Moving a long wall is very expensive and time consuming. Not only do we have costs associated with the move, man hours, equipment, etc we also have no production, so the quicker the move can be made the less down time and cost is incurred.

The electrical team are usually the first “IN” and the last “OUT” when the long wall has to move, first in to remove the cabling and electrical control and the last on the job, replacing all the cabling required.

One of our client sites in the Hunter Valley has sped up this process by designing a cable ‘Loom” that has all the cables placed together with cable drop offs where required, to junction boxes and control devices.

This “Loom” contains cables for RS20 cables, Lighting cables, Imac VAA cables and Burnbrite. A cable loom map has been created, refer Loom Diagram. Lengths vary from 1.5m to 10m with various cable requirements within each loom To ensure quality, consistency, and availability. The clients Long wall team contracted the cleaning and refurbishment of the cable sets to local Hunter Company R&D Technology. Our Client ships the cables, direct from the long wall to R&D Technology who subsequently unroll and inspect the condition of every cable. Cables deemed unrepairable are quarantined and the remainder are cleaned and tested for insulation resistance and conductor conductivity.

The cables are then laid out along the loom template painted onto the workshop fl oor. This template is taken from the clients loom diagram that ensures an accurate replica of what is required
underground. The R&D Technology workshop team work to a very tight time frame, with cables returned back to the mine typically within 3 days of receipt and full completion within 1 week. This swift turn around contributes greatly to a long wall move with minimum downtime and production recommenced with minimum delay.

The long wall team reinstall the cables with minimum fuss and complete confidence that the cable tee-off positions are accurate and the connectors are electrically safe and tested and in good
working condition.

This arrangement has had the following benefits:

• Time – In the past roof support wiring was installed one cable at a time which was very time-consuming. On reinstallation of the refurbished cables with looms, the wiring is installed quickly & efficiently virtually as the last of the roof supports arrive.
• Consistency – The wiring across the roof supports is now even and consistent with the correct lengths between each shield and more importantly the cables down to the Burnbrite box with enough length for maximum roof support extension.
• Availability – With the cables all attached together, there are no missing cables to search for.