Chains, Conveyors, & The Future Of Mining

Throughout the long history of mining, a steady stream of technological innovations has been adopted by the industry to drive advances in productivity, efficiency, cost-savings, safety, and regulatory compliance.

From conventional to continuous mining, miners have sought innovative ways to boost output and profitability by extracting more minerals, more quickly, and more cost-effectively.

Today, breakthroughs in automated drilling, autonomous vehicles, remote monitoring, and artificial intelligence are among the latest significant advancements, particularly as they aid in industry response to enhancing worker safety and addressing labour shortage issues.

However, for more than a century, miners have relied on chains and conveyors as a proven mainstay of mining technology. Over the decades, improvements to chains and conveyors have kept pace with the increased horsepower of larger and more efficient mining equipment, and more recently for electric and autonomous equipment, as the approach to extraction has become more technically sophisticated and precise.

A brief history of chains

The earliest chains were made from cast iron, a production method that offered a simplified manufacturing process. However, durability of the cast chain was an issue, and in the early 1930s the industry introduced a forged alternative that featured weldments of the chain block, which improved tensile strength and resulted in reduced downtime.

Another durability challenge arose from shuttle cars utilising a single ladder chain. When the ladder chain broke, production stopped and miners had to shovel out the coal by hand to allow the chain to be repaired. The solution was a dual conveyor chain. With this technology, if one chain breaks, ore can be offloaded from one side to the other, allowing the chain to be repaired and production resumed more quickly.

An industry-wide development occurred in 2008, in anticipation of a new regulatory mandate from the US’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), intended to limit operator exposure to noise.

Chain suppliers responded with the development of a heavier-duty dual-sprocket conveyor chain, and switched from a five-tooth sprocket to an eight-tooth sprocket. The additional teeth reduced the striking energy on the chain, resulting in a lower decibel level. They also offered an option for a sound-dampening chain coated with urethane that further reduced overall decibel levels, providing a safer environment for operators at the mine face.

 

This is a preview of an article that was originally published in the April 2025 issue of Global Mining Review.

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Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/special-reports/23042025/chains-conveyors-the-future-of-mining/