Wenco adds SmartCap fatigue monitor to safety portfolio

Wenco International Mining Systems Ltd. has purchased all assets and intellectual property of SmartCap Technologies Pty Ltd., engineers of a fatigue monitoring wearable.

In recent years, Wenco and its parent, Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM), have invested heavily in solutions to streamline and optimize the end-to-end mining enterprise, with safety as a foundation. SmartCap will add an advanced, fatigue monitoring layer for operator protection to this digital mining initiative, said Wenco. It is intended to be included as part of HCM’s Solution Linkage family, the ICT/IoT solution platform for global mining and construction customers created in response to increased demands for improved safety, life cycle cost and productivity.

“Wenco has long been observing SmartCap’s success in enhancing safety for their customers, and we have been in regular discussion on how we can integrate our technologies to provide a comprehensive, next-generation safety solution,” said Andrew Pyne, president and CEO of Wenco, in Richmond, B.C., Canada. “Ultimately, it was decided that bringing our technology, personnel, and business relationships together under Wenco offered the greatest opportunity for us to deliver on our mutual vision for mine safety.”

Based in Brisbane, Australia, SmartCap assesses real-time fatigue levels and monitors for oncoming microsleeps that create safety hazards. The SmartCap device has over 5000 users globally in mining, trucking and other industries.

“This purchase is an important step for the continued growth of the SmartCap fatigue technology,” said SmartCap CEO Tim Ekert. “We have made significant progress these past eight years and we are proud of every safety incident our technology has prevented. We believe joining Wenco will enable us to grow even further and increase the safety of even more industrial operations.”