Reliability is an important consideration in the planning, design and operation of engineeringsystems. As the size and complexity of mining equipment continue to increase, the implica-tions of equipment failure become ever more critical. One method to mitigate the impact offailures is to improve the reliability of the equipment. One of the purposes of system reliabil-ity analysi...

Many different types of mobile equipment used in surface coal mining utilize enclosed cabs to protect equipment operators. The overburden removal process is extremely dusty and can cause excessive exposure to respirable dust, especially crystalline silica. After equipment is used for years, many components of the enclosure deteriorate and its effectiveness is greatly reduced. This report discus...

This paper describes successful industrial research and development in the area of underground coal mining equipment automation. A brief background to underground coal mining is given, and the process of longwall mining is detailed. Some of the major limitations and issues impacting on the productivity and safety of the longwall mining process are highlighted, which serve to motivate the automa...

Equipment control functions that were once hardwired are being implemented with software and very large scale integrated (VLSI) devices. Often this transition has resulted in increased flexibility, improved quality, and decreased costs. At the same time, it has created new concerns and challenges concerning worker safety. The visible and welldefined ladder diagram for relay-logic has been repla...

In the pursuit of increased safety the mining industry has worked to develop systems for remote control and autonomous operation of both stationary and mobile equipment. This paper reports on a newly developed system for teleoperation and autonomous tramming of LHD (Load-Haul-Dump) mining vehicles that not only increases the safety of the operators, but also has the potential to increase produc...

Material excavation is the primary activity in surface mining operations; and shovel excavators are the primary production equipment in mining industry. The active population of cable shovels is about 2400 units around the world out of which 1700 are 20mt or larger capacity (http://parkerbaymining.com/mining-equipment/ electric-shovels.htm). Joy Global (P&H), Caterpillar (formerly under Bucyrus...

Equipment quality-related data contains valuable information. Data mining technology seems to be an efficient method for extracting knowledge from large amounts of data. In this paper, a general equipment quality information based on association rule is proposed complex equipment. Due the shortcomings classical algorithms such as long running time and high memory consumption, candidate itemset ...