Mechanized Dressing System for Underground Coal Mine

Deadline: 2020-04-14
Award: INR 10,00,000
Open to: Everyone*

Underground Coal mines generally use Bord and Pillar method for mining coal. In Bord & Pillar method set of rooms (these rooms are referred as bords or gallery) are developed in chess board pattern leaving massive pillars in between the bords for holding the roof. Dressing is common method used to bring down loose coal material from roof at regular intervals.

Bord and pillar mining method comprises two phases, i.e. development and depillaring. In the development phase, a series of narrow roads known as “bords” or “galleries” are progressed into the coal seam parallel to each other along the dip direction which are cut across at right angles by another series of roads driven along the strike. In depillaring stage, coal from pillars formed are extracted.

One of our underground coal mines, uses Bord & pillar method of mining at a depth of 500 metre below surface where gallery needs to be continuously progressed for pillar formation and depillaring. Currently, Dressing activity is performed manually, which can potentially be a very unsafe for the people carrying out dressing activity.

Hence, we are looking for mechanised dressing system for our underground coal mine. One of the options could be mobile robots with the ability to sense the crack, decode the crack type & its category and take appropriate decision for dressing down activity.