Development of a Longwall Water Jet Mining Machine. Final Technical Report

摘要

The contract initial objective was to construct a prototype longwall water jet mining machine and evaluate its performance by field testing the unit in a strip mine coal panel. The design of the machine, Hydrominer I, was based on USBM Contract H0232064. The second objective was to design and construct an improved cutting head, Hydrominer II, which would be tested in an artificial coal heading. The testing of Hydrominer I in coal indicated significant beneficial features resulting from the application of water jet cutting to coal mining. These features were the elimination of dust, the reduction of the danger of gas and dust explosions from machine generated sparks, the ability to cut a wider web with a lower haulage force requirement than for a shearer, and the production of larger coal with fewer fines. However, the production rate was limited by inherent machine design problems which prevented Hydrominer I from achieving its full potential. The design generated for Hydrominer II was intended to correct the difficulties of the first generation machine and allow the full productive capability of the concept to be achieved while retaining the beneficial features clearly proven in the field tests of Hydrominer I. However, the artificial coal in which Hydrominer II was to be tested did not respond to the jet cutting in a manner similar to that of coal. Therefore, no conclusions can be drawn in regard to the performance of Hydrominer II based on the artificial coal tests. (ERA citation 06:032909)