The new design arrived at Joy’s Wadeville factory in Johannesburg to be retrofitted to a rebuild 12HM31, destined for a 12 month trial at the Gloria bord and pillar mine commencing in March 2003.

The Wethead unit sprays water via a spray nozzle directly behind each cutting bit, which assists in reducing face ignitions and contributes substantially to the suppression of dust at the coalface, according to Joy. Joy are confident the Wethead will reduce dust levels to significantly below the current regulation of 5mg per cubic meter.

The technology will be applicable across Joy’s suite of continuous miners and is expected to have proved itself and be available within one year.

Joy SA has also developed a dusthood that is integrated with the scrubber of the continuous miner, which improves dust collection at source and reduces intake noise to the scrubber. Joy said a special coating inside the hood reduces clogging and allows for easy back flushing and cleaning.