Ordered as part of the Joy Mining Machinery longwall package, the Macquarie Manufacturing mono-rail was installed at the Store Norske longwall project on the island of Spitzbergen, in Norwegian territory. The most dangerous thing on the island, which is only 1200km from the north pole, is polar bears. Equipment motors have to be run with anti-freeze to ensure motors do not freeze during operation.

Earlier this year, Macquarie Manufacturing secured another major order, from the BHP Billiton San Juan longwall mine in the United States, which will be among the largest longwall services mono-rail systems, in terms of equipment requirements and power move increments, that the company has ever produced.

Based in Rathmines, New South Wales, Macquarie Manufacturing is a market leader in the design and supply of mono-rail systems used in underground coal mines to manage services. The company produced its first mono-rail for the Cooronbong colliery in 1990. Since then the company has become a market leader in Australia, and has fitted mono-rail systems to 21 Australian underground coal mines.

Interest from the US began in the early 1990s but according to Eddie McDonough, joint managing director, the company was not ready at the time to export product.

Since then Macquarie Manufacturing have supplied mono-rail systems to the Deserado and Willow Creek longwall mines in the US. The company is closely aligned with Joy Mining Machinery, Australia, Europe and the US. The Monorail ideally complements the current range of longwall equipment manufactured by Joy.

"Our design philosophy is based on design for application rather than having a line item," McDonough said. “Each system is principally engineered at pre-order stage to best suit mining requirements and colliery preferences.

"There are many of our mono-rail systems manufactured strictly to manage cables and hoses from the longwall face to the incoming source of supply.

"Others mines such as Newstan, Baal Bone, Newlands and Moranbah North have electrical equipment such as heavy load centres, pumps, servicing centres, materials management systems and the like up on the rail, and that's exactly what we're doing at San Juan. They will be doing power moves at 1000 feet increments, or 300m, which is amongst the largest. This is not uncommon for Australian mines, but many mines in the US perform power moves in the 500 to 600 feet range."

The mono-rail beam for San Juan will be made out of aluminium, which is currently not allowable in the Australian underground coal industry. The profile of the beam was designed by Macquarie, providing exceptional strength to weight qualities. While only marginally heavier than their steel counterparts (the lightweight steel beam currently offered by the company), the aluminium mono-rail will be longer. This results in less roof bolts being installed per metre of monorail, and a subsequent saving in materials and labour costs.

A further development required for the US industry was that of an emulsion-powered traction drive. The pneumatic units as used predominantly in Australia were found to be unsuitable for the US, and the majority of mines do not have compressed air underground.

McDonough said current company research is further examining integrated mono-rail systems in which the system is used on the way in and also for longwall retreat, as well as looking at ways of eliminating manual handling of services and equipment such as ventilation ducting.