Continuous Miner

Overview

A continuous miner cuts coal directly from the working face and loads it onto haulage in one uninterrupted operation, replacing the older cut-blast-load cycle. It is the primary production machine in room-and-pillar mining. The whole unit is built to flameproof standards because underground coal seams liberate methane, so every electrical box is an explosion-containing enclosure and gas is monitored continuously.

The machine is carried on a welded Main Body / Chassis that reacts cutting, tramming and stabilising loads. It propels itself on two independent Crawler Track Unit track units, each driven by a flameproof motor through a planetary final drive, which let it tram between cuts and steer within the entry.

How it works

Coal is won by the Cutter Head, a transverse drum studded with conical Carbide Cutting Pick tools in welded holders and spun by twin cutter motors through a sealed gearbox. The drum is mounted on the Cutter Boom, which hydraulic cylinders raise and lower so the operator can sump the drum into the seam and shear it from floor to roof across the full cutting height.

Cut coal falls to the floor and is swept inboard by the Gathering Head, whose rotating spinner arms drag it across a loading apron onto the Chain Flight Conveyor. This twin-strand chain-and-flight conveyor carries the coal the length of the machine to a discharge boom that slews and lifts to load shuttle cars or a continuous-haulage system on either side.

All booms, jacks and the gathering head draw flow from the central Hydraulic System. Because cutting generates respirable dust and frictional ignition risk, the Dust Suppression system floods the cutting zone with water sprays and pulls air through a flooded-bed scrubber. The Electrical System system feeds power through a trailing cable, monitors methane, and lets the machine be driven by radio remote from a safe standoff.