Published in the September 2010 Australian Longwall Magazine

One of a number of ongoing developments is Eickhoff’s Anti Collision Radar system.

At an advanced stage of its initial trial at a longwall mine in Germany, Eickhoff plans to globally release this technology for its range of shearers in the near future.

Eickhoff Australia deputy manager Geoff Newby said there was very positive feedback from the trial in Germany.

The system works by sending a radar signal in front of the shearer to detect if any unexpected obstacles are in the direction the machine is travelling.

Newby said a big problem is when the canopy drops and the operators cannot see this because of coal dust.

But the radar unit is located safely in the ranging arm motor shroud and is designed to cover an envelope of space in the shearer’s path.

If anything significant has intruded on that envelope the unit will stop the shearer from hauling and give a visual indication of the impending obstacle.

Eickhoff has introduced on-board cameras and spotlights which are integrated into the ranging arm casing of the shearer and which have in the development project sites returned good results in their clarity.

Cameras can quickly get caked up in coal dust when they are near the face, but these cameras come with a cleaning device which hits the camera cover with a blast of high-pressure atomised water every few minutes.

Newby has got some of the footage from the trial in Slovenia.

He said the screen will turn blue for a couple of seconds while it is cleaning, and then you have “perfect vision again”.

The next shearer to be released is the SL900, with the first two machines made this year going to China. The SL900 has the benefits of the lower profile SL750 that is used at several mines in New South Wales and Queensland with the higher power of the SL1000 which is used at Vale’s Carborough Downs mine in Queensland.

Another new product project is Eickhoff’s development of a unique low seam in-web shearer.

The new shearer loader is designed to cut seams from 1.2m to 1.6m and has been designed for thin seam customer applications, some of which have excellent coking coal quality.

Eickhoff already uses vibration sensors in the ranging arm to monitor the gear boxes and bearings, but another project is investigating other uses.

Newby said vibration monitoring could be used to enhance a shearer’s auto horizon control.

In the case of cutting a stone roof and a stone floor, the vibration monitors could let the shearer know when it is coming out of the coal seam.

“Coal is a lot softer than rock, so if you start to touch the rock you are going to get a different signature coming back,” he said.

On the topic of automation, Newby said he can see the ultimate goals getting closer.

“Someone asked me the other day, ‘when would you say you have got perfect automation?’

“I guess the answer is, you push a button to start the shearer at the maingate and off it goes up to the tailgate and comes back again, and continues to do that with no interaction from people.”

While there is a lot going on for Eickhoff globally in research and development, Eickhoff Australia added a 30% extension in floor space to its existing facility at Braemer in New South Wales a few months ago.

Over in Queensland, the company is operating at a new office and store facility at Terminus Business Park in the Paget industrial hub of Mackay.

Eickhoff has sold more than 43 shearer loaders around the world this calendar year, with most being built for delivery within the 2010 calendar year.

Since the completion of the design of the SL series machine types in 1995 the company has sold 16 of its SL series range within Australia, including two SL1000s, 4 SL750s, 2 SL500s and 8 SL300s.

The two SL1000s at Carborough Downs each have a total installed power of 2,190 kilowatts, including 900kW for each of the two cutter motors, 150kW each for the two haulage motors and 45kW for both of the pump motors.

The cutter motors use 3300 volts and frequency of 50 hertz, while the haulage motors are at 690V with a frequency range of 0-120Hz and the pump motors are 690V and 50Hz.

While Eickhoff notes the reliability of the SL1000 at Carborough Downs is around 98%, the first panel has had its challengeswith geology and having to carry out two longwall moves. The EiControlSB (state-based) automation system combined with the CSIRO LASC system has contributed significantly to negotiating some of the challenges faced at Carborough Downs.

Despite several geotechnical challenges in its first block, Vale’s global coal managing director Decio Amaral expects the mine to average 4.7 million tonnes per annum of raw coal output in 2011 to produce about 3.3Mtpa of coking coal and pulverised coal injection coal.

The longwall started in September 2009 and the mine produced 1.93Mt of raw coal for the 2009-10 full year.

The coal handling and processing plant is rated at 1000 tonnes per hour and total resources are estimated to be 280-300Mt – enough for a mine life of 21 years.