Shaft-Sinking Aggregate

a machine for sinking vertical shafts. The aggregate is used in rock up to medium hardness (hardness coefficients up to 8 on M. M. Protod’iakonov’s scale). It combines several processes: disintegration of the rock, the loading of bulk rock into hoisting buckets, the installation of permanent shaft formwork, drainage, and the installation of pipe sections. The aggregate has a three-level metal framework, in which the equipment is installed.

PD shaft-sinking aggregates have been used in the USSR in the Karaganda Coal Basin to sink four shafts with a total depth of more than 2,150 m and in the Donets Coal Basin to sink one shaft to a depth of more than 520 m. The sinking rates achieved by the aggregates were 133 m of finished shaft per month in Karaganda and 175 m per month in the Donets Coal Basin. World records were set for labor productivity of shaft sinkers—13.23 (Karaganda) and 12.7 m³ (Donets Coal Basin) of finished shaft per worker per shift. The aggregates require three workers per shift to operate.

Shaft-sinking aggregates represent a new stage in the development of the technology for sinking shafts. They allow a fivefold to sixfold increase in labor productivity, eliminate heavy physical labor, ensure a high degree of safety in mining work, and improve health conditions. The first shaft-sinking aggregate was built in 1952 in the USSR.