Joy Mining Machinery says it is achieving significant global growth for its newest-generation Flexible Conveyor Train (4FCT). This, the company says, “provides continuous material clearance for the continuous miner, making it a truly continuous haulage system that significantly enhances safety while maximising high-production tonnage output, and lowering overall operating costs. Six active installations of the 4FCT span four continents. Two additional installations are in process, while numerous operations are currently in discussions regarding future opportunities.”Leading to this increase in – for either room-and-pillar extraction or longwall entry development – are reports of mine-wide daily and/or monthly tonnage production records combined with an ability to reduce labour costs. For example, operators have achieved monthly outputs exceeding 181,000 t while other mining operations are more than doubling tonnage output per miner personnel, when compared to batch haulage applications.
Since typical batch haulage methods can create bottlenecks and wait times, an increasing number of mining operations worldwide are seeking an alternative haulage method. Such mining operations are finding high-production advantages from the Joy 4FCT, when compared to conventional methods. The 4FCT’s advantages stem from its patented flexible conveyor and traction system that allow it to operate as one single unit conveying material along its length, while simultaneously tramming and following the continuous miner.
Importantly, the 4FCT significantly enhances overall mine safety. It combines all haulage into a single, relatively slow-moving machine that follows a known path of travel, and requires only one operator using remote-control. This reduction in the total number of mobile machines in the section reduces visibility concerns for batch haulage operators and the personnel working on batch haulage sections. Also, less material movement means greater dust control.
Additionally, the system is able to adapt to development and extraction mining methods readily as the 4FCT is engineered in modular sections allowing it to be lengthened as the mine design changes.
The refinements of the 4FCT (over the former Joy 3FCT) are many. They include a variable frequency drive (VFD) for the belt, traction and hopper conveyor drives which provides smooth operation and matched cut to load advantage; drive synchronisation for improved tractive effort; traction module independent control through FACEBOSS to improve traction across uneven floors; maintenance of belt and chain at creep speed; improved diagnostics for increased production uptime; a robust, reversible car design; dual outbye belt conveyor drives; and improved belt designs now exceeding 1 Mt of wear life in certain applications.
The 4FCT is a continuous conveyor which conveys material between the continuous miner and the fixed section belt of the panel conveyor. The operator uses a radio remote control to allow the 4FCT to remain within close proximity of the continuous miner. The continuous miner loads the coal (or other material being mined) into the 4FCT hopper which acts as a reservoir to accommodate varying cutting speeds during the mining cycle. A built-in lumpbreaker crushes larger material and feeds it onto the FCT belt toward the roadway interface. The discharge end of the 4FCT is either connected to a bridge conveyor in its side discharge configuration or directly overlaps the panel belt by means of a Joy roadway interface in its over-the-top configuration. Joy offers several interface designs to accommodate existing section panel belts.