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May 2017 www.coalage.com 23 longwall usa 2017 continued Water Hydraulic System Solutions for the most productive and modern longwalls in the world • Complete longwall pump systems (including VFD) • Water spray systems • Directional, pressure control and relief valves • High and low pressure piping systems EHP-5K400S – Quintuplex High Pressure Pump with Flange Mounting: • 400 kW Input power • Flow rates with up to 196 GPM (742 l / min) • Operating pressures with up to 6,090 psi (420 bar) Longwall USA 2017 | Booth 735 Hauhinco LP 1325 Evans City Road | Evans City, Pennsylvania | 16033 USA Phone: +1 724 789 7050 | info@hauhinco.com | www.hauhinco.com Hauhinco Maschinenfabrik | G. Hausherr, Jochums GmbH & Co. KG Beisenbruchstraße 10 | 45549 Sprockhövel | Germany Phone: +49 2324 705-0 | info@hauhinco.de | www.hauhinco.de Hauhinco – The Expert in water hydraulic solutions tus quo of current U.S. longwall support practices, NIOSH researchers review the data collected from 21 longwall visits, rep- resenting about 40% of the currently active longwall mines in four of the five major U.S. longwall regions. The resulting data was obtained from a wide variety of over- burden depths, geologic conditions, min- ing heights, ground conditions, support practices and gateroad configurations. Two of the observed mines had op- tions for cribless tailgates using cable bolts/trusses while the remaining mines used some form of standing support. The majority of mines using standing support employed can-type supports (37%), while the rest used pumpable cribs or traditional wood cribs/posts. Standing support densi- ties in the tailgate ranged from 0.05 mega- pascal (MPa) to 0.18 MPa and up to as much as 0.35 MPa in the No. 2 entry. Both entries averaged a support density of 0.12 MPa. The data collected is reported using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results from the research updated pre- vious efforts in classifying mining accidents and injuries as well as current support prac- tices. This data provides a necessary back- ground for future research aimed at further reduction of ground fall accidents and inju- ries. Tailgate support was typically standing support with the exception of one observed mine, which was currently using a cribless tailgate configuration when the depth of cov- er allowed. The remaining mines used some combination of pumpable cribs (31%), cans (or other preformed cementitious support, 38%), wood cribs in both the four- and nine- point configurations (19%), and prop-setters (or other yielding, wood props, 13%). Tailgate conditions, overall, were typi- cally good and discussions with personnel revealed relatively low rates of unsatisfac- tory performance. It was fairly common, particularly in the east, to see more than one type of support in a single gateroad and more than one type of support used in the recently mined panels. Additional- ly, the use or lack of cable bolts in the gate entry depends mostly on the orientation and magnitude of the regional and local horizontal stress field. This has a tenden- cy to be more problematic in weak roof conditions in the headgate rather than the tailgate due to the inability to install standing support in the belt entry. Howev- er, standard design guidelines and practic- es are still relatively lacking with mine op- erators tending to rely on past experiences to guide future designs. Future research, involving numerical modeling of the sup- port/rock interaction as well and field in- strumentation, data collection, and sup- port testing, will be required to advance the science of gateroad support design for use in future mining operations. Operating Efficiencies The Thursday morning ( June 15) session opens at 9 a.m. with Improved Safety and Increases in Performance and Produc- tivity Through the Implementation of a Longwall Proximity System and the Use of Smart, Connected LW Products. Rudie Boshoff, global director, lifecy- cle management and JoySmart Solutions, Komatsu Mining Corp., will describe how improved and reliable longwall connectivity including manpower location monitoring is leading to increases in safety, production and productivity. The use of data analytics