AusProof is celebrating 30 years of powering Australia’s mines with its range of electric cable couplers.
When you’re servicing a major industry like mining, it pays to be based in the right place.
AusProof makes its home in the heart of the Queensland coal mining industry: Gladstone.
And as a manufacturer of electric cable coupler solutions for Australia’s coal mines, managing director Aston Marks said it has been the perfect place for AusProof to stay on the cutting-edge of product development.
“We’re incredibly selective with our range,” Marks told Safe to Work. “By focusing on continually developing our key products, we can continue to grow with the industry.”
But AusProof isn’t just focused on Australia. The company’s couplers have elevated operations in Africa, the US, the UK, South America, and parts of New Zealand and Asia.
With customers across the globe, AusProof has been able to gather a wealth of knowledge and expertise that has served it well in its mission to keep taking the next leap of innovation.
“We’re continually tweaking and adapting how we do things, and that’s helped us stay ahead of the game,” Marks said.
AusProof offers electric cable coupler solutions in aluminium and stainless steel, with operating voltages ranging from 660 volts (V) all the way up to 35,000V, and available ratings varying from 60 amps (A) to 800A.
AusProof is this year celebrating 30 years of innovation in the mining sector, where its couplers have become an industry mainstay.
“It’s the thousands of little successes that have brought AusProof to where it is today,” Marks said. “Every one of our 700 employees has had their own journey to get us here, their achievements are shared by all.”
The hard work and dedication of AusProof’s team was key in the development of the company’s hero product: the Ex118BSSRF stainless steel coupler featuring a removable flange.
Even the slightest damage or smallest scratch on the face of a coupler can potentially cause a spark, which can in turn have explosive consequences in a coal mine.
But AusProof’s removable flange means an Allen key and a few minutes are all that’s required to re-fit a new flange as soon as a scratch is detected, keeping the system flameproof while operations continue running.
“Our specifically-designed coupler is used in 99 per cent of Australian operations today,” Marks said. “It changed the game when it comes to safety and cost savings when it was launched, and nothing has been able to rival it since, save for our own innovations to optimise it further.”
Features on AusProof products like replaceable flameproof paths, insulation that extinguishes arcs and faults, full phase-to-phase segregation with earth, and prevention of hot joints are part of the company’s focus on health and safety.
It’s innovations like these that Marks said represent a prime example of AusProof’s ethos that more can always be done.
“Another solution can always be designed, another improvement can always be made,” he said, “AusProof is committed to manufacturing products that are modern, reliable, durable and, above all, safe.”
This feature also appears in the September-October issue of Safe to Work.