Eickhoff will give the Australian mining industry its first look at new developments it has incorporated into its SL shearer loader series for the country’s longwall market on Stand 3407-01/-02 during AIMEX in Sydney, September 6-9. The SL 300 to be featured at AIMEX is the latest addition to what the company describes as “the smartest mining machine in the world”. The SL series effectively automates a longwall operation, allowing operators to focus on monitoring functions. “The SL series at the forefront of a machine generation which will enable fully autonomous mining systems in the future,” Eickhoff’s Australia’s Managing Director, John Smallwood, said.Safer and new shearer concepts are based on shearer automation and more powerful ranging arm and haulage units, coupled with new energy distribution boxes configured with the latest Eickhoff industrial PC technology, he said. German-headquartered Eickhoff says its SL shearer loaders are well-proven to provide superior reliability and extraordinary efficiency.

The machines can concentrate the power of three Formula 1 racing cars at a coalface, are capable of mining more than 1 Mt/month of coal, hold a number of international production records, and have won international innovation awards.

“Eickhoff continuously sets technology standards for safe yet highly efficient shearer loaders in extreme-performance longwalls around the globe,” Smallwood said. “All our development activities with these machines are focused on achieving the optimum benefit for the customer. Maximum availability and reliability, ease of maintenance and long service life are distinctive features of our products as is high productivity at low machine-specific mining cost.”

A family owned company founded in 1864, Eickhoff says it is now a market leader in the international coal mining and tunnelling industry with its shearer loaders, continuous miners and tunnelling roadheaders.