Indestructible Antennas for rugged applications

A global mining equipment manufacturer asked MP Antenna to improve the durability of the antennas on its mining machines. Although the OEM had designed its equipment to last beyond 100,000 hours, there were issues with the size and reception quality of the antennas. Plus, too many antennas in one location created mounting issues around the access points of the machines. Over a five-month period, MP Antenna collaborated with the OEM to develop a number of designs, radome materials, bases, and brackets to find a rugged, compact solution that would meet the gain requirements of 6 dBi. In more common terms, this means that the antenna would be strong enough to cover 600 m above and below ground. After a series of in-house and on-site tests, MP Antenna machined Delrin®, a high performance acetal resin, along with its proprietary dual-band, multi-polarized antenna to deliver what the OEM needed for WiFi and RF connectivity on its mining machines. After more than four years and thousands of service hours on hundreds of machines, this solution from MP Antenna is still performing reliably in some of the world’s most challenging environments. Finally, this global OEM has an antenna that’s as tough as its mining machines.