| 摘要 |
A continuous mining machine is provided for mining ultra thin coal seams, e.g. seams having a thickness of about 60 centimeters or less. A chassis supported by crawler tracks has a substantially horizontal axis powered cutter head mounted to its front and a conveyer extending from a gathering head toward the rear of the chassis. The conveyor includes a conveyor chain driven by at least one motor near the rear of the chassis for driving a sprocket. The gathering head includes a pair of counter-rotating discs with upstanding vanes and a deck having a maximum angle of about 10E with respect to the dimension of elongation of the chassis. A small diameter idler sprocket for the conveyor chain is mounted beneath the deck, and a small diameter drive sprocket is provided for the cutting chain of the cutting head. The mining machine is controlled to keep it within a coal seam to be cut by using a first color video camera scanning the ceiling of the bore cut by the miner, and a second color video camera scanning the floor. The mining machine may be used in a method of mining in which, after formation of a main bore of about 90-180 meters long, during withdrawal the machine forms a number of angled bores each roughly as long as the length of the machine.
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