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WATER JET CONFERENCE - Waterjet Technology Association

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A STATUS REPORT ON THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF A SEMIAUTONOMOUS<br />

MINING SYSTEM<br />

Mukund D. Gangal<br />

Lon Isenberg<br />

Elisabeth J. Dutzi<br />

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA<br />

ABSTRACT<br />

The concept of a semiautonomous mining system (SAMS), developed by a design<br />

team at JPL, holds the promise of increasing the productivity of underground coal mining<br />

by 400% while reducing serious injuries by at least 50%. The concept envisions the use<br />

of multiple, semiautonomous, room and pillar mining units working in each section,<br />

operated by a crew of the same size as contemporary systems 1 .<br />

The excavator module in the system is based upon oscillating water-jets<br />

technology developed by D. Summers, University of Missouri-Rolla, and others. The jets<br />

are embedded into two U-shaped wedges at the end of a convergent structure, which is<br />

mounted on advancing chocks. Coal is broken by the combined action of the jet kerfing<br />

and wedging action of the excavator. It is then sized and conveyed by a central auger into<br />

a mixing chamber, where it is mixed with water to form a slurry. The slurry is transported<br />

via an extensible armored hose carrier to the main slurry pump, and injected into hard<br />

slurry lines for hoisting to the surface.<br />

This document presents the rationale and the tradeoffs behind the concept<br />

development and then describes the key elements in detail.<br />

1 Copies of final report #DOE/ET-l2548-l7, Distribution Category UC-88 may be obtained from Jet Propulsion<br />

Laboratory, California Institute of <strong>Technology</strong>, Pasadena, California. This final report was prepared by the United<br />

States Department of Energy through an Agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.<br />

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