Machines for underground mines - Safety requirements for hydraulic powered roof supports

To ensure industrial and mining safety the established safety rules for coal mines envisage the use of a number of complexes and systems, combined into multifunctional safety systems. These automated systems provide for people to be involved in the management of technological processes. The purpose of this paper is to assess how the coal mine safety requirements are aligned with other regulatory documents as they apply to modern safety systems in coal mines. To achieve this goal, the personnel location (positioning) and emergency alert systems in coal mine workings are analyzed for compliance with the requirements of the national standard for multifunctional safety systems in coal mines. It is shown that the current requirements for positioning systems are met by systems that have high accuracy in determining the location coordinates of people. It is suggested that positioning systems of the zonal type should be either upgraded to increase the number of readout devices to bring them up to the requirements of safety regulations in coal mines or replaced.

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Flameproof Diesel Engines in Underground Coalmines in Britain—design Features and Operational Experience

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part A Power and Process Engineering ◽

10.1243/pime_proc_1988_202_032_02 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 202 (4) ◽

pp. 225-231

Author(s):

J A N Currie

Keyword(s):

Research And Development ◽

Diesel Engines ◽

Underground Mines ◽

Operational Experience ◽

Design Features ◽

Paper Briefly ◽

Evolutionary Processes ◽

Safety Requirements ◽

Design Changes

The use of flameproofed diesel engines in underground mines of the British coalmining industry has a history approaching fifty years. During that time, the design of the flameproof package has seen considerable changes, due both to normal evolutionary processes and to changes to statutory requirements, the most recent of which is the introduction of BS 6680 (1). This paper briefly reviews the design changes that have occurred and describes the design features of typical current units. Today's units are inevitably more complex than those which were first introduced, owing to more stringent safety requirements; this has an impact on reliability and maintenance which is discussed, along with general operational experience. The implications of the introduction of BS 6680 on future designs are also discussed, together with recent and current research and development aimed at reducing the size and cost of the flameproof unit.

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