July 2015
|
World Coal
|
23
THE
CHANGING
FACE OF
LONGWALL
MINING
SAFETY
Dr Hua Guo, CSIRO, Australia,
discusses a suite of enabling
technologies developed by the CSIRO Coal Mining Research Programme
that delivers significant safety and productivity gains by automating
aspects of the mining process.
D
eep underground, on the
face of a longwall mine,
people work alongside
machines powerful enough
to rip coal from a seam in family
car-sized chunks. It is loud and dusty,
and potentially explosive gases seep
from the seam and voids in the
surrounding rock structure.
Longwall mining accounts for 90%
of Australia’s underground coal
production. Improving the safety of the
people who front up to work each day
in the hazardous coal face areas, is a
priority for the industry and the
nation’s peak industrial research
agency, the Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO).
CSIRO is working on solutions to
improve safety around ground
stability, mine gas and fires control, as
well as developing new technologies to
create an increasingly intelligent
working environment where
potentially all longwall mining
processes are automated.
Realising the ‘unmanned face’ of the
future longwall mine requires the
function of multiple technologies –
such as those used to sense, collect and
communicate information – to be
combined into one platform that is
capable of operating across diverse
mining equipment components,
infrastructure, applications and
physical environments.
It is no easy task and one that is
likely to be accomplished as a series of
technological advances rather than a
step change. Researchers from
CSIRO’s Coal Mining Research
Programme have kick-started the
transition to full automation by
developing a suite of enabling
technologies that have changed the
face of longwall mining operations in
Australia.
CSIRO‑industry
partnership an automatic
success
The suite, collectively known as LASC
(Longwall Automation Steering
Committee) Technology, originates
from a CSIRO patent created in the late
1990s and later made an urgent priority
by industry through the Australian
Coal Association Research Programme
(ACARP).
ACARP funded CSIRO to advance
its patented technology and this led to
the development of new automation
technologies that automate the
face-alignment process – previously a
hazardous manual task that delayed
production – and further remove
employees from danger by allowing
them to monitor and control the
longwall remotely.
The technology platform integrates a
military-grade inertial navigation system
– for face alignment, horizon
control and
