The shearer !

After having finished the long and sometimes fairly hard way through the roadways we can find two methods of production in the longwall mining areas: The shearer and the steel plow.

The shearer drives along the face and with its rotating shearer drums with the cutting picks it cuts away a slice of 60 centimetres of coal each time it passes by. The machine consists of two shearer drums with cutting picks mounted on them, the drums are located at each side of the machine. Both of them can be placed in different heights so that the shearer can be used in very thick coal seams.

The coal that is cut off the seam falls on the face chain that is visible in the middle of the picture and by this it is transported to a large conveyor in the gateroad. After that the shearer has passed a certain place in the longwall mining area, the shield supports are lowered and they are advanced towards the face chain hydraulically by using their connections with the chain. In the next step the shields are reset again and then they push the shearer hydraulically towards the face of the seam for that it can cut off the next slice of coal.

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