One South African coal mine reported a productivity improvement of nearly 40% after less than 12 months of using the system.

Joy Mining Machinery, South Africa engineering operations manager Ben Snyman said at the 2006 Australian Mining Technology Conference the Data Communications and Surface Reporting system had allowed underground coal mining operations to take full advantage of their Joy equipment and optimise productivity.

“The system is capable of transferring continuous miner and operational data in real-time to the surface, while also enabling the adjustment of certain key parameters that control machine performance from surface,” he said.

“The system interfaces onboard the machine with the machine control and monitoring system and is Ethernet compatible off-board the machine.

“Real time continuous communication is therefore possible between the underground machines via the surface data server to any location on the globe.”

Snyman said the value of recorded machine data is further enhanced through the use of a surface reporting program (JSRP) which generates production and engineering reports as well as monthly summary reports.

“These reports provide the customer with valuable insight into production and machine performance and to take management action for enhanced people productivity and machine utilisation.

“The Data Communications and Surface Reporting system is also compatible with popular E-mailing systems thus enabling instant report E-mailing to the relevant mine personnel.”

He said Joy also offers a Communications and Reporting Support Agreement which supports the customer in optimising the machine, in-section processes, machine operators and shift time utilisation.

“A Joy online communications specialist will review with the customer on a weekly and monthly basis recommendations and findings. Equipment as well as operational issues and problems are highlighted and action plans jointly developed to eliminate problems and to optimise performance,” Snyman said.

“Bottleneck operations, wasted time, mismatching between continuous miner and shuttle cars are typical examples of the value that this feature adds to an operation.”

Snyman said the Data Communications and Surface Reporting system had already proven its real value to South African coal mining operations.

“One major customer recently expanded its use of the system to a fleet of five continuous miner sections and entered into a comprehensive Data Communications and Surface Reporting Support Agreement with Joy, following the demonstration of sustained production improvements,” Snyman said.

“Plans are to expand even further to 11 continuous miners at three mines over the coming years.”