UNDERGROUND MINING RAIL
equipped with monorail systems at the mine.
Monorail systems are best suited to narrow vein
metallic operations up to about 4,000 t of daily
production. SMT Scharf says that their real
benefit is seen in steep and changing gradients
as they can offer speeds of up to 3.5 m/s and can
transport loads of up to 30 t per trip on inclines
up to 24 degrees or 35 degrees with a special
gear-wheel application all in a smaller 3 m x 3 m
excavation, so allowing steeper and cheaper and
faster access to the ore. The company says the
system is also designed to negotiate sharp
horizontal curves of down to 4 m and vertical
curves of 10 m. Derailments are described as
virtually impossible due to a specially designed I-
beam rail and sliding being prevented by a highly
efficient dynamic active brake system which
allows the motors to become generators and
feed nearly a third of the power required for the
monorail back to the electrical system. Of course
this also means lower ventilation cost as braking
energy is not lost as waste heat emissions. SMT
Scharf says no special floor preparation is
needed and that they can be easily integrated
into already existing systems. Given all these
attributes, monorails are especially suited to
solving the problems of very deep underground
mining in larger mines as in South Africa but the
EMTS also has potential in shallow deposits as
well particularly for smaller high grade operations.
Monorail shield moves in Chinese coal
Back to the more conventional application of
monorails in coal mining, SDIC Xinji Group’s KZD
coal mine is located in Anhui Province, China. The
construction was officially started in July 2007
with designed annual output of 5-8 Mt, so a
large-scale coal mine. There are 10 mineable coal
seams in the mine and the average thickness is
about 27.66 m. Total reserves of 730 Mt mean
there is potential for more than 100 years
production. KZD mine purchased a monorail
transport system from SMT Scharf with a 2 km
rail system from transit hub to working face
underground. The efficiency of material
transportation and excavation process has been
significantly improved after the introduction of
the monorail system. In April 2016, the entire set
of hydraulic shield supports each weighing 48 t
were transferred successfully and installed at
working face #121303 by means of the system
from SMT Scharf.
The model ZZ13000/27/60D hydraulic shield
supports are applied in the working face. The full
transport route was 1,400 m with a maximum
inclination of 18 degrees over 300 m. The shield
supports would have had to be dismantled in
pieces if transported by the old method, and
relay transport would have been required
among a number of single ropes and endless
winches. The system is complicated with low
efficiency
The SMT Scharf monorail model DZ2200
3+2+3 locomotive with SLG4.5（16 t）lifting
beam is now used to carry separate parts and a
Z2200 3+2+5 locomotive with SLG16.5 (50 t)
heavy lifting beam to transport entire supports.
From mid April to mid June 2016, 198 units of
shield supports were transported completely
with an average of three units per day.
One unit of DZ2200 with configuration 3+2+3
is used in the inclined roadway with 0.49 m/s in
the range of 300 m at 18 degrees and the running
time is 10 minutes. Most of the rest of the
roadway is below 18 degrees. The average
inclination is set at 11 degrees for 1,100 m. The
locomotive can run at 0.7 m/s. The total length of
the roadway is 1400 meters, which takes about
26 minutes. The return time is about 20 minutes
at 1.1 m/s due to empty load and downhill.
Overall transportation time is about 60 minutes,
and only two workers are needed for lifting and
driving.
Using a less efficient winch mode of
transportation the equipment needs to be shifted
four times, which takes three hours and 20
workers with higher risk. It only takes 1.5 hours
and one time load shifting using monorail system
and a maximum of five workers per shift.
NMT and SCHALKE drive innovation
In December 2018, Nordic Minesteel
Technologies Inc (NMT), specialists in horizontal
and vertical solutions for mining, announced the
acquisition of all rolling stock assets of Schalker
Eisenhütte Maschinenfabrik GmbH including all
intellectual property rights, from Germany’s
Eickhoff. The announcement said NMT’s German
subsidiary, Schalke Locomotives GmbH, “will
continue with the 146 year old locomotive history
of the brand SCHALKE. The acquisition,
transitioning over the next few months, will
Reliable
Workhorse
Hermann Paus Maschinenfabrik GmbH
Tel.:
+49 (0) 5903 707-0
[email protected]
www.paus.de
Paus Load Haul Dumpers are specially designed for use in mining and tunnelling.
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