This presentation summarizes surface miners and roadheaders, and prospects for combining their capabilities. Surface miners are effective for soft rock but cannot cut hard rock. Roadheaders can excavate soft to medium rock, and with modifications, hard rock as well, but are more expensive to operate and maintain. The presentation explores using sensors and adaptive technologies to allow surface miners to cut harder rocks, and compares key specifications and applications of the two methods. It concludes by discussing using liquids or lasers to soften hard rocks and allow a single machine to excavate a wider range of materials.

1. Mid semester presentation
TITLE OF THE PROJECT:
Study and Performance of Surface miners and
Roadheaders and prospect of combining them in
terms of cutting soft and hard rocks
Under the supervision
of
Dr. PANKAJ KUMAR MISHRA
Presented by :
ABHINAV SINGH(2014B2A3955G)
ANKIT ANAND (2014B5A3672G)
ABHIK ADARSH (2014A8PS363G)

2. SURFACE MINERS
• A surface miner is a technology used to extract cut and load soft rock like coal,
limestone, gypsum etc. in a go.
• Before surface miners mining techniques were drilling, blasting, loading which were
hazardous.

5. Advantages of Surface Miner
1. It cuts the rock into very small pieces and with great efficiency.
2. The capacity of loading trucks increases to a ton.
3. Number of loading trucks are reduced as more rock can be adjusted into
the trucks and hence less road traffic is faced and less fuel
consumption.
4. Spillage from loading trucks are less and hence no road blocks are
formed and less accidents occur.
5. As there is no need of blasting or other hazardous method there is less
loss of property and life.
6. Surface miners use water sprinklers during cutting to stop dust from
getting generated.

6. LIMITATIONS OF SURFACE MINER
• Can cut only soft rocks.
• Can only work on plains or mildly inclined lands, it cannot
work on rough terrain.
• Picks gets damaged regularly and has to be replaced
frequently.
• Machine requires very high maintenance and therefore is
costly.
• Can work only in open cast mines.

7. ROADHEADER

8. What is Roadheader?
 Excavating machine consisting of a cutting head, a loading device and
a crawler to move the machine

9. Applicability
 For soft to medium strength rocks(can be used for hard rocks by
making some structural changes)
 Can excavate almost any profile
 By making structural changes( increased weight, stiffer frame, more
cutterhead power) , it can be used to cut even hard rock
 Known for its mobility, flexibility & selective mining capability leading
to cost effective operations

10. Limitations
 Hard rock cutting ability due to high wear experienced by drag bits in
hard, abrasive rocks.
 Regular changing of spikes/picks on the cutting head due to wear and
tear.
 Other maintenance stoppage and cost.

11. How to overcome these limitations
 By upgrading technology. For eg. Using mini-disc cutter(developed by
Colorado School of Mines). It cuts hard rocks better and reduces
maintenance stoppage. It is currently in its developing stage.
 By accurately determining the areas where various types of
roadheaders needs to improve by analyzing its performance known as
performance prediction.

12. Performance Prediction
 It assess the instantaneous cutting rate (ICR), measured in tons/hr.,
bit consumption rate, pick consumption rate and machine utilization
for different geological units.
 Extensive database available related to field performance (released
by Colorado School of Mines)

13. Conclusion of Database Study
 ICR=27.511 X e^0.0023 X(RPI)
RPI=(P X W)/UCS
RPI=Roadheader Penetration Index
ICR = Instantaneous Cutting Rate
P = Cutterhead Power
W= Roadheader Weight
UCS =Uniaxial Compressive Strength

14. Use of sensors in Roadheaders
 Intelligent Mining Roadheader (IML) technology.
 3-D laser scanner system scans the heading face within infrared
system
 Integrated signal processor calculates the coordinates of the coal
seam and transfers them to the control of the machine, which
determines the next step of excavation.

15. Features of Surface Miner and
Roadheader
Feature Surface Miner Roadheader
UCS (MPa) 80 – 100 100 – 160
Cutting Depth (m) 0 - 0.6 0 - 0.5
Cutting Speed (m/min) 0 - 25 0 - 6.5
Max capacity
(tonnes/hr)
2500 1000
Cutting Width (m) 1 - 5.2 3.6 - 6.15
Installed Power (KW) 450 - 1200 500 – 700
Engine (HP) 800 – 1600 400 - 530
Travel Speed (Km/min) 0 - 5 0 -2.2

16. Electronics involved in Surface Miner and
Roadheader

17. Sensors used in The Control system
• Cable Sensors – Scanning the distance to a reference plate
sliding on the surface
• Non Contact ultrasonic sensors – Measuring the distance to the
side plate or the surface
• Multiplex Sensors –Levelling uneven surfaces in longitudinal and
transversal direction
• Laser Sensors – Working with a transmitter and receiver

18. Applications and Problem faced
• Surface Miner – Soft Rocks
• Roadheader – Hard Rocks
Problem – Roadheader (Hard Rock Cutter) is costly and we
can’t use Surface Miner to Cut Hard Rocks

19. Picks Diagram of Surface Miner and Roadheader

20. Future Works
• Double Pick Layer – Rock type sensed and related layer coming out
• Hard rocks can be detected by sensors, video imaging or CID( Coal-
rock Interface Detection)
• Softening the Hard Rocks
• Special liquid using certain plants
• Soapy water with salt – Iodine in salt will soften the Hard Rock
• Water jets can be used to weaken the hard rock.
• Laser technique can be used to weaken the hard rock structure.

21. References
•A study into the influence of intact rock and rock mass properties
on the performance of surface miners in Indian Geo mining
conditions by Dr. AMAR PRAKASH
•Application of surface miner in Indian Coal Mines by Samrat Dutta
•Roadheader applications in mining and tunneling industries by
H.Copur , Ozdemir, Rostami.(Colorado School of Mines)
•Website- http://www.iml.fraunhofer.de

22. THANK YOU!