Case Studies

HOT Resolved A World’s Problem about the Low Coal Seam Mining Technology 

Have you ever heard about the pseudo inclined fell steeply and inclined low coal seam comprehensive mechanized mining technology? Let me tell you the details.

“Steeply inclined” refers to “the angle is more than 45 degrees.”

“Low coal seam” means “the coal seam which the thickness less than 1.3 meters.”

Nowadays, there are several countries doing this research and test about steeply inclined low coal seam mining technology, but the result is not ideal. Fortunately, this problem was resolved by Chongqing Energy Group recently.

In the past few days, it was published that the project result about “pseudo inclined fell steeply and inclined low coal seam comprehensive mechanized mining technology research and application” passed the authentication. This project was leaded by Chongqing Songzao coal and electric Co. Ltd and Technology Company under Chongqing Energy Group, Beijing HOT Mining Technology Co. Ltd, Shangdong Mining Machine Group Co. Ltd, and Sichuan Aerospace electric hydraulic control company also participated in this project. And the machine is shown in the below Figure 1.

Figure1: Aerospace electric hydraulic

Authentication team thinks that the core technology about this project has following advantages, the mining technology is reasonable, the equipments are reliable, and it is cost-efficient. It made a significant contribution to the development of our coal mining mechanization for our country. And it reached the international leading level.

At present, as for the steeply inclined low coal seam, blasting and pneumatic pick are the most common method. These coal companies in Ukraine, France, Spain, and Sichuan province in China have continuously to carry out the steeply inclined low coal seam fully mechanized study and test. But the results are not good.

However, this project mentioned just now that has resolved some problems as below that perplex several coal mining countries.

1, Shear and hydraulic support glide down along working face which has a big gradient.

2, In the process of production, the machines sink, even topple over, and unable to work.

3, coal in production and the caving coal gangue splash around, it hurts people and machines.

4, In the process of machines’ maintenance, mechanics have a big risk of falling down along steep working face.

Not only that, this project also has an innovative breakthrough on the key problems in automatic control system. The test coal mine is FENGCHUN Coal Mine under Songzao coal and electric Co. Ltd. The mine coal seam dip angle is between 55 degrees and 75 degrees. Thickness is 0.8m-1.3m. The rock in floor and roof are broken and loose. It is unable to use blast-winning technology and fully mechanized mining technology, and they have no choice but to use pneumatic pick, and it is inefficient and has a big number of labour used.

In the test of experiment in this mine, because they used a new mining method and technology, at the end, the amount of labour used has decreased half amount, the monthly production of working face has doubled with no accident.

Zhongfu Li, the general manager of Songzao coal and electric Co. Ltd said, “Pseudo inclined fell steeply inclined low coal seam comprehensive mechanized mining technology research and application” project started in April 2014. It mainly aimed at low coal seam which dip angle is between 55 degrees and 75 degrees, and the thickness is only from 0.8m to 1.3m. It mainly researched comprehensive mechanized mining technology and process as well as the corresponding coal winning machine and accessory device, hydraulic support, guide conveyor, etc. Finally, they developed the relevant technology and complete sets of equipment successfully. They created a set of optimized "man, machine, material, environment, method" factors, and achieved a safe and effective coordination of technology and production management system.

Zhengqi Song, an academician of Chinese academy of sciences, who think the subversive methods of coal mining such as coal seam gasification are difficult to generalize and use under the background, this breakthrough is a remarkable achievement.