies machines or products to get into the area where the people is trapped .
- Current safety products would be included as a part of my research.
- It´s important to highlight that: low cost mines have low cost machinery and most part of the cases they do not invest much in safety programs or products.


The conclusion of this visit is: was good to hear what they think specially from the people involved in the business and see what´s my challenge for this project, my advantages and disadvantages, also meet up with the guys there was very nice, little bit of deyabú when I step my foot into the office, feels like I was there less than one year ago when I did my internship there.




   

1st meeting with Anders Smith (my tutor)

Today Tuesday 19th of January I had a big chat with Anders Smith my tutor in this project; We talked about about relevant ideas and the way I will start with the research part, how I am going to structure this.

I’m gonna start understanding the flow of what they do and how they do it! (what are the procedures to rescue people nowadays) specifictly the time line with all the actions to know more what they already have in terms of processes, protocols and products.

What I want to do? “mines rescue” is very wide and there are many different design opportunities so I need to define all the different mines operation and their accidents, in a few words: what they do and how many accidents they have had during their operational periods, once I collect all these information I can go directly to the miners and know more about them, about their life and their thoughts. After I have all this information I would be able to analyze it and define my opportunity of course my goals and wishes are gonna change once I know what I am gonna work with. 

During this chat I can highlight many relevant points:

• I wanna end up with a product which be extremely good for them, and relevant to show how Atlas Copco can raid in a new area for them, something visionary. 
• Based on the research certainly I can define the direction I want to take in this project and does not matter if is something that Atlas Copco is not good at doing it today, I mean it can be a new area, a new opportunity.
• I’m gonna design something for rescue not something to prevent accidents, it is important this big difference.
• Find the value of my product, what is important for Atlas Copco, for the miners and for me?
• I need to spend more time with miners, I need to find out how they live, think, what they like, feel, etc. all this is gonna help me to create my personas.
• I will propose something where the opportunity is; I picture it as strategic deign because I have a topic but I do not know what I am going to do yet.
• Don’t be afraid to end up in something conceptual (just if this is relevant and can be a step to develop a new product in the future).

As I do not know in what kind of product I am going to end up it is important don’t try to solve problems right now, the important thing during this phase is to define a problem and do a solid research which is gonna define where my opportunity is. 

2nd visit to the mine in Mexico

MIne in San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Last Friday 8th of January I had the chance again to go into the mine in Mexico, this mine is owned by Grupo Mexico the biggest miner company in the country. This mine is situated in the center of the country 1 hour away from San Luis Potosi (6 hours driving from Mexico City) the production of this mine is basically Zinc and Lead and they have around 75 miners working in 3 shifts per day, it has more 7 km in roads inside of the mine and more than 800 m subterranean high. In comparison with the last mine I’ve visited 15 days before in Mexico as well this one is 4 times bigger. 

Both visits were great and very different, somehow I feel they have the same rescue and safety needs but in a different scale; In my first visit to the mexican mines I was not prepared to ask many important questions and brainstorming inside of the mine with the right person I felt more like a tourist trying to get as much information as possible but then for my second round I was so much more prepared I started to analyze more and brainstorming at the moment but the most important thing was I started to create different scenarios inside of the mine, I was talking with the miner supervisor about all the rescue protocols in case of emergency and of course I started to investigate what type of accidents they have had during the last past years; I found many similarities between the 2 mines I visited during my stay in Mexico and talking with the people they said: most part of the mines in Latin-America are the same as the mexicans ones. The most important similarity was the safety culture miners have, both have different resources and even one of them gives the miners all the right equipment they do not want to carry it with them all the time, (it is not an inconvenient for my design proposal if after the research this would be relevant to add into their safety systems). Other important thing I saw is the opportunity for Atlas Copco  to implement this rescue equipment in their machines, I need to be very specific in what I want to do because this topic is so wide and it can covers many different areas.

What I got during my last visit to the mine? First of all the experience to create quick scenarios and talk with the miners in person, to know more about them how they think? how they work and how they will react into different situations; But definitely observe them in daily life. 

Coal mining> Most deadly job in China

China produced 35 percent of the world's coal last year, but reported 80 percent of the total deaths in coal mine accidents, according to statistics with the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS). This means that coal mining has become the most deadly job in China.
Among accidents occurred from January 2001 to October 2004, there were 188 each with death toll of more than 10, about one death every 7.4 days, said SAWS Wang Xianzheng at a national meeting on coal mine safety. In the past one month along, the country reported a series of coal mine accidents, causing over 200 deaths. In 2003, the average coal miner in China produces 321 tons of coal a year; this is only 2.2 percent of that in the United States and 8.1 percent that of South Africa. The death rate for every 100 tons of coal, however, is 100 times of that of the US and 30 times of the South Africa. Working conditions for China's coal miners need to be improved.  About 600,000 miners to date are suffering from pneumoconiosis, a disease of the lungs caused by long-continued inhalation of dust. And the figure increases by 70,000 miners every year. The government has taken a lot of measures to improve work safety at coal mines. In 2000, China set up a national surveillance system to keep a close eye on the safety conditions of coal mines. In the following years, the government earmarked more than 4 billion yuan (over US$480 million) to help state-owned and small local coal mines in gas explosion prevention and monitoring.
Compared with the past, China's coal mine safety has improved. In the first nine months this year, the number of reported coal mine accidents dropped by 242 cases or 8 percent year-on-year. The death toll dropped 13.2 percent. Following the present situation, the death toll in coal mine accidents this year is expected to drop by 1,400, or 22 percent over last year; Predictions says that China's coal output in 2004 would reach above 1.9 billion tons, twice of that in 2000, but the death rate of every 100 tons would be put under three, lower than 5.77 in 2000; Even so, China lags far behind developed countries in coal mine safety. Facing severe coal mine safety situation, the General Office of the State Council has issued a circular earlier this month to strengthen surveillance of coal mine safety. The circular further clarifies responsibilities of surveillance departments and has decided to set up local surveillance bureaus in five provinces and regions of Hebei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Qinghai and Fujian. Chinese State Councilor Hua Jianmin said at Thursday's meeting that China will take tough measures to rectify coal mine industry this winter, vowing to improve the country's coal mine safety.

Current Portable Safety Equipment

Miners using Drager BG4

Commonly referred to as a rebreather, the closed-circuit breathing apparatus operates on a proven model of efficiency; by removing carbon dioxide, recycling unused oxygen and supplying fresh oxygen from a cylinder. Light-weight and comfortable, the BG-4 weighs less than most 60-minute SCBAs. Its positive pressure design provides the user with effortless and quiet breathing.

Cave Rescue Training from 1989

Cave Rescue Training from 1989 from SBSAR on Vimeo.

Awesome video from the last 80's, this one is more focus in cave rescue...!

Barstow DRS and Cave Rescue Training

Barstow DRS and Cave Rescue Training near Calico from SBSAR on Vimeo.

This is part of the same rescue group before, they're in San Bernardino CA.
They have interesting things in the videos, specially equipment and techniques but my feeling is: this kind of training is not as serous as other I've seen before.

Orientation to Cave Rescue Course (US)

Orientation to Cave Rescue Course July 18-19 from SBSAR on Vimeo.

I found this video that shows more less a group of volunteers training a rescue in the mine...!

Safety equipment in mines

Seguridad en la mina from Martin L Vargas on Vimeo.

This is a video I found recently on the web, it shortly talks about safety equipment on mines in the north of Mexico.

Mine in Mexico

El Porvenir de Zacualpan from antonio_aguilar on Vimeo.

Mine "El Chivo" (México)

Mine "El Chivo", Mexico

Last week I visited in Zacualpan, Edo. de México a miner company called "El Porvenir de Zacualpan" they own 3 different mines in a region 2.5 hours away from Mexico City; The company was originally mexican but was sold to an important Canadian investor group. They extract silver, zinc and lead mainly.


The story started on Dec 22th when I traveled by car 2.5 hours to the South of Mexico to meet Francisco Henández geology supervisor at the mine; More than 6 hours took my visit there. When I just got in there we had a small interview where we discussed security aspects inside of the mine, they have had only 1 death in the last 7 years, the reason was rock collapsing. The biggest risk in these kind of mines is: collapsing; Because of the lack of gases and a very good ventilation system they do not have the risk of an explosion as some other mines which extract coal. In here the organization in every work group is amazing. Even I noted a very relax safety system in the mine the efficiency of each miner is very high and the accident rate is very low in comparison with some other countries like China who has the highest accident rate per year (around 3,000 deaths ever year). 


I had the opportunity to talk with different miners and supervisors, amazingly they spent more than 6 hours with me explained all the processes since the extraction until the metal´s transformation. I am preparing a short video to show you guys my experience in the mexican mine and some conclusions.


      

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE AT MINES

Örebro, Sweden 2008

During my internship at Atlas Copco I had the opportunity to go to the testing mine in Örebro, Sweden. Our visit was couple of hours merely to immerse ourselves in the subject and understand better the real mine environment. 
This mine it is owned by Atlas Copco, it is in here where they test their machines before they ship them; The big machines like scoops, diggers and drills are yield to test, every machine must be in a perfect conditions before leave the factory, I had the opportunity to test one of the huge scoops. 



  

INITIAL BRIEF

Testing Mine in Örebro, Sweden

The collaboration idea for this project is: to develop a new type of product in the area of "Rescue in mines" with a focus on user-centered design innovation.

Thousand of miners die from miner accidents every year, specially in the process of coal mining and hard rock mining.  Most of the deaths today occur in developing countries like: China, India, Mexico and rural parts of developed countries, mining rescue is the very specialized job of rescuing miners and others who have become trapped or injured underground in mines because of mining accidents and disasters such as explosions caused by firedamp, roof falls or floods.

The aim of this project is to propose a new and innovative solution to rescue miners. 

WHY "RESCUE IN MINES"...?

In the summer of 2008 after to have completed my first year of MA in Advanced Product Design in Umeå, I started a 3 months internship in the design department at Atlas Copco in Örebro, Sweden. I had the opportunity to know better what a big company like Atlas Copco does and discover the chances I have as a designer to collaborate together in a beneficial product in the mining industry. My former boss Alex brought about the idea to design a beneficial "something" to rescue people in mines, also could be used to prevent further accidents.

Umeå Institute of Design philosophy is to create innovative products which improve people's lives, therefore both matched perfectly into my idea to combine the big industry and the beneficial product, likewise in a design terms I feel is an unexplored field which has many opportunities to end up with a real project.

I am looking forward to start my degree project in collaboration with Atlas Copco and my tutors are: Alex Liebert by Atlas Copco  and Anders Smith by the UID.