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Colliery Engineering

October, 1948

Standardisation

Important steps may be expected in the direction of standardisation of winding drums. For the new coalmines, or major replanning of existing mines, the big hourly outputs will entail net lifts of 5 to 12 tons, and, with the aid of balance ropes in the deeper shafts, high winding efficiency will be attainable in most cases with plain cylindrical drums* employing double or multi-layer coiling for depths over about 1,500 ft., in line with the long-established practice in the metalliferous mines abroad. Thus the way is wide open for a valuable measure of standardisation in winding-drum design and construction. The diameter is by far the most important variant but the great majority of cases, including the smaller service winders, could be covered efficiently by a range of seven diameters varying from 9 to 15 ft. in one-foot increments. For the big coal winders each rope should preferably have its own drum, or its own compartment of a single drum, in order to permit double-layer coiling either initially or later when the shaft is sunk to deeper horizons. Thus, the width of the drum barrels — a minor factor in any case — could be standardised to not more than five sizes, say for 6 ft. in six-inch increments.

For service winders, at any rate, the drives — motors and reduction gear — could be rationalised in say 100 h.p. steps from 400 to 1,000 h.p., the motor speeds and gear ratios being suitably fixed, in relation to the standard range of drum diameters, to give rope velocities of about 20 ft. per sec. for the smaller winders and up to 35 ft. per sec. for the larger.

* See "Electric Winding at Collieries," Worrall. Trans. Inst. Min. E., Vol. C.111.

Drawings and Photographs accompanying the article