At the opening ceremony of German mega construction exhibition ‘BAUMA’ the winners of event’s ninth Innovation Awards were revealed, and included a victory for Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH, for its SL 750 EiControlPlus shearer loader in the Machinery category.
Also scooping awards relative to the underground sector were Clausthal University of Technology for its Acoustic Geo Scanner, and the Technical University of Dresden for a new drilling procedure using high electro impulses. Both were under the Research Category.
Eickhoff received the prestigious award for the shearer loader that, for the first time, allows fully automatically underground longwalling, with the operator only having to fulfill monitoring functions, from an area of total safety.
Equipped with linked infrared cameras and newly developed sensors, the system constantly monitors the surroundings to allow navigation based on radar screening and a couple of visual cameras. The machine can avoid collisions, detect and follow deposit boundaries and run the entire haulage and extraction automatically – thereby avoiding the extraction of surrounding rock. In addition, using this machine helps saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions. For more information please click on this link http://www.eickhoff-bochum.de/en/download/Eickhoff_Pressrelease_SL750EiControl.pdf
Clausthal University of Technology’s Geo Scanner, winner in the Research Category, is a new acoustic scanning device used for surveying ground and deposits as well as detecting unconsolidated rock. Its principle is easy: Different materials have a different sound behavior. Its body sound vibrations make for the visualization of ground conditions.
The Technical University of Dresden won its Research Category Award for its work into drilling, based on the electro-impulse procedure that makes use of the destructive effect of the high-energy electrical changes, which are produced inside the material, which is to be loosened. Instead of the compressive strength of the rock, its tensile adhesive strength must be overcome. At the university, a down-hole-tool was developed which can be integrated into the drilling process just like a conventional drilling tool. The advantages are there is nearly no wear as no mechanical forces are working on the device and a higher drilling speed of 4m/h in granite is achievable. This leads to cost saving when drilling of nearly 30%.
Also winners in the Innovations Awards were Liebherr who scooped a double victory in the Machinery Component and Design Categories, and Ochs Bohrgesellschaft in the Construction Process/Construction Work Category.
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