DTEK continues making a considerable contribution into Ukraine’s energy independence. In order to supply Ukrainian thermal power plants with fuel, it supplies new cleaning and tunnelling equipment to the mines of DTEK Pavlogradvugiullya. This time, the new equipment by Corum Miner’s Light arrived at Pavlograd Mine Group. Ukrainian engineering constructors have developed and manufactured an innovative CLS550P-01 portal-type cleaning combine with a chainless feeding system to be used by the miners. The new equipment shall undergo industrial tests at the new 427th coal fact at the Pavlograd mine, from which the miners have to extract about 700,000 tons of coal.
New equipment is essentially the improved version of frequency converter combines with a chainless feed system. As it was developed, engineering constructors accounted for the miners’s wishes and applied a number of technical innovations: they placed the frequency converter on board of the combine, increased its energy efficiency and visualized the controls.
Anatoliy Korolchuk, Cleaning Equipment Manager, Corum Group, told the story of crafting the new equipment: “Together with representatives of DTEK and Pavlograd mine, we decided to design and manufacture a cleaning combine that would meet all modern requirements towards the extraction of coal from thin faces and would also allow abandoning the hazardous remote supply system with a chain and switch to a chainless transmission system, fitted with the frequency converter. Previously, such combines were already used in production, but they worked using the principle, called “the combine goes to the coal face and the frequency converter stays on the control system roadway.” Presently, the frequency converter is mounted on the combine itself. Due to this, the combine is able to reach a high speed of up to 20 meters per minute, which, accordingly, increases its productivity. Another specific feature of the new equipment is the use of English engines by Merle, which increase the energy efficiency, productivity of combines and, accordingly, boost the level of trouble-free operation. And the third important innovation of the equipment is a control system which allows conducting works with full visualization. This means that all information about the works progress is displayed on the combine, transmitted to the roadway control panel and is immediately displayed to the dispatcher on the surface. That is, we see online the loading of all parts and if anything extraordinary happens, we shall be able to replace any of them, without waiting for a failure to occur. Besides, we can reasonably control the work done by our professionals on the combine, in accordance with the established rules. This shall, in turn, save us from accidents, downtime and losses in production volume.”
The CLS550P-01 combine arrived at Pavlograd Mine Group to be tested by the miners of No. 3 coal mining site, led by Denis Kyrychenko, to replace the MB 510P cleaning combine, made in the Czech Republic. Using Czech equipment, the miners successfully worked off the two coal faces and extracted more than 2 million tons of coal for Ukrainian energy sector.
— During the three years we have worked off the 317 and the 214 coal faces using the Czech combine. Now the equipment requires major overhaul, which we cannot carry out in the manufacturer’s country due to the pandemic. But we need to produce coal now, so we found a solution to work as a matter of experiment on the new, upgraded combine by a Ukrainian manufacturer. So we wanted to test it in practice and continue producing coal. We know the new equipment operating principle, because it is similar in design to the previous one. However, the CLS550P-01 combine still has significant advantages. It is the convenience of operation, the dimensions that are totally acceptable for our coal faces, the frequency converter and all the equipment controls in the combine body. The complete fitting of the cleaning equipment is also important. Starting with the tiniest bolts and up to fine quality tool kits. In general, we have everything to work on the coal face safely and efficiently. So that our country was energy-independent from imported resources and so that there was always light and heating in Ukrainian homes,” summed up Rustam Ivanov, Mechanic of No. 3 coal mining site, Pavlograd Mine Group.
DTEK has invested over UAH 96 mln into the preparation of a new coal face for the new experimental combine. This money was used to purchase a new-type combine, the “СПЦ”271М-04.20 scraper down-hole conveyor and other components. It is planned that coal production from the new coal face would begin in March and would persist until the end of this year.