An Improved Type of Room Face Conveyor

ONE of the simplest and most easily effected steps toward mechanization and concentrated mining in coal mines is the substitution of transport or room conveyors for the customary tracks in rooms, thus bringing the coal to the cars instead of taking the cars to the coal. As this involves little or no change in the established room and pillar layout, it appeals to the conservative operator who is more or less fearful of changes in system involving the element of roof con-trol. An increasing number of these room conveyors would seem to attest the favorable commercial results secured. Rooms are naturally driven as wide as roof conditions permit, providing maximum tonnage from each room cut. If the rooms are more than 12 to 14 ft. in width the room conveyor is usually set along one rib, a porta-ble face conveyor being set along the face itself and within easy shoveling distance of it, so arranged as to discharge to the transport conveyor. As the room ad-vances the latter is lengthened and the face conveyor moved up laterally. The advantages of this layout are, briefly, low lifts, no shoveling, no waiting for cars. It gives easy shovel-ing conditions and continuous production so long as there is loose coal at the face. Several loaders are usually employed at the face and the room is loaded out several times each shift. In fact, where the rooms are fairly wide, by judicious management, cutting and load-ing may go on simultaneously. Under these conditions, naturally, the face conveyor plays an important part as it is the appliance on which the coal is actually loaded. Someone has aptly stated that the loading is a question of "foot pounds," which is an appealing way to put it, for it is the number of pounds to be moved by the number of feet which measures the work to be done. It can easily be seen that the design of the face con-veyor is a matter of importance. It might be an im-perfect target for the shovel or of an awkward shape and height, and so involve extra effort on the part of the loader, tiring him when kept up continuously and at the same time slowing up his shoveling speed.