[QUOTE]Originally posted by rbrindley

I am interested in finding out more information about moving bed bunkers for underground coal applications. These are not used in Australia to my knowledge although they are more common in the US and maybe Europe as well.

Any reference documents or websites would be handy.

Also, if anyone is aware of reputable manufacturers of this equipment I would appreciate any contact details.

I have found it difficult to track down useful information on the internet.

Cheers

Rowan [/QUOTEs

Greetings,

How are you intending to use a flight conveyor system underground-for the equivalent delivery of coal prior to screening it? ■

Would this work instead?

The TITAN discharge system for long slotted hoppers:

http://www.jvivibratoryequipment.com...yfeeders.html

It says:

The TITAN is a multiple vibratory feeder discharge system designed for discharging large hoppers that have long, narrow discharge openings with high material head loads.

How it works

Unlike belt or apron feeders, the material is discharged from the front to the back so only free flowing material is being moved. Therefore, compaction of the static material in the hopper is avoided. Compaction is a common problem when using belt or apron feeders due to their inherently poor design for this application..... ■

Rowan,

So what your telling me is the discharge end of the belt in the tailgate does not have the capacity per hour to absorb the discharge per hour of the longwall? Are you feeding a stock pile moved by a dozer or wheel loader?

Short of mining a hole in the floor with a road header or shooting the roof out-if thats possible with your methane levels you have a problem.

Has a mine mouth stock pile scenario been considered? if not why not?

An underground surge bin may be your only solution but owing to roof conditions you may end up leaving a large room and pillar gallery(one tunnel with a deep excavation) to fit a surge bin in the bottom-a steel bin sized to fit the excavation for the surge pile could be assembled underground to allow for storage of the coal with a smaller draw belt underneath the bin to remove the coal.

You could make the drawpoint set up as long in length in the bottom of the surge bin as desired soo you would have plenty of storage.

If you have a mud bottom that will definitely be a mad roo stuck in a fence!

The other option is going up with a bin in the upper strata if that is possible ■

greetings Lyle,

Short of a surge pile underground-either shot out of the roof or mined out of the roof or floor with a road header to create a surge pile I do not see much of an option for you.

The bunkers that you mentioned; don't they have an intermediate tripper belt to load them?

Another option that is easily installed is a belt feeder reclaimer such as is made by WR Stamler or Mclanahan or Long Airdox Roscoe.

By mining out the floor near the tailgate and creating a pit with about 5,000 tons storage for example a reclaimer would have a short distance to feed the tailgate belt and would have a regulated feed to the tailgate belt.

Not knowing the potential extraction time desired for the seam or the seam height is another problem.

lzaharis ■

Moving car bunkers will easily handle your throughputs. Originally manufactured by Walker Horrocks in W. Staffs these clever devices were eventually known as Butterley Bunkers & used throughout UK coal mines up to the shut down. Maybe they are still in use. They make a dog's breakfast of other underground bunkers. I have designed an improved version & will be releasing articles later this month once I've got the patents business in order.

I worked for Bennet & Associates In 1988 when we were designing the back-up train to the Hewit Robbins TBM built by Markhams of Chesterfield. There were no FSW (Fletcher Sutcliffe Wilde) bunkers as I recall.

You should contact what's left of FSW & Butterley before its too late. & myself of course...there aren't many of us still around & most of the rest don't care anymore. ■

Greetings Mr Sanjang,

Weren't the moving car bunkers the ones that had their bottoms fall away when they entered an elevated dumper where the upper part of the car was guided over a second set of rails to allow separation of the bottom of the car and the hopper sides for the chunnel muck trains?

lzaharis ■

The only bad part about the stamlers is that the hoppers on the stamler feeders have a fixed volume-that is why I did not mention them Mr. Rauk. ■

Rowan,

While going through my "archives" (a box in the back of the garage) at the weekend I came across a FSW publication on their range of underground bunkers.

Send me a PM with your e-mail if you want a copy. (It's about 4Mb) ■

Rowan,

Your are making sense-dont worry the problem is

an interseam bin is the lesser of two evils as you can have a huge amount of buffer stock for even loading with a wide low rpm apron feeder dumping over the outby.

The problem is location, location, location. as the face is advancing and where do I want to stick that semi permanent incline belt to the vertical hopper or do I want an incline belt for the life of the mine.

The problem becomes do I feed the dedicated belt already in place from the in seam bin or add a new belt from the bin to the outside world or simply continue with the current practice of mining and advancing and forget the bin idea.

Any bin with a steel sloped bottom(which is physically wider than the bins shot out diameter feeding a wide apron feeder at a right angle to the outby is better than trying to use gravity like so many bins with problems-I lost a close friend because of an error in design due to ratholing and a vibratory feeder.

The big problem is tunnel prep with concerns about gasses and fire suppression and egress/escape.

A surge pile in a dedicated outby area is better in so many ways than an interseam bin in my opinion.

A fifteen foot diameter cylinder interseam bin 170 feet tall gives you a volume of 300 cubic yards of capacity or three hundred tons roughly.

A surge pile that could be manipulated with a slusher or multiple slushers would be very east to do and not require elelctricity to run the slushers.

A trench surge pile could be done easily in the floor of the mines upper seam with a delivery belt from the lower seam feeding the trench surge pile at a separate point or simply have the two head pulleys cast the mined coal opposite each other with the surge pile trench at a right angle to the conveyors feeding it.

A short incline belt fed from a belt feeder at the end of the trench to the outby belt could be done as well

A surge pile trench 20 feet wide by 180 feet long by 180 feet deep cleaned out by twin slushers would give you 24,000 cubic yards

of storage. or 24,000 tons.

You would have to roof bolt and mesh the walls of the trench and roof over the surge pile trench of course or by cutting the width of the trench to ten feet would give you 12,000 tons of storage to feed a belt or apron feeder with a slusher station.

Most of the decision lays in the mines life span and a return on investment.

the expenses would involve a road header and labor for excavation, roof bolting and meshing the pit as it progressed downward, an air powered two bucket slusher, an extra fan for dust control and ventilation, a belt feeder or apron feeder, and a Dos Santos snake belt for a true vertical lift of material.

Please use my e-mail if you would like to learn more

lzaharis@lightlink.com ■

I've changed my profile so you can contact me. ■

Thanks for the private message.

Trouble is there seems to be a fault on the forum so I can't read it!!! ■

Its a software issue from what I was told. ■