Follow-Up Chain Tension in an Armoured Face Conveyor / Nadążne Napinanie Łańcucha Zgrzebłowego W Przenośniku Ścianowym

Abstract

Abstract Initial chain tension in armoured face conveyors, in which operating conditions vary constantly, should be adjusted automatically to adapt it to the needs arising. The manufacturers of such conveyors are now offering a possibility of equipping a conveyor with a drive with a telescopic trough enabling stepless change of the scraper chain contour by shifting the drive frame. The work presents the outcomes of computer investigations performed using an own mathematical model of an armoured face conveyor with a main and auxiliary drive equipped with a telescopic trough and an automatic initial chain tension adjustment system with the ASTEN algorithm. The ASTEN algorithm is responding to changes in scraper chain elongation caused by changes to conveyor configuration and also by a varying mined coal load resulting from interworking with a mining machine.