Mine shaft conveyance load-monitoring system

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:427900

Beus, M J ^[1]; McCoy, W G ^[2]

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1. Bureau of Mines, Spokane, WA (United States)
2. McCoy Engineering Co., Spokane, WA (United States)

Technology to enhance safety features for mine shafts and elevators is being investigated by researchers at the US Bureau of Mines. The objective of this research is to prevent injuries and fatalities related to hoist and elevator operations. Mine Safety and Health Administration statistics indicate that several factors contribute to hoisting accidents. A significant number of these factors are related to lack of adequate information on the position of the conveyance coupled with slack or overloaded rope resulting from obstructions or misalignments in the hoistway. Typically, this information is determined from sensors located in the hoist room. Subsequently, hoist and elevator control may be compromised and accidents result. This paper describes development of a slack rope sensor and data-transmission and collection hardware to sense conditions and acquire data directly from the hoisting conveyance. A new type of load cell senses wire rope tension at the conveyance. A new type of load cell senses wire rope tension at the conveyance. A multichannel signal processing board has been designed and fabricated and is undergoing both static testing to evaluate long-term stability and dynamic testing under simulated hoisting conditions. Analog signals from the sensors are sampled at 100-ms intervals. Data transmission between the moving conveyance and the hoistroom is accomplished via a 2,400-baud FM radio modem. Data are acquired at the conveyance or in the hoistroom through a serial communications port on a laptop computer. Software has been written to acquire, analyze, and process the data. The resulting system will allow operating personnel to determine conveyance load, and thus rope tension and slack or overload rope conditions, in relation to conveyance position in the hoistway.

• OSTI ID: 427900
• Report Number(s): CONF-9510203--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
COAL MINES
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
HOISTS
ON-LINE CONTROL SYSTEMS
SAFETY ENGINEERING
TRANSDUCERS
US BUREAU OF MINES