How to Improve the Transportation Safety of Mining Suspended Monorail Transport Locomotives

Mining suspended monorail transport locomotives will face many challenges in future development, but they are also full of opportunities. Improving functional performance and safety is a key concept in the current development of monorail transport locomotive equipment. Through continuous technological innovation and improvement, mining suspended monorail transport locomotives can be applied more efficiently, safely and environmentally friendly in coal mine transportation, contributing to the sustainable development of the coal mining industry.

1. Strengthen Research on Intelligence and Automation to Enhance Safety in Coal Mine Production

Referring to peer monorail transport locomotive products, most of their perception of roadway conditions relies on cameras to transmit various roadway information to drivers or dispatch centers, requiring manual adjustment of locomotive operating conditions and parameters based on camera-fed road condition data.

However, when potential hazards such as personnel intrusion, obstacles, slope change obstacles, and turning obstacles exist in roadways, safety accidents are prone to occur due to inattention or delayed response of operators.

To further improve coal mine transportation safety and reduce or eliminate safety accidents of monorail transport locomotives, our company’s new cab is equipped with a vehicle-mounted road condition detection robot. The device collects data through a perception system composed of cameras, 16-line LiDAR, slope sensors, artificial intelligence chips, etc.; processes big data intelligently through an edge data processing center with algorithms; and implements classified control of data through a PLC-based control system. Data coordination among these three systems enables intelligent detection of the locomotive.

After collecting data and calculating through algorithms, the vehicle-mounted road condition detection robot establishes a big data model. After learning, the locomotive can achieve the following functions:

(1) Intelligent identification of abnormal roadway conditions, including personnel intrusion, air doors, turns, obstacles, etc.;

(2) Intelligent identification of climbing conditions and parameters, including slope and load, with the locomotive independently adjusting operating conditions and parameters to ensure safer and more reliable operation under load;

(3) Intelligent identification of rail joints, switch opening and closing, rail distortion and deformation, and other rail faults.

Monorail locomotive cab

Road condition detection robot

safety brake trolley

With the advancement of Industry 4.0, intelligence and automation have become important directions for the development of coal mine equipment. The application of automation technology can reduce the labor intensity of miners and improve safety in coal mine production. In the future design of mining suspended monorail transport locomotives, advanced sensors, communication technologies and control algorithms can be adopted to realize real-time monitoring and remote control of equipment. Collecting and analyzing equipment data can further improve equipment operation efficiency and reduce failure probability. Meanwhile, human-computer interaction plays a crucial role in the operation of monorail transport locomotives. Future research should also focus on improving the usability and intuitiveness of the operation interface to reduce operation difficulty and enhance operational safety. While developing intelligence and automation, the feasibility of manual intervention must be ensured to deal with emergencies and fault handling.

2. Design Optimization and Innovation

Although monorail transport locomotives have high application value in coal mine transportation, their design still has room for optimization. Future research can conduct in-depth discussions on structural design, braking systems, driving modes, control systems and other aspects to improve equipment performance and reliability. In addition, customized design can be carried out according to different coal mine conditions and operation requirements, so that mining suspended monorail transport locomotives can better adapt to various application scenarios. At the same time, the structure and materials of future monorail transport locomotives will be lighter and more durable. The use of high-strength and wear-resistant materials can improve the bearing capacity of equipment and reduce wear during operation. In addition, the application of new materials can reduce the self-weight of equipment and energy consumption, thereby improving transportation efficiency and economic efficiency.

Through continuous technological innovation, our company has developed the first domestic two-stage safety braking system. At present, most products in the industry refer to foreign braking systems, where service braking, safety braking and emergency braking share one set of brakes (single-stage braking). If one brake fails, the braking force of the whole vehicle drops immediately; multiple brake failures may lead to safety hazards such as sliding uphill and runaway downhill.

On the basis of the existing single-stage service braking, our company has added a backup braking device, namely two-stage safety braking. It provides protective parking braking for major potential safety hazards such as downhill runaway, uphill sliding, insufficient protection of diesel engines or batteries, locomotive traction force less than load force, and locomotive fire, which can effectively reduce or eliminate safety accidents. Meanwhile, it provides parking braking when the locomotive operates in inclined roadways, especially during hoisting operations, effectively preventing locomotive sliding. The safety braking does not operate during normal locomotive operation. When potential hazards such as sliding or runaway occur, service braking takes precedence, and safety braking is applied with a delay of 0.5–1 second (to avoid track distortion damage caused by excessive braking force during synchronous braking). If the single-stage brake fails, the two-stage brake will implement emergency braking immediately after detecting the signal.

Single-stage braking is usually installed on both sides of the driving part, which is the current practice of domestic monorail transport locomotive manufacturers. The two-stage safety braking device launched by our company is installed on both sides of heavy-duty components of the train, such as man-cars, hoisting beams, cabs, power units, etc., which can effectively improve the overall safety performance of mining suspended monorail transport locomotives.

3. Establish Unified Industry Standards and Norms to Improve the Overall Quality of Monorail Transport Locomotives

With the wider application of mining suspended monorail transport locomotives in coal mine transportation, future research should focus on establishing complete industry standards and norms, including specifications for equipment design and manufacturing, installation and commissioning, operation and maintenance. The establishment of unified standards and norms can improve the overall quality and safety performance of monorail transport locomotives and reduce potential risks in coal mine production.

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