Review of a Modern Technical Solution in Continuous Miner Machine Technology

In this paper is presented the overview of Continuous Miners available on the market. Numbers describe machines from 1 to 41 and parameters obtained from manufacturers catalogues are presented on diagrams. The statistical analysis of some of parameters are carried out by linear approximation to show factors determining, for example, the total power of installed engines to the power of the cutting head drive, the total power of installed engines to the total mass, cutting height to the cutter diameter and cutting height to the cutting width, etc. Thin layers of coal less than 1.2 m thick and remnants of seams that require work on a system of boards and columns constitute an increasing share of coal deposits. Geometric restrictions, in this case, are closely correlated with the construction form of the machine and they must have high performance with limited geometric dimensions. This type is called “Continuous Miner”, and is closely correlated with those restrictions. The paper reviews the technical solutions used in these machines, which are currently used around the world. Particular attention is paid to the new concept of the cutting drum drive system, in which permanent magnet motors are proposed. Placing them in a cutting drum improves the efficiency of the mining process and the possibility of modular configuration depending on the required working conditions.