LOADING BROKEN ROCK AT OPEN-PIT MINES WITH THE

The development of coal mining at deposits being worked will be accompanied by an increase of the volumes of overburden and share of the mining transport system. The main types of transport in the near future, as before, will be vehicular and railroad transport. The use of combined types of transport is considered a progressive direction in solving the problem of transporting broken rock [1]. At present combined vehicular and railroad transport has become most widespread at open-pit mines. An analysis shows that loading is the restraining factor in the spread and increase of efficiency of using combined transport. The presently used excavator loading points (as a consequence of using additional excavators and long time of loading the railroad trains) cannot be considered prospective. Long-term research and development in the area of open-pit mining of coal deposits of the Kuzbass made it possible to create the concept of increasing the efficiency of the batch technology by using various hopper devices based on vibrating machines, which makes it possible: to eliminate the stringent relation between technical parameters of the interacting equipment; to reduce the downtimes of equipment due to regulated and random interruptions in the operation of adjacent technological links; to shorten the time of loading the rock on the transport means; to increase mining safety; to eliminate the use of expensive excavators for loading the rock. The operating reliability" of loading hoppers and their design in many respects depend on the type of feeder used. Investigations by the Mining Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (IGD SO RAN), made it possible to create a new type of vibrating machines for the mining and construction industry without a shock-absorbing system and rigid load-bearing element, which was called a vibrobelt [2]. They can be both continuous and sectional and are installed at an angle, which provides movement of the rock along an inclined plane due to a reduction of the coefficients of friction and cohesion under the effect of vibration. The simplicity of the structures of this class of feeders, absence of thick foundations, the almost complete absence of rubbing and rapidly wearing parts, and reliability when operating under an obstruction predetermined their wide use in underground mines. An important design virtue of vibrobelts is universality. The drive can be electric, pneumatic, hydraulic, and electromagnetic. Vibrating feeders with a flexible working device make it possible to substantially simplify the design of the hoppers. A study of the conditions of using the vibrobelts at open-pit mines showed the need to develop their new models with larger dimensions and output. For this purpose, the design of a vibrating transport device "Volna-8" for a hopper loading point was developed at the IGD SO RAN. Industrial tests of the hopper method of loading overburden rock with a vibrating outlet were conducted at the Vakhrushev open-pit mine of the "Kuzbassrazrezugol'" concern. A general view of the loading point, from which the scheme of loading is clear, is shown in Fig. 1. The hopper is formed by welded steel structures: a vertical