Saint-Petersburg Mining University, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation:

Gabov V. V., Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, gvv40@mail.ru
Zadkov D. A., Candidate of Technical Sciences, Assistant Professor, dzadkov@yandex.ru

The authors analyze coal cutting from the viewpoint of the least energy input of the process. A coal seam is assumed the medium with essential anisotropy of strength due to lamination, banding, jointing with sliding surfaces, normal jointing and weakening due to overburden pressure. It is shown that under such conditions, the lowest energy input of mineral mining is achievable through selectivity of the process. The scope of the discussion embraces feasibility and prospects of selective coal cutting and extraction in complicated ground conditions, both in longwalling and in narrow faces. The method of face operation, the cutting module and the frontend modular units have been proposed in the article. The unitized cutting modules are designed for energy-saving cutting of coal in a local face with the feasible selectivity of the process. The front-end modular unit is composed of the unitized cutting modules equipped with static, dynamic or hybrid action cutting heads. In terms of the front-end modular unit, the authors consider the method of longwalling, with local faces and parallel cuts, when coal is cut by sequential shears along the bedding. The front-end modular units are recommended for mining bedded deposits, e.g., coal, potash. As opposed to end-on cutting-loading units, the front-end modular units are efficient in long and short walls, in cutting either high-grade coal or in recovery of pillars and noncommercial reserves.

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