Whether on major city thoroughfares, in residential neighborhoods, industrial parks, or suburban roads, countless cable manholes are scattered throughout the city, with a vast number of manhole covers spread across every corner. These seemingly unremarkable manhole covers serve a dual purpose: protecting underground cables, isolating underground equipment, and ensuring safe passage on the surface. They are an indispensable part of power system operation and maintenance.
Looking back at the history of urban development, as urbanization has continued to advance, urban power grids have been continuously expanded and upgraded, the scale of underground cable installation has grown year by year, and the number of cable manholes has multiplied accordingly. For a long time, traditional manhole covers—primarily featuring a simple slab structure that relied on their own weight to seal the manhole opening—were widely used in the market. Their function was limited to covering the manhole opening, without any protective or monitoring measures. However, practical maintenance challenges are particularly acute. Some manholes are located on major thoroughfares with heavy traffic, while others are hidden in remote suburban green belts. Manual inspections have limited coverage, require long intervals, and incur enormous labor costs. Issues such as missing manhole covers, displaced or tilted covers, and damaged covers often go unnoticed by operations and maintenance personnel until a road hazard occurs or feedback is received from the public. Worse still, some individuals have been known to pry open cable manhole covers without authorization, illegally enter the manholes to steal internal components, and conduct unauthorized work inside them. Once a manhole cover is illegally opened, not only does a dangerous hole form on the road surface—posing a significant safety threat to pedestrians and vehicles and greatly increasing the risk of traffic accidents—but the underground cable equipment is also directly exposed. This makes it vulnerable to deliberate damage, leading to cable failures that cause regional power outages. Such incidents result in losses for residents and businesses alike and create serious hidden dangers for the safe operation of the power grid.
In response to these real-world challenges, Dinsee Smart Technology’s DX-DLS100-JG smart electronically controlled manhole cover has been deployed at cable and pipeline maintenance sites.
The DX-DLS100-JG Smart Electronically Controlled Manhole Cover is not intended to directly replace existing ductile iron or SMC manhole covers, but rather to serve as a secondary protective cover installed inside conventional manhole covers. This dual-layer protection design further strengthens the security of cable manholes. The complete system consists of a fiberglass manhole cover body, a lock assembly, locking bolts, a controller, and an electronic key for the manhole ring. Data on the manhole cover’s status collected by the system is uploaded to a monitoring platform, enabling real-time monitoring of the cover’s status and remote authorization for opening and closing.
The materials and craftsmanship are also fully designed to withstand harsh outdoor underground conditions. The manhole cover body is made of orange-yellow fiberglass-reinforced plastic, while all other structural components are manufactured from 304 stainless steel, ensuring corrosion and rust resistance. Special handles are installed on both sides of the cover; these automatically retract when no external force is applied, so as not to obstruct traffic. During maintenance or construction, the handles can be used to easily lift the inner cover and perform work inside the manhole. The rear of the unit features an integrated sealing design with an IP68 protection rating. It has passed a 72-hour neutral salt spray test and is suitable for a wide range of complex manhole environments.
The lock mechanism features a three-bolt design, which is the core of this product’s security capabilities. Without authorization, the lock can rotate 360° freely; even if an intruder attempts to force it open with a crowbar or wrench, the bolts will not unlock, thereby preventing violent attempts to pry open the manhole cover at the hardware level. The device offers flexible and diverse unlocking methods, supporting both Bluetooth unlocking via the unit itself and remote authorization unlocking through the platform, with lock body control achieved via an electronic clutch. Only after authorization is completed can the clutch engage properly, allowing the manhole cover to be opened by turning the handle. At the same time, to fully account for extreme on-site conditions, an emergency key is provided. Should the device’s battery run out or the key lose power, emergency repair crews can still open the manhole cover normally, avoiding situations where the device locks up and prevents work from proceeding. Furthermore, the system maintains a complete record of every manhole cover opening operation—including the time and the person who opened it—ensuring full traceability for post-event verification.
The software platform employs a proven B/S architecture, integrates Internet of Things (IoT) technology, and utilizes financial-grade data encryption to ensure secure and reliable data transmission. The platform can collect key data in real time, including manhole cover openings and closings, cover tilt and abnormal movements, and battery levels. In the event of anomalies such as unauthorized opening of a manhole cover or low battery levels, the system automatically triggers an alert and immediately notifies operations and maintenance personnel of the risk.
Technology shouldn’t be all flash and no substance; the key is to solve real-world challenges. Dingxin Smart Technology has targeted long-standing issues such as the theft and unauthorized opening of cable manhole covers, as well as delays in identifying potential hazards. By combining hardware protection with platform-based monitoring, the company safeguards underground cable infrastructure and ensures the safety of pedestrians and motorists.
