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May 2017 www.coalage.com 35 plow mining continued system can achieve definitely a higher productivity than a shearer. For the first time in a plow longwall, two 1,073-hp (800 kW ) variable frequen- cy drives (VFDs) were used for the plow drives in conjunction with P-45 UEL-R overload protection gearboxes from DBT with a gear ratio of 16:1. The H coal seam is located 3,300 ft below the surface, and the average seam height amounts to 66.1 in., with a 6-in. rock parting. The inclination of the panel lay between 22.5° and 27° in the direction of the face retreat (i.e., the face was work- ing to the dip). The cuttability of the coal seam was estimated for 1.5 kiloNewton (kN) on the DMT scale. This means that the coal seam was regularly plowable. The new plow guide (at that time it was described as GH 42) was manufactured from highly wear-resistant cast material, which contains a high degree of chromium and manganese for higher resistance and lower wear. The stability for the new plow guide was almost twice as high compared to the previous GH 9-38 ve plow guide. The new plow guide consisted of very strong one-piece guiding beams with rounded and separated chain channels. At the joints, a circular overlap was designed, working as a seal against fine coal. Together with the new plow guide, a modified plow pan PF 4 was introduced. The face and the gob side connectors had a breaking force of 3,600 kN. In summary, a very compact design of plow pans had been created. The new plow body GH 1600 to oper- ate with the above-described plow guide, was developed from the previous 5.7 plow body. The dimension and the strength of this new plow body were designed for the much higher installed power of 2,146 hp (1,600 kW ) — double the power of previ- ous plow systems. Between September 2003 and May 2004, more than 1.3 million raw tons were mined. The GH 1600 plow system operat- ing in panel 258 at Prosper Haniel mine was, by far, the best plow system in oper- ation in all RAG longwalls in 2003. At this time, only one shearer face with a much higher seam height had better productivity. GH 1600 Plow System at the Pinnacle Mine Located near Pineville, West Virginia, the Pinnacle mine, formerly known as US Steel No. 50, is now owned and operated by Seneca Coal Resources. They mine low- to medium-volatile metallurgical coal from the Pocahontas No. 3 seam. This relative- ly flat seam lies in a depth between 985 ft and 1,640 ft and has an average thickness of 49.2 in. The Pinnacle mine began using plows in 1977. All faces were operated in the re- Figure 2—Plow body GH1600-1 applied at the Prosper Haniel and Bogdanka mines. Figure 3—Cross frame main drive at the Prosper Haniel mine. Figure 4—The new plow system delivered to the Pinnacle mine in 2010.