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ABB Mining
Tel: +27 10 202 5000
Fax: +27 11 579 8000
Email: [email protected]
SHAFT HOISTING SYSTEMS
1. General
Shaft hoisting system using mine hoist is often the most
economical means of transporting men, material and ore from
depths ranging from a few hundred meters to more than 3000 m.
In many mines, vertical shafts are combined with a ramp for
transportation of men and material.
In deep mines and in mines with poor rock stability ramps are not
technically or economically viable. In such mines it is common to
sink both a production and a service shaft.
The production or the service shaft can also be used as ventilation
shaft.
The optimum hoisting speed depends on shaft conditions and the
hoisting distance.
The general rule of thumb is that the optimum speed is:
V k a s : : =

Where:
V = hoisting speed, m/s
k = constant in the interval 0.4 - 0.6
a = mean value of acceleration and retardation, m/s
2
,
normally ranging from 0.7 - 1.0 m/s
2
s = hoisting distance, m
The hoisting speed should not exceed 20 m/s. At k>0.5, the
motor power increases faster than the production at increased k
(=increased speed).
2. Types of hoist
There are two dominant types of mine hoists, friction and drum
types. Both types can be arranged in several different ways.
2.1 Friction hoists
The friction hoist is the most common type used in northern
Europe and many other countries such as Germany, Poland, China
and Australia.
The principle of friction hoist is that its head rope(s) is laid over the
pulley making about 180 degrees contact angle between the rope
and its friction lining on the pulley. The rope pull of the two sides
of the pulley should be within certain limits to obtain the required
margin to rope slip. This relation can be expressed as:
T
T
e
2
1
#
na
Where
T
1
= Rope pull (tension) one side, N
T
2
= Rope pull on the other side, N
e = The natural logarithm 2,7182
n = The friction coefcient between the rope and its
friction lining on the pulley, normally 0.25
a = The contact angle between the rope and the pulley in
radians
At 180 degrees contact angle and friction coefcient 0.25, rope
slip will occur at rope pull ratio 2.19. Since there must be sufcient
safety margin to rope slip the static unbalance ratio should not
exceed 1.5. This is a general rule of thumb that is valid for tower
mounded hoist without deection sheave. At ground mounting the
ratio shall be close to 1.4 due to the inertias of the head sheaves.
In order to achieve the unbalance ratio, friction hoists are provided
with balance or tail ropes suspended under the conveyances. The
tail rope weight per meter should normally be the same as the
head rope weight per meter. This also gives a favourable torque
characteristics, the driving torque is constant during travel in the
shaft with constant speed.
The ratio between the pulley diameter and the head rope diameter
(D/d) shall not be smaller than a value that is determined by the
relevant mine authority or corresponding document. This is to
reduce the bending stresses. The normally accepted minimum
D/d ratio is 80 for stranded ropes and 100 for full locked coil
types.
Friction hoists are normally provided with several head ropes
sharing the suspend load. Multiple head ropes means smaller
rope diameter. Thereby the pulley diameter can be reduced as
well as the motor torque.
The most common numbers of head ropes are 4 or 6. Earlier 8
and even 10 head ropes were used but due to higher maintenance
in keeping the load sharing equal these versions are now
abandoned. There are also a few hoists installed with odd number
of head ropes - 1, 3 and 5.
2.1.1 Mounting arrangements
Friction hoists can be either tower or ground mounted.
Tower mounted hoists often need rope deection sheaves to get
the optimum distance between the head ropes in the shaft i.e.
minimize the shaft diameter.
Ground mounted hoists have two sets of head sheaves in the head
frame above the shaft. This type is normally not used in climates
with snow and ice since there is a larger risk of rope slip due
to lower friction coefcient and risk of ice falling down from the
exposed ropes.
2.1.2 Sizes and hoisting depths
The hoisting depth range for friction hoists is from a few hundred
meters to more than 1500 m. At hoisting distances smaller than
about 400 - 500 m it is often economical to use counterweighted
friction hoists thereby avoiding large ballast weights on the
conveyances to maintain the rope tension ratio required.
With the increased depths and production rates required in todays
mines hoisting systems are getting larger and larger.
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ABB Mining
Tel: +27 10 202 5000
Fax: +27 11 579 8000
Email: [email protected]
Pulley diameters up to 7 meters and motor power about 10 000
kW are required to provide production rates up to 10 million tones
per year. Skip payload can be more than 50 ton.
2.2 Drum hoists
Drum hoists are the most common types of hoists in North
America and South Africa. The reasons are both traditional and
in particular in South Africa also because of the deep mines that
makes friction hoists unsuitable.
Drum hoists are ground mounted and provided with head sheaves.
Drum hoists coil the rope on the drum as apposed to friction
hoists.
The most frequent types of drum hoists are:
Single drum
Double drum
Blair multi- rope (BMR)
Single drum hoists are normally used for smaller payloads
although the hosting distance can be up to 2000 m.
The double drum type is the most common type of drum hoist.
One drum is coiling while the other drum is uncoiling its rope.
Thereby balanced hoisting is achieved; one conveyance is moving
up while the other moves up.
Double drum hoists have only one rope per conveyance. This
limits the maximum suspended load of the rope as apposed to
friction hoists. When this is not sufcient, the BMR type hoist can
be used which allows two ropes to carry each conveyance with
its payload. Each drum is then provided with one section for each
rope the sections separated by a steel ange.
Drum hoists are used with diameters and motor power in the
same range as for friction hoists.
Double drum and BMR hoists are used in shafts deeper than 3000
m.
3. Congurations
Both friction and double drum hoists can be arranged for the
following conveyance and counterweight combinations:
Double skip
Skip with counterweight
Skip and cage on one side and counterweight on the other
Skip and cage
Double cage
Cage and counterweight
In particular in coal mines it is common to use cars on narrow
gauge rails for transport of both coal, waste and material. The
cars with its payload are loaded into the cage and brought up or
down. Automatic car handling systems load and unload the cars
to and from the cage.
4. Electrical drive system
Modern hoists are powered by AC motors. Smaller hoists with
power requirement about 1500 kW normally use gear box with
high speed induction motor. For larger hoists, direct drive with
overhung synchronous motor is used. Speed control is made with
voltage source inverters, VSI frequency convertors.
5. Brake system
Spring applied, hydraulically operated disc brakes are used for
mine hoists. Two brake discs are required for safety reasons.
6. Ropes
6.1 Head ropes
Rope diameters up to about 54 - 56 mm are used. Above this size
they become difcult to handle.
The stranded rope is the most common type used. The triangular
strand is the dominant rope for friction hoists in Northern Europe.
In deeper shafts stranded ropes with lower torsion coefcient are
used. This is achieved by means of two layers of strands with
different rotation direction.
In North America the full locked coil type rope is commonly used.
This rope is more dense than stranded ropes but made of lower
grade steel. It has low torsion factor and less stretch during its life
time which simplies maintenance.
6.2 Balance (tail) ropes
Balance ropes need to have low torsion factor and is made as
multi layer ropes with clock- and anti-clockwise roping.
6.3 Guide ropes
Half- locked coil are used exclusively, normally with diameter 40-
48 mm. The proled outer wires are about 7 mm thick allowing
wear caused by the sliding guide shoe of the conveyances.
7. Skips
There are different types of skips available. The two dominant
types in north Europe are the Jet type with tilting skip box and
the Sala type which has a pneumatic cylinder on board the skip
that opens the bottom door at dumping. Air supply is provided via
air connectors with mating contacts at skip dumping.
8. Shaft
Modern shafts are normally circular. The most common shaft
sinking methods are:
Full face raise boring using pilot hole
Down the hole full face boring with pilot hole
Conventional shaft sinking by drilling, blasting, mucking and
hoisting of the rock.
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ABB Mining
Tel: +27 10 202 5000
Fax: +27 11 579 8000
Email: [email protected]
8.1 Guide System
The hoist conveyances can be guided in the shaft by either xed
or rope guides.
Fixed guides are today normally made of steel. Earlier, wooden
guides were common. The xed guides are secured to the shaft
wall by the buntons located every 5- 7 m in the shaft.
Rope guides are supported only at shaft bottom and in the head
frame. They are tensioned by either weights at the shaft bottom
or by tensioning devices with load cells in the head frame in which
case the lower rope end is xed.
4 rope guides are required for each conveyance and 2 or 4 for
the counterweight.
Because the ropes do not prevent some side movement of
the conveyances, the minimum clearance to the shaft wall and
between conveyances needs to be larger for rope guided system.
Rope guides also require xed guides at loading and dumping to
keep the conveyances in position.
9. Skip loading
Skip loading can be made in two principle ways:
1. Measuring pocket (ask). The measuring pocket is lled from
a conveyor that is feed by a ore bunker via a vibrating feeder.
2. Measuring conveyor. The conveyor is suspended in normally
6 load cells that measure the weight of the empty conveyor
(tara). The vibrating feeder lls the conveyor when running
at slow speed to load the preset payload. When the empty
skip arrives at the loading station, the skip runs at high
speed dumping the load into the skip. The loading time is
somewhat longer than when using measuring pocket but
measuring conveyors are becoming increasingly used since
the maintenance of measuring pockets are considered higher
and more difcult.
10. Ramp hoisting
In addition to vertical shaft hoisting, hoisting in ramps is also done
using cars on rails.
The machinery can be either drum hoist or friction hoist. Rollers
between the rails are required for the rope to avoid damages.
Applications are found in shallow mines with depths down to about
300 m mainly in coal and industrial minerals mines.