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MINEXPO PREVIEW II
option with four-wheel independent drive that
can be disengaged for towing.
“Mobility and flexibility are two of the biggest
challenges in narrow vein mining. Due to the
tight constraints and narrow passageways,
miners need safe, portable and compact
equipment,” said Carlos Bravo, Global Product
Manager for Boart Longyear. “The StopeMaster is
ideal for the tight and narrow spaces. Designed
for bulk mining applications, it is compact,
mobile, versatile and durable, with a proven track
record of high productivity and long service life.”
In addition to the StopeMaster hydraulic drill,
Boart Longyear offers the StopeMate™
pneumatic drill, which also is designed for
flexibility and productivity in tight access
locations. Both are durable and compact, with
360° rotation for greater flexibility.
For added safety, both rigs are equipped with
heavy-duty hoses to protect the driller from hose
rupture, and can be controlled with a remote
positioning system up to 25 m away, which
improves safety by removing the operators from
the immediate drilling area. The StopeMaster also
has an emergency stop circuit to cut the power to
the drill in the event of an incident.
“When developing new technologies,
equipment and consumables, Boart Longyear
continues to focus on making the driller safer and
more productive,” Bravo said. “With current
trends toward rod handling and drilling deeper,
we are always looking to see where we can
upgrade or expand our product lines to meet the
customer’s needs.”
Product experts will be available at the display,
which will include a broad range of underground,
surface, multipurpose, sonic and production drill
rigs; performance tooling; and the first two
products in the company’s instrumentation line,
TruCore™ and TruShot™.
Howden is an established North American
supplier to mining ventilation in both coal and
hard rock underground mining. Established in
1857, Howden has been pushing the boundaries
of ventilation technology in mining, power utility,
and other applications for over 100 years. It has
many celebrated brands that are today part of
the Howden organisation and is proud to
continue to supply full, exclusive OEM
aftermarket support for those brands. These
include Alphair Ventilating Systems, Buffalo
Forge, Joy Green Fans, and TLT-Babcock.
Simsmart Technologies was recently added to the
product family.
Howden has a global & North American
footprint that allows the company to support
mining customers wherever they are located in
the world.
The recent acquisition of Simsmart
Technologies has enabled Howden to extend
system expertise into sophisticated ventilation
44 International Mining | SEPTEMBER 2016
control systems that will add value in ventilation
cost savings. It has already installed systems that
have demonstrated the strength of combined
expertise in both fans and
control systems, that means
bottom line savings for the
user. The Sm artEXEC™ system
has been documented to save up
to 55% by using a full control and
monitoring system for both underground
and main ventilation fans. Moreover, by
channelling air to functioning areas of the mine,
the conditions can be created to overall increase
mine productivity by supplying additional air
typically at a lower rate of power consumption.
J.H. Fletcher & Co has a new product to
improve the roof bolter operator environment.
The machine, known as a dry scrubber, is
supported by field testing, and backed by a long
history in dust suppression. The dry scrubber is
permissible and has the ability to operate in a
variety of applications, making it a complement
to the Fletcher roof bolting product line.
The need for this product is evident, as dust
concentrations downwind of the continuous
miner can exceed regulatory standards and
overexpose roof bolter operators. Underground,
on-board flooded bed scrubbers are used on
continuous mining machines for respirable dust
collection. Though these systems are proven,
dust by-passing the continuous miner scrubber
may expose roof bolter operators to high levels
of respirable dust when working downwind of the
continuous miner.
Fletcher was a pioneer in dust collection,
receiving patents as early as the 1950s. When
maintained, Fletcher MSHA approved onboard
dry dust collectors are proven in removing the
respirable dust generated from roof bolting. With
this background, Fletcher’s research and
development department developed the MSHA
approved Fletcher dry air scrubber. The machine
is a stand-alone, self-propelled, electrically
powered ventilation fan. It has two operating
modes: tram and ventilation. While in tram mode,
the fan cannot be operated. The dry air scrubber
is engineered to be positioned between the rib
and vent curtain. The unit then works to clean
contaminated air
before it enters the
roof bolter work
space, working to
provide roof bolter
operators with a
cleaner air supply and
lowering their
exposure to respirable
dust.
The design reflects
Fletcher’s diversity in
the underground
Other potential applications for the dry scrubber,
include: belt conveyor transfers, underground
truck dumps, single entry air cleaning, and diesel
particulate matter removal
mining sector, with the ability to fit into a wide
variety of mines and applications. The dry
scrubber is 5 m in length and 1.4 m wide, and is
equipped with 305 mm crawler pads.
The dry scrubber pulls a portion (up to 4.25
m3/s) of the air flowing between the rib and the
vent curtain into the filters on the inlet side of the
fan. Filtered air is directed out of the machine
and back into the main air stream. A pressure
sensor arrangement is used to monitor filter
conditions to alert the operator when the filters
need replaced. A hydraulically operated hood
and pivoting electrical controller allow access to
the air filters.
The fan speed and resulting airflow is
controlled by a variable frequency drive (VFD).
This allows the mine to select an airflow
controlled with a feedback loop to automatically
adjust the fan speed to maintain a constant
airflow output as the filters are loaded with dust.
NIOSH laboratory tests found that the dry
scrubber averaged greater than 95% respirable
coal dust removal while being operated at two
different fan airflow speed quantities of 1.42-4.25
m3/s. Underground studies found a collection
efficiency of 99.2%.
For over 20 years, the MinCa (Mining Car) has
been a successful model in the Paus product
range — a front-steered, all-wheel-drive
underground transporter vehicle. MINExpo
visitors will see the new generation – the MinCa
5.1, based on the proven MinCa 18A concept, a
versatile vehicle.
With its compact dimensions of 3,998 mm x
1,725 mm and a payload of 1,200 kg the MinCa
5.1 is an ideal personnel transporter even for