Bezpieczeństwo Pracy i Ochrona Środowiska w Górnictwie Number 11/2023

SRK S.A. receives funding for the maintenance and operation of the KWK “Wieczorek II” dewatering system from the state budget. Maintaining underground workings, facilities and stationary pumping station equipment in an appropriate state of repair requires significant financial investment. Therefore, it was considered reasonable to simplify the drainage system, which will contribute to lower maintenance costs. Apart from the financial aspects, it is very important to protect workers operating underground equipment from natural hazards. Taking into account safety considerations, as well as the significant costs of pumping water incurred at present and the projected dewatering period of several decades, a decision was made to simplify the main dewatering system at the SRK S.A. KWK "Wieczorek II" Branch, including the elimination of the employment of people underground. Implementing the simplification of the mine's dewatering system will result in the replacement of the currently operating underground stationary pumping stations with a deep-well pumping station located in the Roździeński shaft, which has been adapted for this purpose. Simplification of the main dewatering system and the use of deep-well units will allow the water table to be shaped at an optimum depth below the hydraulic connections with neighbouring mines, which is important for pumping economics and safety reasons.

Extraction of minerals from below the water surface using floating suction dredgers based on modern technical equipment related to state-of-the-art technical solutions has improved occupational health and safety performance over the past decades. Man-loose dredging by optimized suction pipe automation system improves the pipe control, reducing personnel requirements as well as operator’s overworking. The operator’s cabin based on ergonomic environment is a solution which both significantly increases the operator’s comfort, and enables implementation of electronic systems facilitating sawing, such as cameras and monitoring systems. Ergonomics is important to ensure that the operator can do his job efficiently. Presently increasing safety and operator concentration as well as avoiding excessive physical strain are high on the agenda of manufacturers engineers. Use of state-of-the-art frequency converter technology for adapting pump and winch speed has increased the efficiency of dredgers preventing from their equipment overload. In order to counteract the trend of rising energy costs the key advantages of modern slurry pumps are lower power requirements and less pump downtime. For state-of-the-art products it is very important improving the reliability of the equipment in order to reducing downtime related to repairs on the dredger’s floor.

Elektrometal S.A. celebrates its 75th anniversary. The article describes the key product groups introduced to the company's offer in the last 20 years. The company has supplied the mining market with: technological communication systems, helmet lamps, modular controllers (PLC) in intrinsically safe design, data transmission modules, distribution field. Besides the mining market the most important market for Elektrometal its area of interest is also the gas market, where it offers reducers, gas meters and gas cabinets. Recently, it has also been implementing comprehensive installations related to reduction and measurement points. The company provides industrial lighting, high-power chargers for the electromobility market and is interested in alternative energy sources, such as biogas plants.