Published in June 2006 Australian Longwall Magazine

Not only is the company representing a new low-profile German-designed conveyor chain, it has also come up with a new concept flight bar and continues to make inroads with its cable-handler products.

ACT will launch the JDT lower profile F-class chain at the Queensland Mining Exhibition in July.

To date, Australian sales of the new chain, which comes in diameters ranging from 19mm to 52mm, have been made to the Springvale and Grasstree mines for installation on their stageloaders. These have been supplied at 34mm diameters.

ACT has also designed a new flight bar concept called the cradle bar, which has been designed in two pieces.

The design of the new flight bar has been patented and according to ACT managing director Peter Howard, the re-design will reduce both the purchase price and overhaul costs associated with flight bars.

The lower piece of the cradle bar contains all the areas of a flight bar that experience high wear, namely the sole and tips of the flight bar. Usually when these areas start to wear out the entire bar has to be changed. The new design allows the lower 'cradle' that has all the wearing areas, to be discarded whilst retaining the lightly worn upper section, virtually halving the cost of flight bar replacement.

The new design also incorporates two horizontal and two vertical bolts to enhance flight bar retention.

Howard said flight bars for 34mm chain and less will be forged in Australia and the larger sizes in Germany and China. An Australian order for the new design is believed to be imminent, he said.

On the cable handling side of the business, ACT is having success with its recently launched Tri-pull Scorpion bretby cable handler.

A double steel spine down the middle of the Tri-pull and two outer spines make it much stronger, and provide the barrier for the electric cable and hose in the totally enclosed system.

"We've had a very successful installation of our first ever Tri-pull Scorpion at Maltby colliery in the UK. In just over 2 million tones of coal produced, 60% of which was coal and 40% rock, we changed 20m of the cable handler," Howard said.

"This is the first time in Maltby's history they've completed a block without changing the entire handler."

ACT also supplies a twin-pull cable handler and has one installed at two mines in the UK, one of which has just completed 1Mt in extremely difficult conditions.

In Australian operations, Tri-pull has been installed at Oaky No 1 in Queensland and has been supplied to the new Anglo Coal Grasstree operation. Scorpion Tri-pull installations are also being supplied to Russia and South Africa.

ACT has also entered the gateroad cable and hose handling market with a recent innovation in the development of a reeling system for a multi Tri-pull arrangement for the hoses and cables between the pump station and the monorail.

ACT supplies cable handlers to the majority of Australia's longwall mines.

Based on the successful Scorpion range, the new design is a complete overhaul of the cable handling concept.