Underground Evaluation of Coated Flight Bars for a Continuous Mining Machine

Details

• Personal Author:
  Alcorn LA ; Kovalchik, Peter G. ; Smith, Adam K. ; Spencer ER
• Description:
  Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is the most common occupational disease among workers in the mining industry. Previous studies conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have shown that approximately 90% of coal miners and 49% of metal/non-metal miners have a hearing impairment by age 50. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has determined that continuous mining machines rank first among all equipment in underground coal mining whose operators exceed 100% noise dosage. The conveying system is one of the principal noise sources on continuous mining machines, due to metal on metal impacts that occur between chain flights and the conveyor deck. A highly durable polyurethane coating has been developed for the chain flights to decrease noise generated by these impacts. A continuous mining machine retro-fitted with coated flight bars has achieved overall sound level reductions of 5-7 dB in a laboratory setting. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of this engineering noise control in reducing the noise exposure of continuous mining machine operators in an underground coal mine environment. The results show that the operator of a continuous mining machine utilizing the coated flights receives a predicted 35% reduction in total work shift noise dose. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Engineering Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Metals Mining Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Coal-mining Control-technology Engineering-controls Metal-mining Miners Mining-equipment Mining-industry Noise-control Noise-exposure Noise-induced-hearing-loss Nonmetal-mining Underground-miners Underground-mining

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISBN:
  9781604231366
• Publisher:
  International Institute of Noise Control Engineering
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Hawaii ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRL - Pittsburgh Research Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20031468
• Citation:
  Inter-Noise 2006. The 35th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering, December 3-6, 2006, Honolulu, Hawaii. West Lafayette, IN: International Institute of Noise Control Engineering, 2007 Aug; 2:1378-1385
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• NORA Priority Area:
  Disease and Injury: Hearing Loss
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:21f55c0ab8cbec244afd8d6c7f37c95fa46dab2864e539f9189900ae33aa06800499e97864ef87fc74bd000400976fa63c719d2cbfffa7fd0c43a5410608fb2f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/226704/cdc_226704_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 353.66 KB ]