In an exclusive interaction at IMME, Normet elaborates on the key features of their latest innovations and advanced technologies.

What was your primary focus at IMME?
Our focus at IMME was to showcase our technology expertise and leadership in our product offerings. With the demonstration of our underground logistics equipment, VR simulator, SmartScan remote connectivity, and IoT tools, we were aiming to create a live experience for our customers.

This enabled them to try out our tools at our stall, and determine what makes sense to them and how it solves their problem.

How do you assess the mining market in India?
India is not a mining nation, but we have a long history of mining coal, primarily surface mining but it has increasing underground mining trend both for soft rock and metal mining. Besides coal, India is known to mine zinc, copper, iridium, bauxite, and many other minerals. Since much of this mining occurs in the country’s eastern region, many businesses have their headquarters in Kolkata. Zinc is doing well, and we anticipate that other minor minerals will follow, such as Chromite, Copper and also Coal.

What are the major market segments for your product line?
We are the only firm manufacturing all the items needed to finish a mining cycle. We produce a speciality concrete spray machine for mining & tunnelling. Additionally, we have a research and development lab where we design the construction chemicals, much as we did with the concrete and equipment to spray them in the tunnel. Therefore, we provide the customers with a complete solution.

How is digitalisation assisting in improving the safety and productivity of operations?
Mining is getting better, especially tough deep mining, because of digitalisation. We have created, linked and provided IoT-enabled machines, but economic progress is still in its infancy. In addition to these IoT-enabled machines, our equipment also has a support system that monitors its performance when it is used underground, whether it is safe for people to use, whether it is safe for the environment and whether it is working at its best to provide our customers with the highest level of productivity. All our new generation equipment are possible to be connected. The equipment we now have in both the tunnelling and mining segments are fully connected, and we can provide services to our clients.

Please describe the essential aspects of your modular BEV architecture, which was specifically made for underground mining and tunnelling applications.
First, we developed a new platform for the battery-electric vehicle. It’s not like we took out the diesel engine from the equipment we already had and replaced it with a battery; we completely built new from design level. Consequently, the modular design of the battery electric vehicle, the most effective one we have built yet, was primarily driven by safety & productivity focused. There are several possible electrical and fire risks associated with batteries. We have state-of-the-art fire protection and suppression system and especially around battery series systems, which is our key emphasis. As a result, even in a fire, an automated suppression system will ensure that the equipment and the surrounding are not damaged, and protecting the environment is in underground.

What distinguishes others from Normet’s Smart Drive?
We constructed on a fresh platform rather than retrofitting any pre-existing diesel to ensure the safety of our equipment. All our smart driving machines are connected via IoT. Therefore, we are fully aware of the machine’s functioning and behaviour. In the event of any irregularities, we take measures to assure the mission’s survival, safety, and productivity.

We make significant investments in the growth of our employees’ knowledge, skills, and customer-service-oriented mindsets. And as a result, we’ve introduced a lot of new things, including smart scanning, remote assistance, linked fleets, and an emphasis on our human capital being upskilled and dedicated to the client’s success.