Problem of Interruptions in Reinforcement Works and Longwall Exploitation

Abstract This paper presents the problem of technical means failure, used both in longwall reinforcement and in the mining process. Longwall reinforcement – a concept related to launching a longwall mining excavation – is one of the most important elements in the process of hard coal seams exploitation. It consists in introducing all necessary machinery and equipment to the future longwall in order to enable the effective mining process. The efficiency of a longwall excavation as well as works related to the reinforcement of longwalls depends directly on properly selected machines and equipment of the longwall complex. In order to ensure greater effectiveness and efficiency, it is necessary to find the causes of the most frequent failures in these processes and effectively counteract them. These actions result in increased production availability of machines and equipment involved in the mining process. The increase of production availability is significantly influenced by the technical condition of technical means used both in longwall reinforcement and in the mining process, and their proper selection. This will ensure a largely failure-free and uninterrupted progress of works.