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Application


Overview of Site (click to enlarge)

For the Australian project, the coal mine required an electrically powered mobile unit to operate in conjunction with an electric rope shovel, and accept run of mine material direct from the mines face with a guaranteed production throughput of 10000mt/h and peak rates of 12000mt/h. The machine was also to discharge into a travelling hopper car and operate for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for all but 2 days of the year with the exception of an eight hour maintenance period every 2 weeks. These requirements were successfully met by the creation of the MMD Fully Mobile Slewing Sizer Station. The sizer station was designed using the very latest computer technology, and at every point, the design was verified to conform to the latest British and Australian standards. Even so, the design, manufacture and build programme was fast-tracked, and in just over a year the sizer station walked off the erection pad and into operation. The completed sizer station measures just L61m x W15.4m x H18m and weighs in at 1760mt.


P&H 4100 Shovel

In this application, the sizer station receives ROM material, dug from the mine face by a 56m3 capacity P&H 4100 rope shovel. Material dumped into the sizer station's hopper, is processed by the sizer station to reduce overburden, to a nominal 350mm product size; a size suitable for efficient long distance conveyor transport (up to 5km in this case).


Sizer Station

The unit discharges the accurately sized material into the travelling hopper car and subsequently on the face/overland conveyor which leads to the spreader.

The reduced product created by the sizer station reduces belt wear and completely removes problems with oversize lumps on the conveyor and at transfer points.
Spreader The reduced product also assists in creating an efficient compaction under the spreader.

Working co-operatively with the shovel, the sizer station is moved every 4-6 hours, whereas the face conveyor only needs relocating after 3 months when the sizer station is at full stretch, and a block width of at least 70meters has been excavated.

The sizer station only needs to be manned for relocation manoeuvres. While the sizer station is in normal operation it requires no on-board operator and is controlled by radio link from either the shovel or the spreader.


Sizer Station travelling along the mine face

The entire system, consisting of the shovel, sizer station, belt conveyor, and spreader is operated by a small team of drivers and maintenance personnel.

The application in Australia has now been working for over a year and has continued to exceed production shift targets, and lower mining costs from $1.5/m3 (using the truck and shovel method) to now only $0.8/m3.