Title: Design of pneumatic loading system for monorail application

Authors: Emmanuel K. Chanda, Bunda Besa

Addresses: Curtin University of Technology, Locked Bag 22, Western Australian Sch of Mines, Kalgoorlie, WA 6430, Australia. ' Curtin University of Technology, Locked Bag 22, Western Australian Sch of Mines, Kalgoorlie, WA 6430, Australia

Abstract: Electrical Monorails have several advantages over trackless haulage in underground mining, such as ability to negotiate steep vertical and tight horizontal curves, small operating room and less diesel fumes. It has been demonstrated that loading time is the main drawback to high advance rates in monorail application whereby a loader is used to load rocks into monorail containers. A pneumatic loading system can be expected to reduce the loading time. This paper describes a pneumatic loading system for monorail application and provides an overview of the techniques used in lifting broken rocks from the development face into the monorail hopper.

Keywords: monorails; pneumatic loading; negative pressure; gravitational force; drag force; terminal velocity; underground mining; monorail containers; loading time; rock loading; broken rocks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2009.023134

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2009 Vol.1 No.2, pp.181 - 203

Published online: 10 Feb 2009 *

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