Talking of... - MTU Shop

What a view. Bright blue sky, the sweet sound of
birdsong, mountains as far as the eye can see
and the smell of summer – the perfect picturepostcard
idyll. But only 30 meters below the
surface is a scene of frantic activity. Miners are
removing slabs of coal from a rock face. It is
noisy, dusty and dark. Here, in the picturesque
Allegheny Mountains in the American state of
West Virginia, 2.5 million tonnes of coal a year
are extracted from underground mines. Enough
to keep the Mount Storm power plant here in the
mountains running. It is one of the largest power
stations in the east of the USA. There is a similar
picture 2,000 miles away. In Nevada too, the
onlooker’s first thought is likely to be of holiday
destinations when observing the reddish-brown
hills and the deep-blue sky. But a few meters below
ground it is clamorous and dingy too. Every
day, more than a million kg of rock are brought
out of the mine. After processing, only about 13
kg are left over to be sold as precious gold.
Specialized vehicle for underground working
To bring those valuable commodities to the surface,
the mine operators need vehicles that
are beefy rather than beautiful. They have little
in common with the gigantic dump trucks and
wheeled loaders that transport minerals extracted
from opencast mines. Underground mining
vehicles have to fit through openings that
can be as short as 50 inches (1.25 meters) and
as narrow as 10 feet (3 meters) wide. The turning
radii of such equipment is just as critical,
given that the widest opening underground might
be 50 feet (15 meters), with just 30 feet (9 meters)
more typical in many mines – not exactly
the place to learn how to perform a “K” turn,
and a long, long way from the highway. Down
here, slow and steady wins the race for optimal
mine productivity and profitability, and the wrong
piece of equipment can be expensive and potentially
dangerous.
Particulate index for safety
But despite all of those challenges, underground
mining in the USA is experiencing an upward
trend. According to U.S. government statistics,
over the last quarter-century the number of diesel-powered
machines in use in underground
mining in that country – which includes personnel
carriers, small trucks, tractors, locomotives
and service vehicles as well as generators, compressors,
bulldozers, welding machines, shuttle
vehicles, graders and drills – has increased from
roughly 150 units to about 3,000. That rapid increase
in the industry’s diesel engine population
was of course accompanied by a corresponding
increase in diesel particulate exhaust. In 1996,
the Mining Safety and Health Administration
(MSHA), the federal agency that oversees and
enforces mine safety regulations in the United
States, responded accordingly with strict new
emissions standards and engine certification requirements,
rules similar to those in Canada and
Europe. In the fifteen years that have elapsed
since then, engine and mining equipment manufacturers
have deployed various technologies and
techniques that have dramatically improved the
air quality in underground mines and decreased
the rate of injuries and fatalities in the industry
as a whole. According to MSHA, diesel engine
testing and certification, reductions in hazardous
particulate emission levels, the introduction of
more efficient mining methods, improved mine
ventilation, gas monitoring and other measures
reduced industry injuries by more than half and
fatalities by two-thirds between 1990 and 2004.
The MSHA regulations, recently updated to meet
the continuing rapid growth of the mining indus try