Coal mine safety and productivity

Conference · Tue Oct 25 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:6875855

Peterson, C R

Mining is already a highly mechanized activity, and likely to become more so. It is obvious that the necessary advances in technology will involve machinery as well as mining systems. While the mining engineer of necessity has been highly interdisciplinary in the application of equipment and technology in mining operations, rarely has the interdisciplinary effort reached back into the basic creative processes necessary for substantial innovation. What is needed is a program that matches equipment possibilities and constraints with mining needs and hazards at the outset, considering the system and equipment simultaneously. The Center for Innovative Mining Systems and Equipment, combining the pertinent strengths of M.I.T. and Penn State, will provide the ideal interdisciplinary team to develop practical, innovative, and substantial improvements in mining technology. By working together these two leading institutions provide the breadth and technical excellence to conceive, design, evaluate, and develop new systems that demand simultaneous consideration of mining systems, mine planning and operation, machine design, control systems, and commercial realities. The mining industry's longstanding problems are likely to remain standing if its considerable research expenditures are continually dribbled away in fragmented, piecemeal, short-range efforts. Although revolutionary programs cannot be neglected, the Center provides a new vehicle through which a portion of the total research expenditure can be directed to a sustained, long-range, coordinated, industry program, stepping beyond the unnecessary constraints and complexity of mature conventional systems and the prohibitive economic barriers faced by any single commercial venture.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
• OSTI ID: 6875855
• Report Number(s): CONF-8310302-2; ON: TI84901574
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
012000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Mining
016000 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Health & Safety
ACCIDENTS
COAL INDUSTRY
COAL MINERS
CONTROL
ENGINEERING
EQUIPMENT
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
INDUSTRY
MARKET
MINERS
MINING
MINING EQUIPMENT
NORTH AMERICA
PERSONNEL
PRODUCTIVITY
RECOMMENDATIONS
REGULATIONS
REMOTE CONTROL
REMOTE SENSING
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SAFETY
SAFETY ENGINEERING
SURFACE MINING
TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION
UNDERGROUND MINING
USA