Development of very powerful steeply dipping coal seams using flexible shields

Abstract

The greatest difficulties in the coal industry are presented by the development of thick steeply dipping seams. Development of thick seams usually involves high labor costs, significant timber consumption and entails greater coal losses than when developing seams of average thickness. Cases of self-heating of coal and underground fires occur more often when developing thick seams. Therefore, significant material costs are incurred for carrying out preventive measures and extinguishing fires, which increases the cost of coal and often leads to very significant losses of minerals. A major achievement of Soviet mining technology is the shield system of Professor N. A. Chinakala. It has found wide application in the mines of Kuzbass. The decisive factor that determined the high degree of reliability of the shield of Professor N. A. Chinakala, the rapid and wide introduction of this shield in the mining industry, is the direction of its movement down the dip of the seam. The proposed work is an attempt to shed light on issues related to the improvement of the design of shields and the possibility of their use in the development steeply dipping, very powerful strata.