Intelligent coal mining: a great leap from "coal production without coal" to "coal mining without coal"

The coal industry is the main business of Tongmei Group, and it is also the pillar and foundation of enterprise development. Whether the main coal industry can be improved and strengthened is related to the development plan of the enterprise. For a long time, despite the severe coal market situation, Tongmei Group has relied on more than 70 years of profound accumulation in coal mining and guided by the "36951" development strategy, continuously increasing its efforts in technological research and vigorously promoting the application of advanced mining technologies. Comprehensively improve the level of standardization construction, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the coal industry, and set an example in the province's energy revolution. In particular, the country's first ultra-thick coal seam intelligent fully mechanized caving working face was built in Tongxin Coal Mine Company. Tongmei Group has since opened a new era of intelligent development of the coal industry. Ten-million-ton modern mines such as Tashan Coal Mining Company and Majialiang Coal Company followed closely behind and successively launched intelligent coal mining faces and achieved remarkable results, putting Tongmei Group's intelligent mine construction on the fast track. A great leap has been achieved from "coal production without coal" to "coal mining without coal".

Ten years of sharpening a sword

On October 26, 2019, CCTV broadcast a report on the intelligent underground coal mining face of Tashan Coal Mine in "News Network" , spoke highly of the intelligent construction of coal mines of Tongmei Group. One stone stirs up a thousand waves. Soon, the news about "the national '13th Five-Year Plan' scientific and technological research project - 15 million tons of intelligent top coal mining technology, equipment and demonstration project was successfully put into use at the 8222 working face of Tashan Coal Mining Company of Tongmei Group" came to light. It has been publicized and reported by many mainstream media such as CCTV's "Evening News", "China News", "People's Daily", "Economic Daily" and other mainstream media, making Tongmei Group the leader in intelligent mining of extra-thick coal seams in the entire industry. However, only Tongmei people know that behind successfully overcoming the problem of intelligent underground coal mining lies ten years of continuous exploration and dedication.

Time goes back to 2009, when Tongmei Group built the Tashan Circular Economy Demonstration Park, the first circular economy demonstration park in the entire coal system. While the entire industry was amazed by it, Tongmei people were still disappointed. A higher goal has been set - moving towards realizing intelligent mining and building smart mines.

As industry-leading multi-million-ton mines and pillar enterprises of Tashan Circular Economic Park, Tashan Coal Mine and Tongxin Coal Mine have a duty to explore the intelligent mining of Tongmei Group and must take the lead in trials. At that time, the mining of extra-thick coal seams faced by these two mines was the first time in the world. Under such a background, it is conceivable that it is difficult to carry out intelligent mining. After several years of research and exploration, in 2014, Tashan Coal Mine made a major breakthrough in the "Research and Demonstration of Key Technologies for Intelligent Fully Mechanized Caving Mining of Tens of Millions of Extra Thick Coal Seams" project, taking a key step towards intelligence. . In August 2016, Tongxin Coal Mine received another good news - the National Development and Reform Commission's "10-million-ton high-efficiency fully mechanized mining key technology innovation and industrialization demonstration project" project was successfully put into use at the 8202 fully mechanized mining face, which marked the first time that Tongmei Group A production working surface with an intelligent level has been officially completed, opening up a new path for the coal industry to develop towards digitalization, informatization and intelligence.

Renewed technological efforts

Nowadays, in the Tashan and Tongxin mines, it is no longer a new thing for employees to sit in the control room and operate the shearer to mine coal. The long-cherished wish of coal miners to "sit in the office and mine coal" has become a reality, all thanks to the large investment in science and technology research by Tongmei Group in recent years.

Especially in 2018, after the new leadership team of Tongmei Group took office, it further clarified the concept of "scientific and technological innovation capabilities are core competitiveness". From 2018 to 2019 alone, the entire group invested With scientific research funding of more than 1 billion yuan, it has won 50 provincial and ministerial science and technology awards, 5 of which also won the first prize of China Coal Industry Science and Technology Award. It has participated in and undertaken 3 major national science and technology special projects, and obtained 138 national patent authorizations. Among them, intelligent coal placing technology for extra-thick coal seams, small coal pillar mining technology, accurate coal gangue identification technology, and domestic shearer inertial navigation technology have filled the technological gaps in the domestic coal industry. These achievements have laid a solid foundation for Tongmei Group to accelerate the construction of intelligent mines.

Last year, Tashan Coal Mine undertook the national “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” key research and development plan in the field of resources “Deep Earth Resources Exploration and Mining” key project “Research on key technologies for intelligent fully mechanized caving of ultra-thick coal seams with tens of millions of tons and Demonstration project research. The project focuses on intelligent fully-mechanized caving mining of tens of millions of tons of extra-thick coal seams, and takes "intelligent group coal caving mechanism - intelligent coal caving method - coal gangue accurate identification technology - intelligent coal caving control technology and equipment - engineering demonstration" as the main line , aiming to comprehensively overcome the "research on the theory of migration and caving of extra-thick coal seams and the mechanism of automatic coal caving, the intelligent coal caving process model and method of coordinated mining and caving of extra-thick coal seams, the accurate identification technology of coal gangue in fully-mechanized caving of extra-thick coal seams, and comprehensive caving Five topics include key technologies and equipment for intelligent coal caving control in caving faces, complete sets of technical equipment and demonstration projects for intelligent fully mechanized caving mining of extra-thick coal seams. Among them, several key technologies such as automated coal placing system, coal gangue identification prototype based on hyperspectral and audio vibration, domestic shearer inertial navigation system, and top coal thickness measurement device have started industrial testing and have achieved the expected results, which is a good example for the same industry. The coal group's intelligent mining technology has created favorable conditions for leaping to a higher level.

Upgrade and improve efficiency, take a new approach

What exactly is the intelligent fully mechanized mining working face like? The actual effect is the most convincing.

From the completion of the first working face to the present, Tongxin Coal Mining Company has built 5 intelligent working faces in 5 years and completed the intelligent upgrade from 1.0 to 10.1. Now The 8102 intelligent working face being mined is Tongmei Group’s first double-side air-free small coal pillar working face. Its highly integrated and fully automatic intelligent level has further reduced the number of employees on this working face to 6 and created It has the best record in history of the stable installation of Tongxin Coal Mine with the best quality, the best efficiency, the highest degree of intelligence, and the most secure safety. With the continuous upgrading of the level of intelligence, Tongxin Coal Mine Company has increased its annual per capita coal production from 330 tons to 464 tons. The raw coal recovery rate has increased by 20.8%. Last year alone, it increased revenue by 296.4 million yuan, achieving efficiency, "Double improvement" of benefits.

Now, "safety, precision and efficiency" have become the common understanding of Tongmei Group for intelligent fully mechanized mining working faces in coal mines. The effectiveness achieved by Tashan Coal Mine and Tongxin Coal Mine in intelligent construction has also led other production mines to follow suit and increase the intensity of building intelligent working faces. Starting from this year, Tongmei Group has received frequent good news in the process of intelligent construction: on March 15, the joint trial operation of intelligent fully mechanized mining equipment of Wajinwan Coal Company was successful and put into production on April 30; on August 29 , the joint trial operation of the intelligent fully mechanized mining equipment of Jinhuagong Mine was successful; on September 12, the intelligent fully mechanized mining equipment of Majialiang Mine was successfully tested; on September 20, the intelligent fully mechanized mining equipment of Majiliang Mine was successfully tested. At the same time, the intelligent fully mechanized mining equipment of Yanzishan Mine is also ready and is undergoing final debugging in an intense and orderly manner. By the end of this year, Tongmei Group will have 10 intelligent working faces producing at the same time, and the proportion of intelligent working faces will reach 13.6%.

It is believed that as the construction of intelligent working surfaces in mines continues to accelerate, the level of intelligence of Tongmei Group will be greatly improved, and intrinsically safe smart mines will be spread across the land of Tongmei. In the future, the energy industry will become more fierce. Gain the upper hand in competition and pave a new path for accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the entire coal industry. (Text/Liu Zhenhua Lan Peide)