Pelican Australia is reducing equipment damage and downtime across remote mining operations with its engineered cases and lighting systems.
When equipment fails, its subsequent impact is measured in hours and lost productivity.
Remote worksites, long shift rotations, and an operating environment combining red dust, humidity, vibration, and temperature extremes mean the protective systems surrounding critical equipment carry significant operational weight.
Pelican Australia addresses this reality through engineered protective solutions designed around how equipment is deployed, handled, and put to work in Australian field conditions.
Pelican is renowned for protecting mission critical assets in defence and sees strong parallels in the mining sector. In both settings, equipment must be protected in harsh conditions, and failure can lead to high-consequence impacts on safety, productivity and cost.
“The same engineering approach we apply to defence is what mining operators need,” Pelican Products business manager AUS/NZ for engineered protective solutions Justin Evans told Australian Mining. “The operational pressures are comparable, and the cost of a failure in the field is just as consequential.
“With over 50 years of experience in rotational and injection moulding, Pelican designs and manufactures custom protective case solutions incorporating structural steel reinforcement and engineered foam systems to provide superior protection for mission-critical equipment.”
Beyond transport containment
The shift Pelican encourages is one from basic packaging to custom-engineered protection systems.
While a standard timber crate provides containment during transport, a Pelican-Trimcast Technical Solution is an engineered protection system that combines Pelican cases with custom shock mitigation, vibration attenuating, environmental protection, and operational features to safeguard mission-critical equipment.
Purpose-built for real-world conditions, these solutions ensure equipment arrives protected, organised, and ready for immediate use. Equipment failures often begin during transport, handling, storage, and deployment, where dust, vibration, and moisture work their way into tools, cables, and sensitive electronics.
Effective protection reduces the risk of damage, extends asset life, and helps ensure critical equipment is available when needed.
The true value of protective solutions lies in the downtime, delays, and equipment failures they prevent, rather than their initial purchase cost.
Pelican-Trimcast Technical Solutions are developed through a process that begins with the operational environment before specifying any product. Transport method, deployment workflow, handling risks, environmental exposure, and maintenance access requirements are all assessed before a solution is built.
The outcome is a purpose-built system using the appropriate case platform, internal protection, materials and integration features for the application.
Handling realities that standard solutions consistently overlook are central to that process. Field equipment on mining sites is moved via forklifts and cranes and operated by workers wearing heavy gloves under time pressure. Small latches and intricate foam profiles, reasonable in a controlled environment, become a liability in the field. Engineering for how people work on site is the foundation of Pelican’s design process.
At the Pelican-Trimcast Testing Centre in Knoxfield, Melbourne, custom protective systems undergo rigorous shock, vibration, environmental, and handling testing before deployment. This local validation process gives mining operators a defensible, evidence-based foundation for operational confidence.
Many mining sites also contain combustible gases, vapours, or dust.
Lighting used in those environments must be safety-certified and approved for hazardous locations. Using uncertified equipment is a performance risk and carries direct implications for worker safety and regulatory compliance.
Pelican’s safety-certified portable lighting range is engineered for these conditions. Products are designed to deliver reliable illumination across extended shifts in underground tunnels, confined spaces, and open-cut night operations.
Runtime durability, high output, and hands-free functionality are built into the design to address the practical reality of workers who need lighting that performs for the full working day.
Made for Australia
Pelican operates in Australia with local engineering, manufacturing, and testing capability through its advanced facility in Melbourne. For mining customers, that local presence means solutions can be developed and validated for Australian conditions without the delays and logistical complexity of offshore sourcing.
“For operators running technology-dependent field operations in remote locations, protecting critical equipment is no longer purely a transport consideration,” Evans said.
“It is an operational uptime strategy.”
This feature appeared in the July 2026 edition of the Australian Mining magazine.
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