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July, 1962
Underground material transport by monorail
The German Company Scharf has specialised during the last five years on problems associated with the movement of material underground and are able to offer through licence with Underground Mining Machinery Limited of Aycliffe, Co. Durham, a highly developed monorail system.
This system has been designed with certain basic principles considered to be vital to the underground application of monorails:
1. That the track should have flexible connections in both horizontal and vertical planes to accommodate subsequent roadway movement.
2. That the carrying units should incorporate lifting equipment to minimise handling and to speed loading. Further, that these units should be adaptable to different containers and to heavy loads.
3. That the system should be powered to give high capacity and that the method of applying power should be adaptable to bends, points and conveyor crossings. The system should also be readily extensible.
There are several miles of this equipment installed in Ruhr collieries and the first two applications are now working in this country, one of which is over 1,500 yards in length and incorporates several bends.
Track section is manufactured from 5 in. by 2½ in. R.S.J. and is normally cut to 10 ft. lengths. Special ball and socket couplings give a vertical and horizontal flexibility of 8 degrees. (Fig. 1). The section is suspended by old Panzer chain from a choice of attachment points on each rail.
The transporter units, which may be coupled into multiple sets to increase the load capacity, incorporate a 1-ton chain lifting block. Each carrier bas four bearing-mounted rollers which ride on the lower flange of the track section and a result of this is that the possibility of derailment is eliminated and safety devices to prevent runaway can be incorporated. A rope storage drum is included with the transporter assembly and provides a means of rapid extension of the system. A flexible rope is used, and with a storage capacity of approximately 450 yards of inch rope, it is only necessary to splice in new rope at intervals of 200 yards.
A wide variety of bends, special adaptations for crossing conveyors or passing through air doors, special hanging pulleys for the return rope and a wide range of containers are all available as standard equipment. The normal load capacity of a pair of transporters is 2 tons but by special adaptation, the system can be modified to carry 4 tons.
Increasing attention is now being paid to the problem of manriding in gate roads. In recognition of this problem, provision can be made for the Scharf monorail to be used as a dual purpose system — for men and materials. The modification comprises specially constructed carriages for 8 men replacing the containers for materials. The rope drum unit is not included with this type of installation as a larger diameter rope is used. Devices to arrest the carriages in the event of rope breakage are incorporated.
The illustrations showing this equipment underground show — Fig. 3, a curve station installed on a gradient with the monorail carrying a heavy load of girder sections. This monorail was installed in a German colliery solely for the purpose of salvaging a district in conjunction with a hydraulic walking, withdrawal device. Fig. 2, shows the normal assembly of transporter units and rope storage drum. Two sets of transporter units are in use but this number could be increased if required.
Drawings and Photographs accompanying the article
Article reproduced from a copy of the magazine held at National Mining Museum Scotland, Newtongrange, Midlothian.
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