Hitachi mining software subsidiary Wenco International has acquired Australian industrial wearables firm SmartCap Technologies Pty.

Based in Brisbane, Australia, SmartCap assesses real-time fatigue levels and monitors for oncoming micro-sleeps that create safety hazards. 

The SmartCap device has over 5,000 users globally in mining, trucking, and other industries.

The SmartCap offering includes a wearable known as the LifeBand, as well as a smartphone app, known as Life. The wearable can be worn with a cap or hardhat, or on its own. The LifeBand uses brainwave monitoring to determine alertness.

The Life app connects to the LifeBand via Bluetooth, and allows progress tracking. It provides a fatigue level ‘speedometer’ that provides real time alerts.

In recent years, Wenco and its parent, Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM), have invested in a number of solutions to streamline end-to-end mining, with safety as a foundation. The SmartCap acquisition adds a fatigue monitoring capability to this digital mining initiative. 

The SmartCap range will be included as part of HCM’s Solution Linkage® family, the company’s ICT/IoT platform for mining and construction.

“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.

“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.

“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.”