The coal shearer is the only type of power loader that is used in Australia. There are currently four manufacturer's of shearers in Australian, these being :
- DBT (12 Shearers),
- Joy Mining Machinery (12 Shearers),
- Eickhoff (6 Shearers),
- Mitsui Miiki (1 Shearers)
Click here for the table of the Australian shearers and drums with dust suppression systems
A typical shearer can be as long as 15 m and weigh in excess of 90 tonnes. The travelling speeds of shearers in Australia can vary between 10 - 14 metres/minute. However, the speed of shearers are on the increase, and there is now a reported case of 45 metres/minute at Twenty Mile Colliery in the United States.
If you would like to see a video of a shearer operating on a longwall face click here.
A typical shearer consists of the following components :
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