Study on the fully mechanized longwall face working condition in China colliery

At present, the coal production of the fully mechanized longwall face accounts for more than 40 percent of the whole amount in China. In order to improve the working condition of the fully mechanized longwall face, the investigation started in February, 1994. Because the coal product is a systematic engineering, and the fully mechanized longwall face working condition can be influenced by lots of factors, the investigation took place from Jixi mining administration which lies in the northern end of China to Pingdingshan mining administration, the biggest in the southern part of China. From the above administrations, 13 typical fully mechanized longwall faces were chosen, 580 coal working shifts were measured, and more than 20,000 data were obtained. This investigation is the biggest one in recent two decades for the fully mechanized longwall face. The paper provided the result of the investigation and proposed some methods and directions for improving the working condition of the fully mechanized face.