Novamera Surgical Mining System Control Unit

Novamera’s control unit is a ruggedized subsurface electronics housing for its Surgical Mining™ system, designed to package and protect control, power, communication, conditioning, and telemetry electronics in a compact assembly for underground operation. 

The Challenge:

Novamera needed to turn an early control-unit concept into a feasible electro-mechanical package for its Surgical Mining™ system. The project already had key electronic elements in hand, including the power, control, communication, conditioning, and telemetry boards, along with connector and harness information.

What had not yet been resolved was how those elements would be integrated inside a compact, sealed assembly that could tolerate underground operating conditions while maintaining fit, alignment, and service-free reliability.

The constraints were real and specific. The target operating depth was revised upward from 300 m to 1000 m, which tightened the pressure-related packaging problem. The telemetry board width made the concept marginal, connector definitions still contained errors or open questions, and the proposed construction needed to account for sealing, RF transmission, internal packaging clearances, and assembly practicality. This was not a blank-sheet product program. It was a focused effort to make a challenging control-unit architecture physically workable.

The Approach:

Inertia approached the work as a structured concept-development exercise built on requirements capture and packaging resolution. The team first organized the available technical inputs, reviewed past design information, and developed project and technical requirements. From there, the work moved into detailed review of the supplied PCBs, connectors, and harnesses to identify issues that would affect packaging and manufacturability, including connector inconsistencies, harness robustness questions, and board-level interface concerns.

With those constraints clearer, Inertia developed a concept design for the control unit that addressed the main electro-mechanical issues. The concept included the overall assembly architecture, internal electronics assembly strategy, fiberglass sleeve and steel body construction, sealing approach with O-rings, RF window direction, and connector treatment. As inputs were resolved, including the reduced telemetry-board width that made the design feasible, the concept was refined and approved as the basis for detailed design.

The Outcome:

The immediate outcome was a clearer and more credible control-unit architecture. Inertia delivered requirements documentation and a concept design package that addressed the main packaging and electro-mechanical issues early enough to support forward motion into detailed design. That included a more resolved direction for how the electronics would assemble into an internal chassis, how the outer structure would be built around that assembly, and how sealing and RF-related considerations could be handled within the available form factor.

Services Provided

Concept Development & Validation

Requirements Definition

R&D

Mechanical Design

Quality Management

Requirements & Risk Management

Verification & Validation

Design For Manufacturing

Low Volume Manufacturing & Pilot Builds

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