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Friday,
26 September 2008
THE
longwall monorail, and lately the development monorail, is becoming
increasing popular in Australian longwall mines.
Published in
June 2008 Australian Longwall Magazine
Newstan
installed
a
Macquarie Manufacturing Rapid Advance Development Monorail
system looking to increase development rates and improve safety. Macquarie has also taken orders for a second
system for Centennial, two complete development systems for Rio Tinto's
Kestrel mine, as well as longwall systems for Xstrata's Blakefield
South and Vale's new Carborough Downs mine.
On top of the 50 installations in Australia,
business
is
also booming in the United
States with FMC the latest to order a Macquarie monorail. Past US customers include the now closed
Willow Creek longwall, the Deserado mine which runs a longwall and
development monorail, the San
Juan mine with longwall, conveyor and gas
extraction systems, and Bridger Coal with a conveyor system soon to be
installed. Macquarie also has installations at Svea Nord in Spitspergen
(Svalbard), in the Arctic Circle.
"We installed our first longwall system in 1990 and they have become a
lot more popular as more mines realise the advantages that the system
will give them. There have been advancements over the original longwall
system including materials management systems, installation platforms,
high-performance traction drive units and the ability to interface with
our innovative Rapid Advance Development Monorail Systems," 'Macquarie
mining manager Scott Jensen said.
He said the new Rapid Advance Development system was proven to increase
development rates, improve section ventilation and standards, decrease
development costs, reduce downtime and reduce the risk of personal
injury and equipment damage due to reduction in manual handling.
"Manual handling is now essentially limited to a lightweight monorail
beam, as opposed to handling cumbersome vent tubes and ancillary
services including cables, hoses, pumps, firefighting, stone dusting,
fans, gate end boxes and similar.
"At the mine, processes previously taking an entire shift to complete
now can be achieved within 30 minutes, without risk of injury, the need
for ancillary equipment, or equipment damage. Belt moves are greatly
reduced in time, with no cable, hose and tube work required."
Jensen said section tidiness and cleanliness could also be improved,
owing to equipment being suspended from the monorail, and not stored as
individual components.
"Mine managers have recognised the need for improvement in development
panels together with reducing injuries, improving driveage rates,
improving longwall continuity and reducing costs."
The monorail system encompasses all services-related equipment from the
face area, outbye to the incoming services cut-through.
At the face, ducting, cables and hoses directly interface with the
continuous miner, with no detachment required during the flitting and
the tramming process, making it no longer necessary to install or
manage ventilation tubes, cables or hoses. The sole requirement is
installation of a monorail beam adjacent to the miner. Shuttle car
extension cables are also placed on the monorail.
The ducting and services then extend outbye to the fan and gate end
box, and both are suspended from the monorail. Incoming services to
this area are also accommodated within the monorail system, outbye to
the incoming services cut-through and through to the associated
travelling road take-off points.
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