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Post by topcat on Oct 17, 2012 16:37:50 GMT -5
Is there a video or a diagram which I can download describing the use of the air breaker instead of explosives on the coalface. Any information would be much appreciated. Thanks.
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Post by dazbt on Oct 18, 2012 2:47:51 GMT -5
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Post by dazbt on Oct 21, 2012 5:41:54 GMT -5
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Post by dazbt on Oct 21, 2012 5:49:23 GMT -5
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Post by topcat on Oct 23, 2012 6:34:46 GMT -5
Thanks for the information. Much appreciated.
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Post by stoney on Nov 28, 2012 4:47:29 GMT -5
I remember installing the pipework compressor and gear for the Armstrong air breaker this was a 3" dia pipe with 3 levers that were blown out to break the coal without setting off the gas!
air pressure 12,000 psi. three stage compressor. supply pipework 1"dia.solid drawn with about 5/16" hole and pipe joints 2" square lumps and threads were bsf. It didn't last long far too dangerous.
Dave.
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Post by philpow on Oct 26, 2013 7:44:11 GMT -5
Hi I came accross this forum while looking for infrmation about Armstrong air breaker the company.
I am not a miner I am a retired engineering worker I left school in 1964 and was apprenticed to AAB the parent company of which was Olin Mathieson a then large american conglomerate that no longer exists.
The system was as previously mentioned basically a 6 cylinder 6 stage compressor of boxer configuration that is to say the output of each cylinder was passed to the next smaller cylinder starting with 15" /381mm in diameter the last stage was 7/8" /22mm diameter it had a maximum working pressure of 15,000 psi /1034.211724 Bar std working pressure was 13,000 psi /896.316827 Bar nominal explosive pressure was 12000 psi /827.369379 Bar.
If memory serves me correctly there were two diameters of shot tube I think they were 1 1/2" / 38mm and 2 1/2" 63mm they had a seal ring and a shear ring at the head end between which was placed a square blank of sheet metal 1/16" /1.6mm thick the ejector head was then screwed up tight to clamp the metal blank the shot was fired from a safe distance buy simply openning the shot valve and closing it after the explosion there was a device between the shot valve and the shot tube that was kept filled with water the idea being that the compressed air would vapourise this and carry it to the shot tube so that it might reduce the dust how effective this was I do not know.
If it's of any interest the company also produced some experimental mine ventilation units that used compressed air not at the high pressures of the air breaker but high volume low pressure these were called air movers and were very efficeint as the output to input ratio was 10:1 they had no moving parts I find it amusing to see Dyson selling the same thing today as a heater/cooling device and if you watch F1 you will see small versions of them being use to supply cooling air to the driver while sitting in the car.
I hope this info is of some help /interest to somebody I am just surprised at just how much I remember considering I was only with company for 10 months as they moved from west London to Sunderland.
Phil
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Post by kilburn on Nov 19, 2013 10:58:15 GMT -5
That last posting filled in a few gaps in my memory, in particular the cylinder sizes I thought the first stage was 10" and not 15" shows how time dims the memory.
However I was involved as an apprentice dismantling in the surface workshops and reassembling the Armstrong AB underground about 3/4 of a mile from the pit bottom in a specially built compressor house/station in the main South West Eureka intake. It was in fact my very first job underground at Church Gresley Coll in Area 7 of the NCB. I was under the 'wing' of an incredible engineer he was a perfectionist in everything and nothing but nothing was left to chance - indeed his mantra which he constantly drilled into me was "Right first time - every time" during the time I was under him he taught me so much, mind you he hated every minute of his time whilst underground.
This equipment was primary used in the 'Main Coal' a seam of some 5yds thick but I believe only the top 2.5yds were lifted, The seam had a really bad reputation due to its readiness to spontaneous combustion and it was a regular event to seal off one or other of the roads pumping in a mix of stone dust and cement to the waste edges and surrounding strata - but that as they say is another story..
The installation took just over two weeks and the pipe work to the four headings (stalls)a further week or so to install. Each pipe joint had a compression copper washer which if any distortion or visual damage was apparent it had to be discarded, sensible practice given the working pressure of 12500psi
It certainly did the business in particular producing 'large coal' something that was a priority at the time and the blown coal was removed from each of the heads by 2xJoy gathering arm loaders and 2xMavour & Coulson loaders all four feeding Distington Goodman shaker conveyors.
I believe that the equipment is still where it was installed having not been salvaged before the mine closed in 1968....
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Post by quimbyj1745 on Oct 5, 2014 3:23:45 GMT -5
I was working on the coal face as a filler at Binley colliery in the late 50's when the air breaker was installed. the face was in the nine ft seam, middle cut and pre fired tops. Two days before the system was commissioned, the undermanager, wee Tammy Smith came through to tell us that we could throw away our picks. You will not need them when the airbreaker starts. A week later, I was filling out when he came again. "Where's your hammer and wedge". The system was a disaster as far as we were concerned. when the bottom coal was fired all that happened was that as much as 5 yds of bottoms was broken off the solid, lifted and dropped. this then had to be broken by wedge. They wanted large coal and they certainly got it. |
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